TEACHING RECOURSE PACKAMAZING ART

THE AMAZING WORLD OF ROBERT RIPLEY

PLANNING YOUR VISIT

INTRODUCING THE UNBELIEVABLE MR. RIPLEY!

LESSON 1: IT’S ART, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

LESSON 2: YOUR PECULIAR PORTRAIT

LESSON 3: EXPERIMENT WITH MATERIALS

LESSON 1 WORKSHEET

LESSON 2 WORKSHEET

LESSON 3 WORKSHEET

NOTES PAGE

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CONTENTS

WELCOME TO RIPLEY’S WORLD OF LEARNING!This Amazing Art teaching resource pack consists of three lessons and has been designed to support students studying art and design courses. The lessons can be used as a practical exercise in the classroom or for assessment and you will fi nd student worksheets towards the back. Many of the lesson plans have been created to support your visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London.

A school visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London will make the title of this education pack become clear; students will be able to see a wide range of artefacts refl ecting a variety of conceptual approaches to creativity that will help them extend their thinking and understanding through discussion and application.

We hope that you and your students enjoy these lessons and activities which are brought further to life by a visit to our extraordinary attraction.

NOTES PAGENOTES PAGE

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ROBERT RIPLEY

The real life Indiana Jones

INSPIRED RESOURCEThis resource pack is inspired by oneman and the amazing world he lived in. What set Robert Ripley apart was his curious viewpoint and appetite for the unusual and different; some might even say the bizarre! Robert Ripley had a passion to stand out from the crowdand to be the best at whatever he did. This was demonstrated through his conduct with the people he met andin his attractions around the world.

GLOBAL EXPLORERMillionaire cartoonist and renowned broadcaster, Robert Ripley was above all a world-class explorer and collector of the strange and unusual. Indiana Jones-style, he was relentless in his search for astonishing artefacts and relics to addto his collection of the unbelievable.Knowing the truth of his fi nds, he coined the phrase “Believe It or Not!” and founded the collection ofexhibits and attractions thatstill bear his name today.

RESOURCE PACKThis resource pack is designed to be used in conjunction with a visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London. The whole experience will stimulate curiosity in a fun and exciting way that your students will remember. Not only will the activities be brought to life, they will make learning ‘oddly’ educational.

THE AMAZING WORLD OF ROBERT RIPLEY

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ERIC SPARAGUE

Also known as the

Lizard Man

CHAR IN

G CROSS ROAD

Brewer Stre

et

Beak Street

LONG ACRE

PICCADILLY

PiccadillyCircus

PICCADILLYCIRCUS

LEICESTERSQUARE

REGENT STREETHAYMARKET

Rupert StreetCoventry Street

REGENT STREET

Cockspur Street

SHAFTESB U RY

AVENUE

St. Martin’s Lane

William IV Street

NationalGallery

LeicesterSquare

RoyalAcademy

erCCooven

YOUR VISIT TO RIPLEY’SBELIEVE IT OR NOT! LONDON

TRAVEL INFORMATIONRipley’s Believe It or Not! London is located at No.1 Piccadilly Circus, situated in the heart of London’s West End on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street.

TUBE: Piccadilly Circus, use exit 4

BUSES: 3, 6, 12, 13, 14, 19, 22, 23, 38, 88, 94, 139 and 453

COACH: There are coach set-down facilities located on Shaftesbury Avenue, St. Martins Place and Charing Cross Road.

OPENING HOURSRipley’s London is open every day of the year including bank holidays and Christmas Day. We are open from 10:00hrs until midnight and the last entry is 22:30hrs. Times may vary due to special events, so please check our website for updated information.

TIME PLANNINGWe suggest allowing 2hrs to complete your visit.

FACILITIES ON SITE• Toilets, all with wheelchair access

• Café and gift shop

• Step-free access throughout

• Guidebooks and audio guides in 5 languages (additional charge applies)

• Friendly staff on every fl oor

HOW TO BOOKYou can book your visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London in the following ways:

Telephone: +44(0)20 7494 6818

Email: schools@ripleyslondon.com

Or for more information, visit www.ripleyslondon.com/schools

PLANNINGWe offer two free teacher planning tickets upon payment of your booking which can be used in preparation for your visit. Risk assessment information can be found on our website at www.ripleyslondon.com

GET IN TOUCHAddress: The London Pavilion,1 Piccadilly Circus, London W1J 0DA

Telephone: + 44(0)20 8494 6818

Website: www.ripleyslondon.com

Email: schools@ripleyslondon.com

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The world-famous Ripley’s Believe It or Not!attractions were started by one amazing man: Robert Ripley. Born in California in 1890, Ripley showed early sporting and artistic talent. Initially, he wanted a professional career as a baseball player and had a trial with the New York Yankees, but unfortunately injury ended his hopes. Having switched to drawing sporting cartoons, he went on to depict the bizarre and unusual. This proved to be a hit with the American public.

Under the title of “Believe It or Not!” Robert Ripley’s work appeared in books, over 400 newspapers worldwide and inspired a radio and television series. Such was his appeal that he was voted America’s most popular man in 1936.

Travel became an obsession as he explored the world seeking out the surprising, the unusual and the strange. He dedicated his life to reporting the unbelievable things that he discovered and to revealing them to his American public. Daring jungle and desert, the intrepid explorer scoured the world for ever more strange examples of the world’s capacity for surprise and difference.

The thousands of oddities he collected were shown in an ‘Odditorium’ at the Chicago Trade Fair in 1933. Public interest was overwhelming and many venues were subsequently opened to satisfy the curious – which includes all of us.

There are now more than 32 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! attractions globally.

Ripley was considered an eccentric character with a varied style of clothing. He was thin on top and had beaver-like protruding teeth. He was also terrifi ed of using the telephone, fearing it would electrocute him. He owned more than 100 cars even though he never learnt to drive. Ripley was the most unlikely celebrity.

In 1948, he created a television pilot based on one of his radio shows. The pilot was

such a success it became the basis for one of the very fi rst weekly

television shows in the USA.

Robert Ripley died in 1949, but his legacy lives on in numerous attractions, which still bear his name.

INTRODUCING THEUNBELIEVABLE MR. RIPLEY!

FASCINATING FACTSABOUT ROBERT RIPLEY

• He visited 201 countries.

• He was the fi rst person to broadcastnationwide from London to therest of the UK.

• He was responsible for one of the most used phrases in the English language: Believe It or Not!

• He received an averageof 3,000 letters a dayfor more than 20 years.

He received an average

for more than 20 years.

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LESSON 1: IT’S ART, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

This activity introduces your students to various materials used to create art and encourages them to think beyond the usual paintbrushes and pencils.

PREPARATION AND RESOURCES:• Book your visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London.

• Arrange your complimentary pre-visit familiarisation trip.

• Photocopy the activity sheet on page 8 for each student.

• Brief your students on what you want them to do during their visit.

PART A:Before your visit, introduce your students to some of the materials used for some of the art-based exhibits, sculptures and constructions you found inside Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London during your complimentary pre-visit. Ask your students to say how likely they think it is that the artist would work with such materials.

Then, using Worksheet 1 on page 8, hand photocopies to all students. Explain that whilst they are at the attraction they will see many different art-related exhibits and examples of unusual portraits. On the worksheet, students will need to say whether or not they believe the artwork is true, and they should then be challenged to fi nd each of the pieces inside the attraction for the answers.

PART B:Once back inside the classroom, have a discussion with the students to fi nd out what they discovered and discuss the notes they made on their worksheets during their visit.

IDEAS FOR QUESTIONS:• Which materials do you think were most surprising?

• Which artworks did they like the most and why?

• What materials would they like to work with in the future and why?

JUNK DUCK

Made entirely

from rubbish!

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LESSON 2: YOUR PECULIAR PORTRAIT

Now it’s time for your class to apply their learnings from the visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London.

PREPARATION AND RESOURCES:• Photocopy the activity sheet on page 9 for each student.

• Pencils.

• Mirrors.

• Soft pastels.

• Oil pastels.

PART A:Hand each student a worksheet and explain that your class is going to create self portraits. Open with a class discussion about the idea of representing who they are to other people and how perceptions can be formed. Following on from the discussion, ask the class to individually answer the four questions on their worksheets.

PART B:Now it is time for each student to create a self portrait. Using a pencil and a mirror, students should draw their own face and features into the oval on their worksheets. Their challenge is to ensure their portrait depicts the words and descriptions they have used to describe themselves.

IDEAS FOR QUESTIONS:• The eyes are usually the most important feature

to get right and the placing of the eyes determines the other facial features.

• Care should be taken to get proportions right

PART C:Once students have completed their self portrait using pencil, they should now be asked to add darkness, edges, tones and different shades to give realistic skin tones. Faces should be shaded in and colours used. Encourage discussion between students to develop confi dence in the direction taken with their work.

Once completed, create a display in the classroom and invite other members of staff to come and see if they can recognise the subjects of each portrait.if they can recognise the subjects of each portrait.

MICHELLE OBAMA

Made entirely

from bottle caps

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LESSON 3: EXPERIMENT WITH MATERIALS

This lesson is designed to give your students the opportunity to critique a range of artworks to help them develop ideas for independent work.

PREPARATION AND RESOURCES:• Photocopy the activity sheet on page 10 and provide one sheet per 2 or 3 students.

• A3 photocopy of the self-portraits made by each student in previous lessons.

• Scissors.

• Mounting board/card.

• Glue.

• Various collected materials.

• Soft pastels.

• Oil pastels.

PART A:Show students the two portraits on worksheet 3 and ask them to discuss in groups of 2 or 3 how the unusual materials add to the portrait. There is space on each worksheet for students to make notes.

PART B:Explain to the class that, using the photocopies of their own self portrait, they should now begin applying chosen materials to their self portraits to build up their own image. Explain that they should ensure efforts are made to show shading, tonal values of their features and to give the portrait real defi nition. Once fi nished, students should cut their image out and mount onto board/card.

PART C:Once students have fi nished building up their portrait, it is now time for them to work on the background. Using soft and oil pastels, students should be asked to create a brightly coloured background, blending the colours to create a graduated effect to ensure the portraits stand out.

KATE MIDDLETON

This portrait was made

from lipstick kisses

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WORKSHEET 1 – IT’S ART, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

Before your visit, read the descriptions below of each exhibit and then tick whether you believe them or not. Then, during your visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London, you will need to fi nd the exhibits and check if your answers are correct.

Keep your eyes peeled as some of the exhibits are more diffi cult to fi nd than others!

EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION BELIEVE IT…OR NOT?

DUNG ART Enrique Ramos personally collects the material used in his oeuvre, mixing it with water and resin to create a more durable canvas.

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

STAMP ART Artist James Butman suffers from agoraphobia, an abnormal fear of open spaces. Since he never leaves his home, friends provide him with the stamps which he uses to create beautiful works of art!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

GUM ART Enrique Ramos honoured the Beatles by creating a sculpture of the Liverpool lads out of chewing gum!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

MATCHSTICK ART Reg Pollard spent 2,386 hours creating a replica of London’s Tower Bridge using 264,345 matchsticks!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

LINT ART Slater Barron likes spending her time creating portraits from Lint, from her tumble dryer, including a portrait of Princess Diana!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

SELF ART Discovering he was dying, wood maker Masakichi carved an exact replica of himself. He then painstakingly plucked every hair from his body, his fi ngernails, toenails and teeth and attached them to his sculpture!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

TOILET PAPER ART For a cheaper alternative to the more traditional wedding dress, Rebekah Baquiran, Jami Anderson and Jaymi Horne created wedding dresses out of toilet paper, tape and glue!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

COBWEB ART Mabel Wood collects, cleans and stretches spider webs to create layered painting canvases!

Believe It

Don’t Believe It

AFTER YOUR VISIT, PLEASE COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING THREE QUESTIONS:

1. What was the most surprising material used for artwork that you discovered during your visit?

2. What was your favourite artwork?

3. What was the main thing you learnt today?

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LESSON 2 – YOUR PORTRAIT

You will shortly be asked to create a self-portrait but before you do, please answer the following questions:

1. How would you like to be seen by others?

2. What kind of messages would you like to communicate to others?

3. Write a short profi le about yourself:

4. List some words that you think describe your identity:

Now, using a mirror, create a self-portrait in the space below. Your challenge is to ensure that you portray the descriptions and words above in your work.

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WORKSHEET 3 – EXPERIMENT WITH MATERIALS

IMAGE 1: ROBERT RIPLEY MADE FROM GUMBALLS

IMAGE 2: PRESIDENT KENNEDY MADE FROM BUTTERFLIES

NOTES

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NOTES

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