Education at Penlee House

Schools are more than welcome to bring their children and use the galleries for direct teaching in consultation with the Access and Outreach Officer.

Education and Outreach Services

The Gallery and Museum offers a range of educational support, which include the following:

·        Gallery and Museum talks
·        Handling sessions
·        Loan boxes
·        Education packs
·        Schools workshops
·        Saturday and holiday children’s workshops
·        Adult workshops and training
·        Museum and Gallery activity sheets
·        Outreach – lectures and talks
                  Schools and colleges
                  Women’s Institutes, Old Cornwall Societies, luncheon clubs and similar

Schools' visits

All School group visits to Penlee House are free, but must be booked in advance.  Schools are more than welcome to bring their children and use the galleries for direct teaching in consultation with the Access and Outreach Officer. Because of the size of our gallery spaces, however, we do have to restrict numbers in any one gallery space at a time, so it may be necessary to split a class into two, one group upstairs and one group downstairs, and then swap them around.

Brief introductory talks

A short introductory talk about the displays is available free to all school groups; this can be targeted to a specific area of study by prior arrangement.  The introduction also covers aspects of Health and Safety, housekeeping and how we expect the children to conduct themselves while they are in the Gallery.

Outreach

It is sometimes possible for a member of Penlee House staff or one of our education volunteers to visit schools and lead an object handling session, in conjunction with a classroom teacher. Artefacts and costume can be brought out and a PowerPoint presentation can be compiled on a specific subject area,such as farming, old Penzance, fishing or a specific exhibition.

Handling Sessions

The Gallery and Museum offers handling sessions, which can be tailored to suit a specific group’s visit.  The objects are usually in addition to the items available to schools through our schools loan service.  The items available in these handling sessions include rarer, valuable and more delicate items that we could not allow out of the Gallery and Museum through our loan service.
 
Handling sessions include:
 
·        The Victorians
·        Home life
·        Machines
·        Costume and textiles (this comprises looking rather than handling due to the objects' fragile nature)
 
We are always happy to try to accommodate specific requests.
 

BoySelf Guided Visits 

Schools are more than welcome to bring their children and use the galleries for direct teaching in consultation with the Access and Outreach Officer. Because of the size of our gallery spaces, however, we do have to restrict numbers in any one gallery space at a time, so it may be necessary to split a class into two, one group upstairs and one group downstairs, and then swap them around.
 

Temporary Exhibition Programme

We have a programme of five special exhibitions each year, each of which features an aspect of the historic art and culture of the area.  In addition, we usually have at least one room dedicated to Penlee House’s collection of Newlyn and Lamorna School paintings, plus galleries dedicated to Archaeology and Social History.  Please be aware that is it usually necessary to close the Gallery between exhibitions, so we cannot take school visits at that time. 
Please note that we plan our exhibition programme several years in advance, and can therefore provide you with notice of what will be on display well ahead of your visit, enabling you to programme possible visits into your teaching plan: please see What's On - Exhibitions for details, or contact us if you require details of what will be on show further into the future.  While we realise that some exhibitions will have greater learning potential than others, we plan to develop a number of exhibitions each year that will be accompanied with teaching material both for pre and post visit, including notes and images.

 

What's on

Current exhibition:
West Cornwall Studio Pottery 1920 - 1980

more what's on >

Collections

6000 years of west Cornwall's history, including art, photography, archaeology and social history.

more >

Visiting

For opening hours and how to find us, click here:

more details >