Zoom@HughLane is a Dublin city-wide project, enabling the creative potential of children through the discovery and creation of art in Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. The children look at and discuss artwork on display in the Gallery and make their own art during an artist-led workshop arising from what the children have seen and talked about.

The over-arching theme of this programme is to introduce children to the collection and temporary exhibitions at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, delving deeply into visual art practice and through discussion and looking more closely, to become familiar with and inspired by particular artworks in the Gallery.  Following the very successful first year of the programme which reached 800 children from 26 primary schools across Dublin city, Zoom has been extended to reach an additional 26 primary schools in the 2019-2020 school year.

Access to the programme begins with a pre-visit to participating schools where children are introduced to the project and artworks from the Gallery. During their subsequent visits to Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, children and their teachers are introduced to visual art and encouraged to hone in more closely, to observe and find sometimes overlooked aspects of specific artworks. By using this focused, ‘zoomed in’ approach it is hoped to encourage the children to look from the general to the particular, to develop their observation skills, and to share and articulate the reasons behind their choices.

Following their class discussions and sketching in the Gallery, artist-led workshops in the Hugh Lane Gallery’s dedicated education studio space further explore the themes arising from their ‘zoomed in’ looking and the children make artwork in a variety of media based on their artistic exploration.

Green screen animation is also used to capture the thoughts and ideas arising from their visit and a video of the children’s artworks is in production.