Bringing exhibits into the classroom
Press Release
For those who had a chance to visit ‘Time People Forgot’ in January it won’t come as a surprise that the exhibit received unprecedented public interest. This photographic survey of the Cayman Islands from 1970 – 1990, by photographer Patrick Broderick, served as a reminder of our recent past through a series of images that documented local activities, buildings and land and seascapes. His powerful portraits also introduced some of our younger students to people that have played an important part in the development of our Islands.
Feedback from the teachers and school groups who attended was extremely positive as Patrick’s’ photographs proved to be an excellent way to teach students about our recent history through exciting, visual means. As the ‘Time People Forgot’s’ relatively short run resulted in several schools missing the exhibit, a selection of images have been developed into a power point presentation on a CD Rom for use in the classroom.
“While we are seeing an increasing number of school groups coming through each exhibition this is a great way of reaching students that are unable to attend,” says the gallery’s education officer Natalie Coleman. “We hope to start producing similar education materials related to each of our exhibits that will be distributed, on request, to schools on all three islands.” The presentation was voluntarily designed and produced by Melanie Cumber from the local design firm MC2 Design Group. It is easy to navigate and the bold, simple graphics (each page looks like a ring binder note pad) should attract students of all ages.
The presentation includes a series of questions, taken from the exhibition’s original student activity guide, which accompany the images on screen. Additional classroom activities that address the notions of heritage, development and culture are also included. Students are asked to investigate Caymanian heritage, to become biographers, to create timelines of our recent history and compare the differences in our present surroundings.
Thanks go to Patrick Broderick for allowing his images be reproduced for educational purposes and to MC2 Design Group who designed and produced the presentation and to Megatron who donated the CD’s.