What is Creative Spaces?
Learning teams in museums and galleries in the North West have been working side-by-side with children and adults to redesign their learning experiences through the innovative Creative Spaces programme.
The research programme, funded and commissioned by Renaissance North West, was initiated by the North West (NW) Museum Hub, a partnership between six major museums and galleries in the North West, and led by CapeUK. From the outset the Hub acknowledged that research should play a key role in identifying new practice and demonstrating the effectiveness of new approaches. Seen by many as ground-breaking, it involves working with children as co-researchers in the design of museum and gallery learning.
4 cultural organisations were involved in this first phase. Click here for a summary of this report.
What do we mean by co-research?
CapeUK’s approach has been informed by its prior experiences of action research progammes with teachers and students in schools and also by the ‘pupil voice’ agenda to engage them as co-constructors of learning experiences.
The Creative Spaces programme was established to address issues that were pressing for each of the cultural organisations. A research question was then framed by the staff of the organisations and used as the basis for that particular programme. Dr Catherine Burke was the academic lead with a particular interest in piloting experimental ways of working with children and young people as participants in design and research processes.
The research methodology was strongly informed by the Mosaic Approach (developed by Peter Moss and Alison Clark, at the Institute of Education in London) as a way of listening to very young children. The principles that have been adapted include:
• Recognising young people as experts in their own lives and therefore in a prime position to shape research about the learning opportunities that are designed for them.
• Working to young people’s strengths by encouraging them to express themselves not only in ‘conventional’ speech and writing but through a whole range of activities and processes.
• Emphasising the need for adults to listen to young people and respect their theories, interpretations and questions. This doesn’t only involve listening to the spoken word but to all the ways in which the young people express themselves.
The CapeUK approach has increasingly placed an emphasis on involving children and young people in the analysis of the data as well as its generation. This seeks to be research with children rather than research on children. A further development between the two programmes has been the increased involvement of staff from the cultural organisation in all stages in the process. It has been recognised that the co-research is very valuable professional development.
Creative Spaces Phase 2
Following on from this first phase, a second programme of work has now been undertaken. Manchester Museum , Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery are continuing to explore the ways in which young children experience the space of the museum or gallery and the effect this has on their learning.
Each has selected its own distinct research theme;
Manchester Museum has focused on family learning and how the inquisitiveness and imaginative capacities of young children can shape the learning experience of the whole family… giving adults ‘permission not to know’. The findings are feeding into the re-design of the Ancient Worlds Galleries as well as broader approaches to formal and informal learning with families.
They framed the following research question:
“How far do young children and their families feel able to explore the Archaeology and Egypt Galleries and make sense of the collection through creative play? What aspects of the spaces, displays or museum interventions help or hinder this process?”
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle has based their research on the support that the museum provides for ‘self-directed’ visits by schools. The research process has involved two classes from a primary school creating museums in their own classrooms and visiting the cultural venue.
They framed the following research question:
“How can the gallery support schools to approach a self-directed visit to the museum as a learning journey made by adults and children together?”
The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester has worked with secondary school students and teachers to look at how cultural learning encourages self reflection and self awareness.
They framed the following research question:
“What factors make a gallery a good space for young people to reflect?”
What next?
On Friday 26th November, CapeUK’s Rosie Marcus gave a presentation to cultural learning teams at an event run by the Museums Association in London. Entitled ‘Children as co-researchers: How do children experience museums?’ she shared findings from the research programme to an enthusiastic national audience.
Emerging themes include significant differences of expectations between museum staff, children, parents and teachers, as well as concerns about the impact of reduced capacity of learning teams from museums and galleries to provide workshops and tours for schools. A full report showing all findings and recommendations will be available on the CapeUK website from February 2011.
Additionally Rosie Marcus will be facilitating our professional learning event in February in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery and Axis. Bang Up To Date: Engaging with Contemporary Art - we will be exploring how contemporary art practice provides rich opportunities for children and young people. Hear about and discuss trends in contemporary art, explore and respond to the Northern Art Prize and devise approaches for your own setting that will engage children and young people with contemporary art practice.
