00:00
/
00:00
Sarah Jihae Kaye's group performance workshop of soft sculpture-making with nylon stockings. Photo: Garrett Elliott
Participate

Portraiture

Mondays–Fridays, 20 January–4 April 2025, 10 am and 1 pm (excluding Friday afternoons)

 In-Person, Rm 223, Rideau Building, 207 Stuart St

$80/class, 30 students max. Agnes’s School Programs are free for Limestone District School Board (LDSB) classes thanks to the continuing support of their board.

Dive into the world of portraiture with an engaging program tailored for Grades 1–12. Through Visual Thinking Strategies and critical analysis, students will explore artworks from Agnes’s collection* and discover how artists represent and manipulate identity through intentional choices.

  • Grades 1–3: Explore emotions in portraits.
  • Grades 4–8: Analyze portraits through a socio-cultural lens.
  • Grades 9–12: Consider how artists construct or deconstruct identity through portraiture

This program includes a 30-minute conversation and a 1-hour art activity.

*Please note, as we are operating offsite, this program does not include an exhibition tour. Docents will use high-quality digital photographs of artworks to guide conversation.

School programs are led by Agnes docents. The docent program is generously supported by the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation.

We regret that our temporary home at Rideau Building is not a fully accessible space. Please consult the Rideau Building Accessibility Features. Gender-Friendly single user washrooms on 3rd floor.

Winter 2025 School Programs are fully booked! 

Winter 2025 School Program

Oil painting of a woman with a tudor neck frill. She is pale and blond.

Unknown Artist. Portrait of a Woman, around 1625, oil on canvas. Gift of Isabel Bader, 2021.

Visual Literacy: Exploring the Elements of Art

Mondays–Fridays, 20 January–4 April 2025, 10 am and 1 pm (excluding Friday afternoons)

$80/class, 30 students max. Agnes’s School Programs are free for Limestone District School Board (LDSB) classes thanks to the continuing support of their board.

Students in Grades 1–12 will enhance their visual literacy skills by examining how artists use the elements of art to communicate meaning in both representational and abstract works. Using Visual Thinking Strategies, docents will guide students in describing, analyzing, and interpreting artworks*, making connections between the manipulation of the elements of art and meaning.

This program includes a 30-minute guided discussion and a 1-hour artmaking activity. Students will create a 3D landscape using oil pastels, further exploring the element of space.

*Please note, as we are operating offsite, this program does not include an exhibition tour. Docents will use high-quality digital photographs of artworks to guide conversation.

Agnes’s School Programs are free for Limestone District School Board (LDSB) classes thanks to the continuing support of their board.

School programs are led by Agnes docents. The docent program is generously supported by the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation.

We regret that our temporary home at Rideau Building is not a fully accessible space. Please consult the Rideau Building Accessibility Features. Gender-Friendly single user washrooms on 3rd floor.

Winter 2025 School Programs are fully booked! 

Winter 2025 School Program

Oil painting of a green field with trees. It's very windy and everything in the image seems to be in motion.

Sarah Robertson, October, Ottawa Valley, around 1937, oil on canvas. Purchase, Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund and Wintario matching grant, 1978. Photo: Paul Litherland. 

Reflecting on Lii Zoot Tayr (Other Worlds) (Grades 9–12)

Go to Reflecting on Lii Zoot Tayr

We invite students in grades 9–12 to reflect on the exhibition Lii Zoot Tayr (Other Worlds) an exhibition that features the work of five contemporary Métis artists. Students consider the themes present in the exhibition including in/visibility, unseen forces and the natural environment. This asynchronous school program is designed to enrich Indigenous arts education with connections to the curriculum.

Nocturne (grades 1–6)

Go to the School Program, Nocturne

We invite grade 1–6 students to explore the exhibition Nocturne. This asynchronous program embraces the sensory exploration of the night while considering the landscape genre in Historical Canadian Art. Artists’ enduring fascination with the hours between sunset and sunrise provides the foundation for curriculum links in poetry, painting and perspective.

The school programs are supported by the Iva Speers Fund for Art Education and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Asynchronous school programs

Carleigh Milburn, Gallery Educator for Special Projects interacts with Jessie Ray Short's "Elder Wands," 2021, 13 Violet Wands in embroidered leather holsters. Collection of the artist

Carleigh Milburn, Gallery Educator for Special Projects interacts with Jessie Ray Short’s Elder Wands, 2021, 13 Violet Wands in embroidered leather holsters. Collection of the artist

AGNES Learns

#AGNESfromHome

AGNES Learns is a digital resource for children and families. Artworks from the Agnes collection inspire fun ways to explore, understand and get creative.

Enjoy the videos below and the accompanying lesson plans.

Self-Guided Programs

If you wish to conduct a class tour yourself, please book in advance at (613) 533.6000 x 77347 or AEACpa@queensu.ca. Admission for self-guided programs is free. Please read our guidelines for self-guided tours.

Footnotes
Image Credits

Subscribe to our “This Week at Agnes” e-newsletter to stay abreast of events, news and opportunities at the art museum.