en-quire

en-quire - inspiring learning in galleries

What is en-quire?

en-quire is an exciting national action-research programme with the aim of exploring, assessing and articulating the special learning benefits to young people of working with contemporary art and the gallery space. 

The programme aims to identify key success factors that will build an evidence base to support the provision of more gallery education, contribute to policy, resources and good practice in the gallery sector. 

The enquire programme is funded jointly by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Children, Schools and Families as part of the Strategic Commissioning Programme for Museum and Gallery Education. The enquire programme is managed by engage and has been developed in association with Arts Council England.   (for more information go to www.en-quire.org).

en-quire explores the key question: 

What are the conditions for enabling learning in the gallery context?

The programme began in Autumn 2004 and initially involved three clusters or consortia of galleries and higher education institutions across England. The three original clusters were in the North East, East London and the South East.

The South East Consortium involves a partnership between Fabrica in Brighton, the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne and Creative Partnerships Hastings and East Sussex.  The consortium is working with the University of Sussex.

Phase 1 of en-quire was completed in March 2006 and involved project work with young people alongside Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers, artists and gallery educators. 

For this phase the Pavilion undertook the Utopia 2 project, in partnership with five local secondary schools.  Click here to read more about the project and to see the project galleries.

A detailed report on the findings of all three clusters is available from engage.

In a continuation phase of this work, the SE Cluster focussed on CPD and dissemination, and on exploring elements of the action research approach adopted by the en-quire programme.  This phase involved:

·         Three seminars aimed at artists, teachers and gallery educators to disseminate and discuss some of the findings and learning from en-quire

·         Action Learning Sets

·         Investigatory visits to six regional and national galleries to share practice

·         Development of a CPD course for professionals working in gallery education, to be run by the University of Sussex

Phase 2 brought four new clusters on board based in the North West (Manchester), North West (Liverpool), South West and East.

In the South East, we have expanded the cluster to include three new galleries – Aspex in Portsmouth, Pallant House in Chichester and Quay Arts on the Isle of White.

Project work with young people will be undertaken by all six galleries between September 07 – February 08.  These projects will act as a placement for six artists who will also form part of the first cohort for the new pilot course at Sussex University – ‘Learning in the Gallery: a course for professionals involved in gallery education‘.

At the Pavilion, we will be working with Sidley Young People‘s Centre in Bexhill.