Following a sector update with ACE’s director of museums, John Orna-Ornstein, entitled 2015-18 and Beyond: Investing in a Strong Museum Sector, Culture24’s Anra Kennedy will curate five talks on learning, which will be a mix of theory and practice.
“I want people gain ideas and inspiration that they can take back to their own museum, which is really important,” said Kennedy. “So as well as the practical tips I urge all of the speakers to not be afraid tell us about what didn’t work as well as what did work and to always balance that with the reasoning behind it. So the pedagogical side of it might be innovative and mix up digital, an area where we see lots of new ideas, but also not neglecting the bread and butter of what museums are good and are doing say in say out.”
Esha Khanna of the National Gallery and Simon Bendry of the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme will open the talks with Teaching the Teachers: Working with Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and ongoing CPD. In this talk the audience will discover how two different projects have reached out to teachers to get what they do included in classroom practice. Bendry and Khanna’s projects cover visual art, history and heritage; primary and secondary; online, on site and in gallery. They work with teachers with years of experience and the profession’s newest blood too.
Following this will be Mixing it up – Minecraft, Coding, Collections & More with Emilie Giles, Codasign and Tony Guillan, Tate Media, Tate. Giles will be discussing ‘Superpowers Creative Technology Workshops’, created by Codasign to teach kids and young people how to use tools like coding and electronics in creative projects in museums and galleries, while Guillan will talk about ‘Tate Worlds: Art Reimagined for Minecraft’ – exciting Minecraft ‘maps’ that present virtual environments inspired by artworks from Tate’s collection.
Next up will be Enriching the New Curriculum with Museums where Adele Fletcher of Redland Green School, Haidee Thomas of Surrey Museums Consultative Committee and Claire Marston of the Learning On My Doorstep project will talk passionately about the benefits of schools and museums working together. With a wealth of experience to share they will reflect on how museums and schools have been working together to develop richer links across England’s new curriculum – what has worked and what hasn’t.
The award-winning project at Eureka! At the The National Children’s Museum is the focus of the stream’s penultimate talk Access all Areas – Delivering an Inclusive Visitor Experience. Trizia Wells and Aby Heavyside will explain how Eureka! has engaged with, and expanded, their disabled visitor audience.
Working With and for Older Audiences will wrap up the Learning talks with Age Friendly Museums Network and Essex Havard of the Adult Learning and the Culture Sector discussing the next phase of the Age Collective project, as it becomes the Age Friendly Museums Network, and will provide information on how museums can get involved. Then look beyond UK shores with Harvard as he takes us through examples of best practice from continental European museums.
