Duration: 90 minutes

Welcome to a guided tour and workshop with clay molding at the Vigeland Museum. Here the students will get the chance to learn more about one of Norway's most famous artists: Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943). They will also have the opportunity to try their hand at being artists through hands-on activities in the museum's clay workshop.

Gustav Vigeland is best known for creating the Vigeland Park – the world's largest sculpture park created by a single artist. The park contains more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite, and wrought iron. How did he achieve all this? How did he make the sculptures look like real people? Why are almost all his sculptures naked?

The guided tour is adapted to different age groups and is based on dialogue-based teaching. For the youngest students (1st and 2nd grade), the emphasis is on description; children talk about what they see, connect stories to the motifs, and reflect on the expressions and emotions in the sculptures. Students in 3rd and 4th grade, in addition will also get an insight into how Vigeland's sculptures were made. Our educators tells stories from Vigeland's life, so that after the museum visit, they will have created an impression of one of the country's most important artists.

Our main goal is to provide children with a positive and exciting encounter with three-dimensional art, and we encourage you to conclude the guided tour with clay molding. This way, students develop a more concrete relationship with what they have seen in the museum and a deeper understanding of what it means to create three-dimensional art. In the workshop, students can use their own imagination and inspiration from the tour to create their own sculpture. The hands-on activity lasts for about 45 minutes and is primarily teacher-guided.

I want to visit the Vigeland Museum with my class. What should I do?

Contact us via email: jeanette.stabenfeldt@kul.oslo.kommune.no. Provide us with the desired date and time, number of students, grade level, and mobile number. We have a maximum capasity of 25 students per guided tour. Remember to bring plastic containers for the sculptures if the students want to take them home!

Guided tours with clay molding are available from Tuesday to Friday between 09:00 and 14:00. The visit costs NOK 500. It is also possible to book a guided tour without clay molding.

Why visit us?

As a central purpose in the curriculum for Arts and Crafts, practical creative work is emphasized. The value of 'experiencing the joy of creating and mastering' is highlighted. Additionally, knowledge of art history "from petroglyphs through antiquity and the Renaissance to today's artworks in our multicultural society" is emphasized. This should serve as a "starting point and reference for the student's imagination and creative work in various materials." A guided tour with clay molding at the Vigeland Museum contributes to fulfilling these goals in the The National Curriculum "Kunnskapsløftet".