LONDON, ENGLAND.- Jan Molenaer’s painting Two Boys and a Girl making Music is the inspiration for the 2007 Take One Picture exhibition. Now in its 12th year, Take One Picture is the National Gallery’s countrywide scheme for primary schools.

Each year a different painting from the collection is chosen to provide a starting point for cross-curricular teaching and learning. This year, work from seven schools has been selected to demonstrate the wide range of skills, knowledge and understanding that can be gained from taking just one picture as a stimulus.

Over 43,000 children and adults from schools across the UK learnt about Molenaer’s painting – using it to explore a broad range of National Curriculum subjects and to promote key skills such as literacy, numeracy and those related to Information and Communication Technology. The resulting work includes painting, model chairs, sculptures, musical instruments, hats and even animated short films!

The exhibiting schools are:

Archbishop Wake CE VA Primary School, Blandford Forum, Dorset
Bishop Tufnell Infant School, Felpham, Bognor Regis, West Sussex
Horningsham Primary School, Horningsham, Wiltshire
St Mary’s RC First School, Swanage, Dorset
St Patrick’s RC Primary School, Plumstead, London
Wentworth CE Junior and Infant School, Wentworth, Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Whitelocke Infant and Nursery School, Wokingham, Berkshire

Take One Picture encourages community learning, with schools putting on their own Take One Picture exhibitions and involving the children’s families in special events and homework activities. The featured painting is a 17th-century Dutch picture showing three children playing a variety of musical instruments, some of which they have made themselves. Musical parties were a popular theme with painters at the time as a way of exploring ideas about harmony and unity – themes that are identifiable in the work produced by those taking part in the exhibition.

Teachers learn about the scheme at the National Gallery’s Continuing Professional Development courses, attended by over 3,000 teachers annually – and also from the website, which contains teaching resources and details of previous Take One Picture exhibitions (www.takeonepicture.org.uk)

The National Gallery is also currently leading a teacher training placement programme linked to the Take One Picture scheme, jointly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).