Oppidan at Masterpiece 2019

Oppidan was delighted to be the Principle Education partner of Masterpiece Art Fair. 

In The New York Times (26 June), Ginanne Brownell Mitic highlighted the commitment to education made by the Director of the Fair, Mr. Hewat-Jabor;

“Education is incredibly important and part of the ethos of our fair,” Mr. Hewat-Jaboor said. “We have a sort of duty to do this, apart from the fact that this is tremendous fun and tremendously exciting to see people of any age group, particularly young ones, get thrilled and interested in something they may not have looked at before.”

Curating a day of discovery for Families Day (middle Sunday of the fair), Oppidan at Masterpiece provided the opportunity for children of all ages to be exposed to and interact with accessible art history. The day was facilitated by specialists from Oppidan, each of whom is an expert in each form and period of art we explored!

Curating the content and seeing the children enjoy the workshops were highlights for the Oppidan team. Every element of the workshops were designed to facilitate both factual and conceptual learning whilst fostering creative skills at the same time. When a child is engaged in a kinaesthetic activity such as making clay pots with a specific style or reason in mind, greater care is seen to be taken with the process. This was especially true in the making of replica Japanese Kintsugi pots as an example, with each child leaving the day with their own golden pot.

Throughout the day, hundreds of  unique Masterpieces were created; some in the style of ancient Greek art, others abstract mimicking Kandinsky’s Concentric Circles, Dali’s collages, or self-portraiture. Tidal waves of creativity were flowing. It was our privilege to be in a space of exploratory learning.

As principle education partner at Masterpiece, Oppidan was equally delighted to have been part of the Royal Bank of Canada’s mentoring Thursday with the Prince’s Trust. As part of this, the Oppidan art history expert mentors gave tours of the fair to young people on the Prince’s Trust programme. It was our great privilege again, to be able to share our passion and knowledge about the arts and the work on show.

Oppidan is committed to supporting creative opportunities and learning experiences for all children.

To read the New York Times article (26 June 2019) by Ginanne Brownell Mitic, click here.