National Portrait Gallery

FREE FAMILY FUN AT THE
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
THIS SUMMER
The National Portrait Gallery have joined forces with award winning, picture book illustrator Tim Hopgood to create a free Family Trail to encourage children and their families to engage
with and get excited about portraiture this summer.
These free activities are part of the BP Portrait Award 2010 exhibition which runs from 24th June - 19th September with a special Moving Family Portraits event on Saturday 17th July.
Hopgood has been commissioned to create a set of original children’s characters that will appear at the entrance to the exhibition and on labels around the show highlighting paintings that are of particular interest to children. The twin characters are central to the Gallery’s free Family Trail which features a series of specially designed games and tours of the exhibition.
The Gallery has also asked Hopgood and two supporting animators to run the Gallery’s Moving Family Portraits event on Saturday 17th July, where children visiting the exhibition will be invited to experiment with drawing, painting or collage to create their own self portrait. The images will then be animated so that each portrait blends seamlessly with the next to create a film of continually changing faces of everyone who takes part on the day. The animation will be shown on the Gallery’s big screen at the end of the day.
Hopgood came to the attention of the gallery following the publication of his award-winning,
richly illustrated children’s books including, OUR BIG BLUE SOFA, A DOG CALLED ROD’
HERE COMES FRANKIE, WOW! SAID THE OWL and most recently TIP TAP WENT THE CRAB.
Jan Cullen, Family Programmes Manager at the National Portrait Gallery said: “We chose Tim Hopgood as we felt his style of illustration was fresh and appealing and would be a huge success with our target audience. We were impressed with his ideas on how families might engage with portraiture. He has been fantastic to work with and the results are amazing” Hopgood's unique illustrative style has bought a fresh approach to children’s picture books.
He has won numerous awards and accolades for his work including the coveted Booktrust Emerging Illustrator Award in 2008. Hopgood’s characters are being developed for a collection of merchandise, including badges and bags, for the Gallery. These, along with a collection of Hopgood’s children’s books, will be on sale during the exhibition.