A child's pencil drawing of a rope
Plan your visit

Learning Through Drawing

Ongoing YSP Learning

About Learning Through Drawing

The Learning Through Drawing exhibition is on display in a working lunchroom, which is used by school groups during the week.

In 1978, Yorkshire schoolchildren saw their work exhibited in art galleries across the country, from Cartwright Hall in Bradford to Towner Eastbourne. Art Advisers in the north and north-east of England gathered drawings by children between the ages of 3 and 18 for this nationwide exhibition.

They wanted to demonstrate the importance of drawing as a tool used by children to investigate the world around them. The exhibition influenced attitudes to art education before the National Curriculum was introduced. The Chairman of the exhibition was Keith Gentle, who also served as Art Advisor for Sir Alec Clegg. Clegg was Chief Education Officer for the West Riding of Yorkshire. He believed that good schools and good teachers were the solution to social inequality. In 1949 Clegg set up Bretton Hall, a training college for arts teachers. YSP began in 1977 as an exhibition in its grounds.

  • A child's pencil drawing of a garden scene
  • A child's pencil drawing of a ram skull
  • A child's pencil drawing of a shoe

Since then, this work has been preserved in the National Arts Education Archive (NAEA), helping researchers to understand how children use drawing to investigate the world around them.

You can see the Learning Through Drawing Collection, and learn more about Sir Alec Clegg, at the NAEA. Access to the NAEA is available by appointment on Tuesdays each week. Email sophie.yaniw@ysp.org.uk or phone 01924 830690.

Thank you to pupils from Thornhill Primary School in Rotherham and Pate’s Grammar School in Cheltenham who helped to select artwork and write enquiry questions for the exhibition.

  • A child's pencil drawing of a face
  • A child's pencil drawing of a building
  • A child's drawing of a comic strip

You may also like

  1. A woman wearing an apron preparing a screen printing screen
    Profile

    Harriet Fletcher

    Artist Educator
  2. Joao Vasco Paiva Standard Kitchen 2017 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
    Art Outdoors

    Joao Vasco Paiva: Standard Kitchen

    For Standard Kitchen, Vasco Paiva collaborated with artisans in East Bali. Together, they used the traditional method of carving Batu Candi, a lava stone often used for building temples and shrines. The stone was shaped to create a life-sized replica of a modular kitchen to consider the processes and spaces that are integral to everyday life.
  3. A carved granite block
    Art Outdoors

    Tania Kovats: RAVINE

    RAVINE creates the appearance of a natural rock that has been broken apart. By using cast concrete, which has been coloured with black pigment, Kovats is further highlighting her interest in these opposing ideas. The sculpture is perfectly sited in the woodland around Upper Lake.
  4. Bruce Beasley Advocate IV 1998, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
    Art Outdoors

    Bruce Beasley: Advocate IV

    Inspired by geometric forms, Beasley’s sculptures are often made up of these shapes, and in particular cubes. He uses computer software to design three-dimensional forms without the constraints of gravity. These configurations are then translated into bronze. As with Advocate IV which appears to be balancing, the design method contributes to the precarious appearance of Beasley’s sculptures.