Like theatre - experiencing paintings in the real world can bring them to life in a way that viewing them online can't. Butler's 1873 oil painting 'Self Portrait' is very alive. Thank you Christchurch Art Gallery for inviting us in to view it.

We always tailor our Education Programme offerings around the themes we are exploring in our artistic projects. With the students on our July Kids Holiday Programme we introduced the idea of an Upside-World - something that was imagined by Butler in his creation of Erewhon, and explored later by Dada and Surrealist artists following the First World War. Kids are resilient and experience seismic events in their own way. We encouraged our students to create their own Upside-down Worlds and to imagine the kind of world they might want to create for themselves.

A meeting with poet Jasmine Gallagher who grew up near Butler’s sheep station and is researching his landscape paintings.  🐑 🖼 Jasmine's poem "A Death On-Board the Voyage from Gravesend to the Antipodes" (2019) was inspired by Butler's account of his voyage to New Zealand on a ship in 1859-60. https://minarets.info/annexe-jasmine-gallagher/​