Royal visit to Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Associated media

Cassone's royal correspondent, Rosalind Ormiston, was at Dulwich for Kate's visit

The Duchess of Cambridge is keen to be involved in projects relating to children and the arts.  On Thursday, 15 March, at Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London, the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, introduced his daughter-in-law to the work of his educational charity, The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.

The Prince of Wales established his foundation for Children & the Arts to allow young people who would otherwise have little or no opportunity, to access and engage with professional arts. It was set up in 2002 as a pilot scheme, becoming an independent charity in 2006. Since that year Children & the Arts, with the aid of curators, professional artists and storytellers has helped to inspire over 100,000 children, enabling personal and social development amongst those children hardest to reach through mainstream education. It has been supported for the last four years through the generous sponsorship of GAM (UK) Ltd.

At Dulwich Picture Gallery, children from Goodrich Primary School, Langbourne Primary School, and St Luke’s CofE Primary School in Dulwich and the Globe Academy in Southwark, gave a cheering welcome to the Royal visitors. Some 120 children waited on the lawns of the Gallery grounds, lining the walkway to its entrance to speak to the members of the Royal party; whilst a further 120 children were inside the gallery ready to discuss the diversity of the art projects they are undertaking. All the children are involved in the Great Art Quest, one of the flagship Children & the Arts projects taking place at four galleries in England: at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; MK Gallery, Milton Keynes; Turner Contemporary, Margate; and Tate St Ives, Cornwall.

Referring to the Great Art Quest, Gillian Wolfe, Director of Learning at Dulwich Picture Gallery stated, ‘...the valuable support gained as a participant in the project has enabled us to expand our Schools programme dedicated to providing opportunities for long-term, in depth participation for high-quality creative outcomes. Over the last few months we have seen the impact the project has had on local children’s confidence and enthusiasm for the arts.’

The Great Art Quest’s theme of family, identity and journey was inspired by ‘Face Britain’, currently the largest collaborative art project for participants aged 4–16 years of age. Over 2,000 schools are taking part throughout the UK, with over 100,000 self-portraits uploaded so far, to be digitally displayed in a special montage mosaic image of HM The Queen, created from over 100,000 children’s self-portraits, projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace, on 19, 20, 21 April, to mark Her Majesty’s birthday, the beginning of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and the forthcoming London Olympic Games.

At Dulwich, the visit included discussions with children about the self-portraits they were painting and the Dulwich Gallery paintings that inspired them; and viewing their displays of felt art, hanger art, mail art and personal stories projects. In the Sackler studio, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge tried their hand at artwork, producing more laughter than handiwork in their attempts. A storytelling session for the children was narrated by Roberto Lagnado, a professional storyteller who has spent much time with the children in the galleries introducing them to the ‘Old Master’ paintings.

Outside once again, in the gardens of the Gallery, each member of the Royal party was presented with a gift of art from three of the children taking part in the Great Art Quest 2011/12 before spending time talking with many in the large crowd of schoolchildren who were waiting to speak to them.