Brambles pupils visit Turner Prize workshops at MIMA

Brambles pupils become first school visitors to Turner Prize workshops at MIMA

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Year Four children from Brambles Primary Academy were the first school group to explore the Turner Prize exhibition through interactive workshops at MIMA.

By The Tees Editorial Desk · 14 October 2026

Exterior of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, showing its glass façade and MIMA sign. Image: Francis Hannaway / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0Image source CC BY-SA 3.0

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Year Four pupils from Brambles Primary Academy have become the first school visitors to take part in Turner Prize 2026 activities at MIMA, giving children from Middlesbrough an early chance to explore the national exhibition through discussion and practical art-making.

A first look at four shortlisted artists

The visit forms part of Turner on Tees, the programme running alongside this year’s Turner Prize exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. MIMA is showing work by the four shortlisted artists: Simeon Barclay, Kira Freije, Marguerite Humeau and Tanoa Sasraku. The prize winner is due to be announced at Teesside University in December.

During the school session, the pupils looked closely at the exhibition, talked about what they could see and made their own pieces in response. MIMA’s senior learning curator, Claire Pounder, said the children had been “wondering and questioning” as they moved through spaces that present very different kinds of work.

That approach gives a young audience room to form its own opinions. Contemporary art does not always offer an immediate answer, and the workshop was designed around observation, conversation and making rather than asking pupils to memorise a fixed .

Art education close to home

Brambles headteacher Stuart Mayle said the visit allowed children to see and experience modern art at a major exhibition in their own town. “MIMA is on our doorstep,” said, describing the Turner Prize’s arrival in Middlesbrough as a local opportunity.

Katrina Morley OBE, chief executive of Tees Valley Education, placed the trip within the trust’s wider . She said creative arts are an important part of what its schools try to offer and that pupils had been eager to attend. The trust’s account of the visit also confirms that the Year Four group experienced the Turner Prize at MIMA.

The value of the session lies partly in access. A nationally recognised art prize is being shown in a building that local pupils can as part of an ordinary school day. For children who have not visited a contemporary gallery before, that can make the setting feel usable: somewhere to ask questions, disagree politely and test an idea through their own work.

What happens next

Brambles was the first school to visit, but Teesside University says schools from across the region are taking part in interactive workshops during the accompanying programme. The university has not published the number of pupils or schools involved, the full workshop timetable, or an evaluation of the sessions, so the eventual reach cannot yet be measured.

The Turner Prize 2026 exhibition remains at MIMA until 29 March 2027. MIMA says tickets are required for the Turner Prize exhibition, while its other exhibitions and displays can be visited without one. Booking information is available through MIMA’s Turner Prize page.

For Brambles pupils, the first visit has already turned a major cultural event into something practical: a morning of looking carefully, talking together and making new work. The next useful measure will be how many other schools can take up the same opportunity before the exhibition closes.