Pera Museum's Learning Programs organizes workshops for different age groups in cooperation with the 16th Istanbul Biennial and Pera Museum with the support of Koç Holding. From Sept. 17 to Nov. 10, the museum is holding workshops for children, young people, adults, those over 60 and people with disabilities. They will also offer special speaking events for teachers.

At the workshops, participants have the opportunity to ask questions, discuss ideas, gain awareness and create their own unique work on climate change, endangered creatures, energy resources and the global impact of human beings on the ecosystem.

School groups improve their visual memory

At the "Shapes and Colors with Animals" workshop specially prepared for pre-school groups, young participants examine the patterns of their favorite animal fossil figures by playing the memory card game, which helps the development of their visual memory and perception abilities. Then they learn the shapes and colors by placing eva foams of geometric shapes into templates.


Pera Museum is holding workshops for adults along with children and young people.

In the "Poster Design: Ecology and Nature" workshop, designed for primary school and middle school students, children discuss how to change their daily living habits to be more environmentally conscious in order to protect natural resources and they design their own posters employing the collage technique using different materials such as cardboard, felt-tip pens, crayons, crepe papers, magazine papers and recycling materials.

At the "Dig, Discover, Paint!" workshop, designed to allow children to learn about archaeology, archaeologists and paleontology, participants draw sketches of creatures in nature and form animal or plant figures of clay on paperboard and then color them with acrylic paints.

At the "Collage of Portraits" workshop, children compare the ambassador portraits at Pera Museum's "Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters" to Piotr Uklanski's portrait works shown in the Biennial. Inspired by these works, they create unique portrays using feather, paillette, beads and glitter employing the collage technique.

The "Exotic Posters" workshop, prepared for high school groups, aims to help young people express their feelings in a creative way and gain cultural awareness. Based on the works by artist Glauco Rodrigues depicting an exaggerated portray of the visual culture of the Brazilian media, they design posters using bright and colorful papers and tropical patterns.

The 4 to 6 age group explores the world of dinosaurs and insects. At the "Mini Dinosaurs" workshop, young participants design mini dinosaur figures of cardboard papers in addition to materials such as sponges, acrylic paints, crepe papers and handcrafted papers.

In the two-stage "Insect Hotel and Seed Ball" workshop, participants first build a hotel for insects to create habitats suitable for them. In the second stage, children learn to make seed balls to green unused spaces around them.

The 7-12 age group learns to design with paper-mache and waste. At the "Animals on the Imaginary Island" workshop, inspired by Scottish artist Charles Avery's glass installations he created exclusively for the Biennial, children design 3D animal figures with paper-mache and then we build a home for our animals, an imaginary island made of boxes, cardboard and felt.

At the "I don't throw out, I recycle: Design Workshop," participants learn to be sensitive to nature by creating designs of various wastes such as plastic bottles, caps and papers. The 10-12 age group can also philosophize on nature and pollution. At the "Nature & Pollution: Philosophy-on-the-go" workshop, held by artist and trainer Müjgan Özçay, children find answers to questions on human and environment and reflect on relevant concepts through interactive means including games, handcrafts, dramas and question and answer techniques.

The 13 -17 age group creates their own language and writes their own stories. The "Lost Letters" workshop enables young participants to make up a new language with reference to the coding method Italian artist Luigi Serafini uses in his "Codex Seraphinianus," a technique unrecognizable to everyone but the artist himself, and design their unique posters by reshaping the letters. At the "Fold and Press: Write Your Own Story!" workshop, children get to their very own dual work with wax papers and acrylic paints to create multiple similar forms at once based on works by artist Zush. After interpreting the resulting patterns, they write a short story themed around it.

Adults prepare natural laundry detergent

As part of biennial workshops, Pera Learning hosts a "Zero-waste Living: Making Laundry Detergent" program aimed at those aged 18 and over. In the workshop, participants discuss the environmentally sensitive daily life practices and discuss the simple steps they can take at home to this end. Then they learn to prepare a nontoxic and clean mixture of laundry detergent using materials such as laundry soda, olive oil soap and sodium bicarbonate.

Designs by people over 60 and Pera Enabled groups

At the "Monochrome Colors: Coasters" workshop, art lovers above the age of 60 make up minimal style coasters with an inspiration from American artist Paul Sietsema's works.

The "Inside Nature: Designing a Tree" workshop, designed for Pera Enabled groups, allows participants to design trees of varying sizes out of paperboard and recycling materials. They learn about trees' benefits to our environment and nature and gain eco-awareness.

At "The Carnival of the Animals," another workshop under the scope of the Pera Enabled, participants take a globe, representing the Earth, and paint it with the colors of forests and seas and then they design animals and place them on the Earth, their home. Pera Learning is also holding a speaking event called "Encounters: Forest Pedagogy" aimed at teachers in cooperation with the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) under the 16th Istanbul Biennial. At the workshop which brings into question the relationship between nature and learning, and the presence of environmental awareness in school curricula, teachers assess the physical capacities of schools and seek ways of bringing children closer to nature.