I never thought I'd like see something like that.
Like wow.
We're taking our star painting to
places a painting would never normally go to.
To bring it up here, I think it's a genius idea from the National Gallery.
So we're here in Newcastle for the third stop of Artemisia Visits
at Sacred Heart Catholic High School.
It's really important to us to bring the painting to a school
to really inspire the students.
And also highlight the importance of art in the curriculum.
Well good morning year seven and eight.
You will have noticed that we have something very special
with us today at Sacred Heart.
Our society of the Sacred Heart schools were set up in the 1800s
by a very pioneering group of women
who decided that girls needed to be educated and
that they wanted them to go out and influence the society around them for the better.
And I think that links beautifully with Artemisia.
It's a self-portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
I want you to think, what are your first impressions
whether you knew about this painting before or not.
You can tell by her eyes in a way it shows like strength and confidence
and, like, that glare, shows that she's been
through a lot but just came back from it.
She looks very independent.
Artemisia was born in Rome and she grew up in her father's household.
Her father, Orazio Gentileschi, was a well-established painter
and her mother died when she was just 12.
So she grew up very much in a male dominated household.
And we know from a letter her father wrote to Florence praising his daughter's talents
that she was already a sort of fully fledged painter by the time she was 16.
I see a woman who has done something that her family didn't expect.
She has had a successful career in doing it
she's financially independent and she's also brought up a family.
What an incredible woman and what an amazing strong message.
I think it's quite unbelievable to have it here
because it's such an important part of arts history.
The motto for our school is courage and confidence.
And that painting does show courage and confidence
and it proves to people that women can do what they want in life
and they can't get stopped.
She's a real inspiration for all girls.
This is a school which very much puts creativity at the heart of its curriculum.
And we're working with teachers and students around the theme of identity
which is portrayed in the painting itself.
I've asked you all today to bring in an object
that symbolises something about your identity.
What does this show about you?
I've chosen a jazz shoe because I love to dance
and it makes me feel really free and unique and determined.
I chose a trophy because I find myself as very competitive.
You are now going to spend a little bit of time sketching your object.
I feel really privileged to be hosting the painting in our school.
I think art is a brilliant platform to express yourself as whoever or whatever you wish to be
and Artemisia's painting reinforces that perfectly.
To me she kind of seems like a modern day feminist
and I quite like that for an all girls school.
I think it's really empowering because it sends like a message.
She's not going to let what other people think of about her stop her
because she went through a lot of things and like she overcame those.
It angers me because it represents the fact that we
still have so much farther to go with women in art.
Hello everybody. Great to see so many of you here today.
One of the things we wanted the students at Sacred Heart to experience
was the sheer range of careers open to women within the arts.
So we've brought a fantastic selection of women who've all worked
on the project here to the school today to share their experiences with the girls
and we hope really inspire them to see the different types of career
that could be available to them in the arts.
It's been fantastic to see the way that the students have reacted to the painting today.
And one of the things that we hope that they've been able to experience
is not just the painting itself
but also to think about the life of the artist, the processes involved
the creative spirit that's gone into this painting
but also how that might reflect in their own lives.
It's brought such a sense of excitement into school.
They can feel it, there's a real energy in the atmosphere around here.
And that's amazing.
We don't often get these things in Newcastle, so to have that come up to a Newcastle school
is just a tremendous opportunity.
I think it inspires all the girls in the school to just express who they are and like
be who they want to be, no matter what people think.