Get Up Stand Up Now: Schools Day

The exhibition

Get Up, Stand Up Now is major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.

The exhibition offers schoolchildren a unique insight into the vibrant and diverse creative life of our nation, providing tangible links to the National Curriculum for Art and Design at Key Stage 2, including the opportunity to develop critical thinking by engaging with contemporary artworks that comment on issues that have shaped our histories and our identities, and by exploring ways that art and creativity can express ideas that are important to our local and national culture.

Learning activities

The event will explore themes from the Windrush generation through creative activity and critical thinking.  The day will connect, inform and inspire a younger generation who may not have had the opportunity to engage first hand with the history and cultural contributions of African Caribbean people in the UK, or to use art and creativity as a lens to engage with them.  Activities will connect explicitly to the National Curriculum for KS2 with a focus on Art and Design, but with links to History and English through creative activity. Gallery-based creative activity will be led by artist-educator Linett Kamala.

Learning resources to support this event include:

• A teacher’s introduction to the exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now! 
• Classroom pack Windrush Pioneers created by the Windrush Foundation and supported by the GLA: https://windrushfoundation.com/
• British Library’s video bank Windrush Stories created for the 70th anniversary of the arrival of Windrush: https://www.bl.uk/windrush/teaching-resources

Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE DL

Floella Benjamin (002).jpg

Floella left school at 16 with the aim of becoming Britain's first ever black woman bank manager but changed direction and became an actress, presenter, writer, award winning independent producer, politician and an active advocate for the wellbeing, care and education of children throughout the world. 

For the last 50 years she has appeared on stage, film and television, working with some Britain’s top drama directors. Her most recent film credits are Run Fat Boy Run, Rendition and Sarah Jane Adventures for CBBC. But she is best known for her appearances in the iconic children’s programmes Playschool and Playaway, which she starred in 44 years ago.

She has written over 30 books including My Two Grannies and My Two Grandads but her best known book is Coming to England, which she wrote 25 years ago. It is used in schools and covers Windrush history and was adapted in a film for the BBC in 2003, it won a Royal Television Society Award. The 20th anniversary edition of the book was a Guardian Children’s Book of the Year.  

Her creative work has been recognised with an OBE, a Special BAFTA Award and the JM Barrie Award for lasting contribution to children’s Arts.

From 2006 to 2016 she was Chancellor of the University of Exeter, the first African Caribbean woman to be a Chancellor in the UK.

In 2010 she became the first Trinidadian woman to become a Baroness in the House of Lords where speaks on children's, diversity and media issues.

She successfully persuaded the government to bring in legislation for Child Performance Regulations, tax credit for Children’s programming and legislation for Public Service broadcasters to commission UK made television productions. 

The Prime Minister has appointed her as Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee, to create a lasting monument to celebrate the contribution to Britain made by the Windrush Generation. 

After 43 years she still appears regularly on children’s television programmes.

Somerset House is grateful to Art Fund and to all other Get Up, Stand Up Now: Schools Day and Generation Get Up! weekend supporters