Education & Group Visits

Southampton City Art Gallery is now fully open and welcoming schools and groups, offering sessions online and delivering outreach in schools.  Please scroll down and follow the links at the bottom of this page to find out more.

The Gallery is an outstanding resource, housing one of the finest collections of art in the south of England. As well as our changing collection displays we are also proud to host temporary exhibitions of work by contemporary artists and photographers.

We are home to an inspiring collection of over 5,300 works of art from the Renaissance to the present day featuring works by great artists such as: J.M.W. Turner, Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, Eileen Agar, L.S. Lowry, Bridget Riley, Helen Chadwick, Chris Ofili and Rachel Whiteread among many others.

There are plenty of opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to enrich their exploration of art. From practical workshops, guided sessions in the gallery to project based work, there’s a wealth of ways to engage with the collection and get the best out of your visit.

Our educational activities are led by a team of passionate artist educators, helping pupils to respond to genuine artworks inspiring the artists within.

The gallery’s collection can be used as a learning resource to support not only arts based subjects, but also the delivery of English, History, Religious Studies and other subjects. Our Schools Programme uses creativity to support and achieve the aims of many curriculum topics and facilitates cross-curricular projects.

Here is what Rebecca Mayman, a teacher from from William Gilpin Primary School, had to say about a recent visit:

“That art gallery is an undiscovered gem .. Beautiful building and a really varied and interesting selection of art work. The Greek Mythology workshop was really interesting, the oral re-telling of Perseus was vivid and well researched and it was really useful for the children to see how an artist experiments & … gives the children a rare glimpse into the creative process. My class loved the wire workshop as we haven’t worked in that media before & the teacher was enthusiastic & friendly. I will definitely keep an eye on events & hope to be back soon.”