How a visit to Killhope can inspire

PRIMARY ART AND DESIGN AT KILLHOPE
How a visit to Killhope can inspire learning in art and design
Killhope can be used to support learning in primary art and design in many ways, as the
site is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty known for its inspirational qualities, as well
our beautiful spar box and mineral exhibitions, or more specifically to support the following
QCA units:
• Unit 2B: Mother Nature, designer (Suitable for Year 1/2)
• Unit 4C: Journeys (Suitable for Year 3/4)
• Unit 6C: A Sense of place (Suitable for Year 5/6)
• Unit 9gen: Visiting a museum, gallery or site (Suitable for Year 3-6)
Killhope is a wonderful resource for studying primary art and design. Located in the North
Pennines, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the site has many features which could
inspire children. Our woodland have safe paths through them, and children can go up to
the squirrel hide and see our red squirrels. The woodland also contains our exhibition ‘Go
Wild with Tiles’. The tiles were developed from children’s drawings of the woodland done
during ‘The Big Draw’, and are scattered throughout the woods. Killhope also has many
streams, a reservoir and Killhope Burn, the river which runs along the bottom of the valley.
Killhope is most famous for its water-wheel, and the site stocks many pictures by local
artists inspired by that scene which are on display. There are several works of modern art
on the site, one by the entrance and one on one of the woodland walks.
The site also contains two exhibitions: one of the beautiful minerals which can be found in
the area, displayed under different lighting conditions to highlight their features, and the
other of the spar boxes the miners made.
Not all the activities listed need to be carried out at Killhope: some are more suited to
preparatory classroom work before or follow-up work after a visit.
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