For Schools & Teachers
Free creative resources for the classroom.
Getting Most from Contemporary Art
Conceptual art can be hard to collect or keep because the artist’s own experience can be the work of art. It often makes us think about what a work of art can be.
Question Kit Cards
To understand contemporary art it helps to ask questions. These are questions that may help you explore what an artwork is about.
In My Opinion
Select an art work that interests you somehow, and ask yourself these questions.
Hazard Identification
Hazard identification for school groups visiting Baltic.
Fortune Teller
List, compare, collect, draw, research and reflect on your visit to Baltic.
Baltic Enquire
Using contemporary art as a stimulus, this resource offers 4 exercises, which encourage free thinking and confident communication as well as video links illustrating the Enquiry Based Learning approach.
Baltic Stars Online
Material Play
Shadow Puppets and Visual Literacy
Artist Skills Share
Uncover a new level of creativity with filmed, artist-led workshops for students in KS3 & 4. The videos focus on a specific subject area to develop students' awareness of the different technical skills and work practices in the production of art, craft and design.
Build on existing knowledge within this subject area, learn new technical skills by working through a broad range of media, materials, techniques and processes. Develop a deeper understanding of each practice, become confident to experiment with different ideas, take creative risks and learn from experiences.
Theresa Easton: A Guide to Printmaking Technical Skills
What's For Tea Secondary Resource
The resource is designed as a starting point for pupils in Key Stage 3 and 4 to begin researching the politics of food and to encourage them to make creative, socially engaged, responses based on the suggested activities and prompts.
What's For Tea Primary Resource
This resource has been created by artist Isabella Carreras and designed for educators working with pupils in Key Stage 1 and 2, split into two themes: Climate Crisis and Food for Fork.
Turner Prize Learning Resource
The Turner Prize 2011 exhibition was held at Baltic from 21 October 2011 to 8 January 2012. Discover more about the shortlisted artists: Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw.
Thomas Scheibitz Resource
Delve into the artwork of Thomas Scheibitz in this downloadable resource.
They Used To Call It The Moon
Forty-five years after the first moon landings, Baltic’s Level 4 gallery exhibition explored the enduring iconography of the moon in the artistic imagination.
Surasi Kusolwong
Surasi Kusolwong constructs installations and recreates scenes in his work such as a Thai market or a massage parlour.
Salla Tykka
The Palace comprises an installation featuring all three works: Victoria 2008, Airs Above the Ground 2010 and Giant 2013, which has been co-commissioned by Baltic.
Robert Breer
After starting his career in abstract painting, Robert Breer made his first film in 1952, and had stopped painting by 1959. He is now widely considered to be a very important and influential figure in experimental animation.
Martin Parr
This resource is in presentation style, for use with Power Point or as a printed handout. It can be used as part of pre-visit preparation, to accompany a visit, or can stand alone.
Mark Wallinger
Explore Mark Wallinger's interest in how we name, number or create systems to order things. 10000000000000000 is the title of an artwork which consists of 65,536 stones of a similar size.
Mark Titchner
Delve into the artwork of Mark Titchner.
Lorna Simpson
At Baltic, Simpson’s exhibition of photography, text, video and archival material spans a 30 year period in her artistic career.
Judy Chicago Sketchbooks
Inspired by Judy Chicago, this resource offers prompts and inspiration for children of all ages, but particularly under 13s, to create together.
John Cage
John Cage was a composer, writer and artist. Much of Cage’s visual art was produced during his time working at Crown Point Press, a print workshop in San Francisco.
Jim Shaw
Delve into the artwork of Jim Shaw.
Jenny Holzer
In 2000, Jenny Holzer participated in B4B, Baltic’s pre-opening programme, projecting text on to the sides of buildings and structures in Tyneside, including the Castle Keep, Baltic and a boat on the river Tyne.
George Shaw
George Shaw uses photographs to start a series of paintings, having originally planned to make fourteen paintings, Shaw has gone on to produce more than one hundred and fifty.
Fiona Tan
Fiona Tan’s exhibition DEPOT spans Baltic’s Level 3 and Level 4 galleries and includes a major new large-scale commission which makes reference to North East England’s whaling history.
A Duck For Mr. Darwin
A Duck for Mr. Darwin was an exhibition at Baltic which features work by nine contemporary artists. The exhibition coincided with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, who developed the important scientific theory of evolution by natural selection.
Erwin Wurm Secondary Resource
Erwin Wurm experiments with a wide range of media including performance, photography, installation, drawing, video and text.
Disappearance at Sea
Exploring the refugee crisis, Disappearance at Sea draws particular attention to the collective and individual journeys of migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Mare Nostrum is the Latin name for the Mediterranean and literally means ‘our sea’.
David Maljovic
David Maljovic uses two-dimensional planning as the springboard for all of his artwork whether the final piece is to be two or three dimensional and no matter what genre it is.
Daniel Buren
At Baltic, Buren transformed the building into a spectacular artwork. Covering the windows of the main façade with transparent, coloured vinyl, the artist has saturated the building’s interior with swathes of coloured light which pour into its spaces and passageways.
Cornelia Parker
Doubtful Sound, an exhibition of Parker’s work at Baltic, included the first showing in the UK of her sculptural work Perpetual Canon, in which 60 silver plated instruments from a brass band were flattened and suspended in midair. Lit from the light of a single bulb, the suspended instruments throw shadows that replace the sound.
Patterned Wristbands inspired by Thomas Bayrle
Join artist Natalie Frost and adorn your arms with a collection of patterned wristbands. Follow Natalie’s lead in this 8-minute guide and explore simple sequencing, mirror-patterning and symmetry.
You will need: Card, scissors, a holepunch, a ruler and tape measure, pens, paper or stickers to decorate and a piece of cord or string.
Natalie has been inspired by a show from the Baltic archives. In 2013, Thomas Bayrle’s All-in-One took over our Ground and Level 4 spaces in a pattern-filled extravaganza.
Andrea Zittel
Lay of My Land is an exhibition of Andrea Zittel’s work at Baltic which focussed on ideas relating to A-Z West. The exhibition included sculpture, paintings, prints, furniture and seven Wagon Stations.
Barry McGee
Barry McGee is known by the tag name “Twist”, which he chose when he started to do graffiti in 1984, at the age of eighteen.
Tree Textures inspired by Abel Rodriguez
Join Baltic artist Zoe Allen for all things tree-like and textured in this 7-minute discursive and making activity.
Start with some looking-based questions before collecting a bank of tree-suitable descriptive words. Zoe will talk you through how to turn these into drawings, using everything from a biro to a lump of coal and squeezy mustard, before encouraging you to create an Abel Rodriguez-inspired textural landscape.
You will need: card or thick paper, brown paper or envelopes, scissors, glue and a variety of drawing materials and/or things you can make marks with. Remember to share your makes with us...we want to see!
Zoe has taken inspiration from Baltic’s previous exhibition by Abel Rodriguez and his indigenous knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Amazon rainforest.
Ideas & Themes
Investigate ideas and themes and inspire your creative side.
Workplace
Over 100 people work at Baltic, with a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Baltic is an exciting and varied place to work, and it is often said that no two days are the same!
Voices
Baltic along with artist and writer Stevie Ronnie, worked with pupils in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Teesside on a creative literacy project funded by the Ernest Cook Trust.
Buildings
Does it matter what buildings look like? Why? What patterns can you see in buildings? Which materials are used and why?
Literacy Resources
This resource provides a range of suggestions and examples which encourage learners to apply literacy within the stimulating environment of a contemporary art gallery.
Five Ways with Paper with artist Bethan Maddocks
Designed by artist, Bethan Maddocks, this series of 5 videos guides you through ideas and inspiration for different things you can make with paper, from personalised books, to flowers, paper chains, crowns and more.
Made with accessibility and simplicity in mind, all you need is paper, as well as scissors and a few optional extras. Suitable for all ages and language levels.
Fill your classroom with paper creations and see what magic you can create.
Sparks
In 2017, Baltic was awarded funding from The Ironmongers Company to undertake Baltic Sparks; a targeted, short term, artist residency programme with schools. The project was aimed at supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, and included four artist workshops per school, three in the classroom setting, and one taking place at Baltic.
Numeracy Resources
This resource provides a range of suggestions and examples which encourage learners to apply mathematics within the stimulating environment of a contemporary art gallery.
MRLA Literacy
This resource contains a suggested evaluation method that can be used to measure literacy development, notes on the learning objectives for the sessions, printable templates and suggestions on possible ways that each of the sessions can be adapted to respond to the work of other artists who may be particularly relevant or accessible to the group that you are thinking of working with.
Hope and Art Resources
Developed by Baltic Artist, Megan Randall. Megan facilitates activities with schools, families, teachers and everyone in between. When making her own work she mostly uses clay, creating pots on the wheel and modelling to make sculptures.
Brilliant Bridges
Developed and illustrated by Baltic Artist, Zoe Allen. Zoe makes sculpture and installation using materials collected from places she has lived, or with which she has a personal connection. She is interested in the way in which people can feel strong emotions toward particular buildings, materials or spaces.
