I Am Curious

I Am Curious is a free creative workbook filled with exciting activities to support school visits to Tate Modern and Tate Britain. Encourage your students to engage with art on their own terms!

Information labels tell us the histories and context behind the work on show at Tate; however, there’s always more to the story. Your students' curiosity will lead them on a journey through the galleries, reflecting on their views, opinions, and experiences to confidently engage with the art they encounter.

Please bring drawing materials for your group. A pencil each will be enough!

This workbook supports your students to look, make and think during their gallery visit.

First, your students can draw themselves into the illustrated crowd on the opening page, making the workbook their own!

Looking

There’s no one way to view art. Simple, multi-sensory prompts encourage students to explore their surroundings with their whole body before moving on to look out for shapes, patterns and words during their visit. The viewfinder encourages students to focus in on artworks, looking for key details and things within the collection that stand out to them. What might they find that no one else could?

Making

From movement and collaborative conversation to moments of quiet reflection, each page of this workbook has plenty of space for students to play, make, and create. Your class can practice their observational drawing skills in new, exciting ways – including onto the illustrations! - and generate ideas to also make art of their own.

Thinking

By recording their observations in this workbook, students will gather a range of ideas they can return to in the classroom and at home, developing their critical thinking skills and making links with their own art practices. I Am Curious can be adapted for any artist, theme, or movement you might be looking at with your students.

I Am Curious was produced in collaboration with education consultant Emily Gopaul and creative collective POCC, practising inclusivity as a central tenet throughout. We welcome all young people to bring all of themselves to Tate, and value their ideas, curiosities and their lived experiences as key to being with art.

The Schools and Teachers Team at Tate champions spending time with art as a way to support students in learning about themselves and others in the world. We are committed to working with schools to expand the range of artwork that students encounter, as we firmly believe that young people should see themselves reflected in all that they encounter at Tate and in the classroom.

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