Pub, Bus, Cut, Thrust, Scrabble!

Late at Tate tonight was brilliant fun. Every activity was curated by different young people’s groups from the GBAD partner galleries, who came down to run each area themselves too!

First, I checked out the Debate Bus, which looked splendid.

The GBAD Bus arrives, honk honk

The conductors weren’t taking no (or yes) for an answer, and soon had a busful of people debating themselves blue in the face about whether modern art has gone too far.

Robin and Partridge get the debate cooking

Generally it was decided that there could be more things pickled. We were in favour of pickling.

Sound advice

They even offered some aphorisms to live by. God bless the painters!

The pub quiz is warming up...

Inside, our pop-up pub The Duchess of Cambridge was just getting started with a rather fiendish pub quiz on Tate and British art in general.

The hostess with the mostess!

A rather startlingly good look-a-like (OR WAS SHE?) lead the way, and I’m proud to say I got most of the answers right without cheating.

A drink and a think

Of course, sometimes there isn’t a right or wrong answer… but the beermats asked me something I could definitely say ‘yes’ to.

A pretty surreal experience

Sitting in the Cut and Thrust chair is a pretty surreal experience, but very true to the way you can put the world to rights with your hairdresser! I followed this lovely lady into the hotseat and discussed whether celebrity is good for the art world.

Anastasia's badge actually said Anastasis. I'm hoping to convince her to take up a career in art under that name.

All of the Cut and Thrust crew had excellent wigs, this one being my favourite. Blue! A very GBAD colour.

Living room may appear much larger than your own. We've got a lot of space!

The team from Sheffield had brought some very comfy-looking sofas and tasteful rugs to kit out our living room area, where you could relax into the debate with some starter questions.

I love this show.

They added to the chilled out feeling by playing an arty game of Scrabble:

I played 'Bacon' immediately after this for quite a lot of points, and declared myself the winner.

I didn’t even have time to have a go at the outdoor Watercolour workshop or attend an artist talk, there was simply too much going on!

Amazing projections and ambient lighting show the artworks in a whole new way.

If you came, I’d love to know what you got up to. :)

Posted on by Hannah Flynn
Filed under BlogTate Britain

About Hannah Flynn

Hannah Flynn is E-Learning Assistant for Tate and Co-Ordinator for the Great British Art Debate online. Her favourite British artist is John Martin.

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