National Gallery Bright Lights Festival -Project ‘Glistening Heroes –Painting the Inner Light’

‘Glistening Heroes –Painting the Inner Light’ was a collaborative art educational practice reuniting the fields of fine art, theater commissioned by the educational department of the National Gallery. It consisted in a series of 5 art workshops lead by Emanuela Marcu and Francesca Camozzi at Grimsdyke School in London that culminated with the creation of a collective, interactive art piece shown on the 29th of October 2016 in the National Galley ( https://www.nationalgallery. org.uk/whats-on/family- special-events On the event, in Room 9 of the National Gallery, in front of Tintortetto’s painting of ‘Saint George and the Dragon’ (http://www.nationalgallery. org.uk/paintings/jacopo- tintoretto-saint-george-and- the-dragon ) there was an art installation that was created together with two classes from Grimsdyke School in London and was based on archetypal parallels between the Diwali story of Rama and Sita and the legend of Saint George, explored together with the children in the past month, through drama and visual arts workshops. It also included a participatory sculpture created by Emanuela Marcu, that visiting families and children could contribute to, by responding to an instructional art piece and a workshop related to selected paintings in the National Gallery. The participatory artwork was created during the Glistening Heroes workshops throughout the day. The art project was created collaboratively by Francesca Camozzi, theater director and educator, Emanuela Marcu, fine artist and educator and Suzanna Gibson, designer and educator under the supervision of Sophie Draper, Family and Children’s Programmer at National Gallery.