The Bermuda National Gallery will open a new animated show in February entitled: "From Mickey to the Grinch: The Art of Animated Film''.

The show is intended to appeal to a family audience and as part of the exhibition there will be an animation station for making your own cartoon.

There will also be a showcase of Greg Lovell, a Bermudian animation artist who is currently working on the Simpsons show in Los Angeles.

The Gallery is also in the middle of a strategic planning process in order to move it into the twenty-first century.

The eight and a half year-old organisation has interviewed key stake holders and formed task forces to address a variety of important strategic initiatives.

And Bermuda National Gallery Director Laura Gorham, who was speaking to Hamilton Rotarians yesterday, said they expected results of the review early in the new year.

The Mission statement of the Bermuda National Gallery is: "To promote, benefit and advance the visual arts in Bermuda.'' The gallery is currently showing the "Made in Bermuda Exhibition'' which includes many of the Islands early arts and crafts.

Ms Gorham said there were many artisans working in Bermuda pre-twentieth century who created furniture and silver, and at one point, Bermuda produced about 100 sailing vessels a year crafted from Bermuda Cedar.

Ms Gorham hopes the show will encourage citizens to do more research about their past heritage, as much of the Island's history is not written down.

She also focused on the ArtReach programme as museum education is fundamentally different from other forms of education, and she said for each exhibition, they produce a comprehensive education package which is distributed to every P5 and P6 teacher on the Island, as well as school principals.

In a global trend, the gallery's interactive station enables visitors to interact with exhibits enabling students to learn about new materials and skills.

As an example of how the Gallery has touched the lives of the Island's children, Ms. Gorham said nearly 2,500 children visited the exhibition `A Window on the Azores'.

Also part of the museum education programme is an art camp that runs for four weeks in July and a week during the spring break.

Each week has a different theme to encourage inquiry and exploration utilising the Gallery and several other of Bermuda's museums.

Students learn about their new art materials and skills, and are taught how to look at art objectively and how to talk about art descriptively, and at the end of the week, students are able to lead their parents on an informative Gallery Tour.

The National Gallery's Laura Gorham