Someone told me it was 2013!

Okay, I realised that we are in the next year but as I got here in 2012 so I think I’ll keep the title! As everything has been manically busy I haven’t had any time to update it yet, it’ll be 2014 soon! I’ve put a few of the eventful stories and projects I’ve been lucky to be involved in below and hopefully this just proves how hectic it’s been!

Cardiff museum - (Cafe Review 03)

On a typical rainy day in Wales where better to go than the National Museum Cardiff! Visiting with my parents we wandered around the galleries and marvelled at the standard of art work on display and of course we popped in to the cafe/restaurant.

For some years the Oriel Restaurant has been located in the heart of the building in the basement. It's easy to assume that this might make it dingy but the lighting is perfect and they have filled every space with a natural feel. On entering there is a well laid out cake display and behind that a cafeteria style bar which clearly demonstrates how you order. It's spacious for buggies and easy to move around. The dinosaur decorated menu has been blown up to human height with bilingual text and prices. There is also a well priced selection of lunch snacks at child level for them to easily select.

Friendly staff met us at the counter and after ordering we were given a love spoon with our number and took a seat. The restaurant must seat around 70 so we didn't struggle to find a pleasant table. The food came quickly, we ordered a selection of main meals (Smoked haddock and spring onion fish cakes, Celtic Pride burger and Sunday lunch). The portions were great, all the condiments were to hand in a cake tin on the table. The food was good quality, presented very nicely and even came on hot plates!

 

There were many high chairs available and baby change room. A sweet cubbyhole was set up as an activity space for the children. A washing line style showed off the previous children’s art work, and a large magnetic panel was accessible for spelling games, along with many other activities for the children to do.

We finished our lunch off with a blasus welsh cake, a siocled poeth and a coffi, 65p for a welsh cake..Da Iawn!!

British Museum - Take over day

© The British Museum

The day was held on Saturday 24^th November. Young Friends of the British Museum worked with BMuse, the Youth Panel to take over several roles around the venue. Using contacts within the Young Friends, members were invited by email to sign up to Take Over Day and allocated different responsibilities thought out the day. The jobs were Visitor Information Point, Handling Desk Correspondent and Tour Guide. There were 50 children involved from 8 – 13 years old. Because of the venue size and how busy it gets it was a manageable number for the museum to handle, but I was told they had another 20 Young Friends on the waiting list so the event was clearly very popular before it started.

The Visitor Information Volunteers welcomed families into the museum and answered questions about directions. They also informed them about other events the Take Over Team were going to hold during the day. The reception from the visitors was a general surprise that it was children acting as the first point of contact but they really thought it was a great idea and the children within the family were listening to what was being said as they could relate to the Young Friends Volunteers.

In two galleries a pair of Handling Desk Correspondents had began their shift and were busy explaining a collection of objects to the general public. Before the Take Over day they had been given a training day to learn about the role and this was graciously noted by the parents and children themselves for giving them more confidence about talking about the objects.

The first tour about the Double-headed Serpent began at 12.30 and there were two more afterwards. Before it the children had a chance to practice what they were going to say about the “Object in Focus” with the Youth Panel, a crowd of approx 15 people gathered as the tour began. They were very good and although I think nervous at first they seemed to really enjoy the experience.

I was told the afternoon was even more of a success and the organiser is hopeful that this set up can be bigger and better next year. She was also keen to continue the involvement of the children on guided tours particularly a more frequent event. The museum concluded that they had learnt a lot from getting the children involved in this way.

My day was spent moving around from each group collecting feedback from the children, schools representatives and the museum staff.

A conversation between myself and two take over children: “So far what word would you use to describe your day taking over?” “Awesome” “Extraordinary” Conversation between myself and a mother of Take Over Day Volunteer, “How do you feel about seeing your little boy taking over?” “It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s such and exciting opportunity for him to do this. Especially growing up in Camden and coming on a lot of school outings this is an amazing opportunity again. I hope for my younger son to get the same chance.” Bob a visitor from Connecticut USA “My kids are enjoying the museum more and are more engaged tan if it was an adult talking. It’s also fun to see how much the children know. I definitely think this is a good thing.” An adult working with the children said, “I didn’t realise how young they would be but they have had great training and they really know their stuff. People want to engage with the children more and are asking lots of questions, the experience for them is excellent.”

For more infomation about Take Over Day click visit the Kids in Museum website http://kidsinmuseums.org.uk/

The Geffrye - Take over day!

© The Geffrye Museum 

The day was held on Friday 23^rd November. Working in partnership with Hackney Learning Trust the museum had invited numerous schools across the borough to participate in their SEN Forum. Each school could sign up two children from Year 6 to come along and trial different aspects of the museum. There was then an opportunity to collect their thoughts and ideas for change and present them at the end of the day to the museum staff.

The day started with an introduction session which included a look at the visual timetable and a fun game to get the children moving. The rest of the morning was dedicated to workshops:

Role Play This was a drama session for highlighting questions children might ask staff in a museum. Some of the results found were that maybe the museum could display more signs and review the current disability access situation.

Creating a resource Giving way to the children imaginations they looked in the Garden Reading Room for inspiration and returned to the Quiz desk area to develop ideas of something new and affordable the staff can use in future. The ideas that came from this were maybe making 3D paper nets that the children can cut and colour of something relevant like furniture, also making sashes or badges with the existing material.

Design a Garden With the funding for a new children’s play area this workshop was designed to allow for individual expression of games and activities they would like to see in a garden. Some great results were the inclusion of topiary animals, flower styles trampolines, sensory garden and even hopscotch.

 

Audio Guide The children chose a postcard of a room and had to find it and then listen to the audio guide. They could then review and suggest improvements on the current guide. The set up got them thinking about how they could have some sort of matching or visual quiz where by you had to find something within the room. They also suggested having head phones that could be shared and maybe using more music.

During the afternoon the children separated into two groups to discuss their findings. This gave them a chance to speak their mind and put across ideas. They made a short presentation to each other and came up with 3 things for each workshop that could be improved.

My day was spent moving around from each group collecting feedback from the children, schools representatives and the museum staff.

This was said between myself and one student from Gainsborough Primary “So if asked you marks out of 5 for the museum, what would you say?” “10.” One of the LSAs from Randle Cremer School said, “I’d give the visual timetable thumbs up! The day has been fun and interactive. It’s been better than expected and the leaders have been very good. Although the children where initially disappointed to be missing an assembly in school they are happy now” Emma from the museums education department stated, “I think the most useful thing today is the fact that the children aren’t restricted by and preconception of what a museum can be and they’ve just come in with all these very refreshing and some times quite bonkers ideas which actually as Janice said we can distil into something that they can then come back and actually see so they’re going to see their ideas in practice”

In conclusion the day was a great opportunity for the schools, children and museum to learn a lot more about each other and the event showcase the museum to some children who had never been before. The children were awarded their certificates and packs and the museum thanked them for their ideas.

For more infomation about Take Over Day click visit the Kids in Museum website http://kidsinmuseums.org.uk/

St.John's Church Organ Project

To keep my hand (and my head) in the arts and culture scene, I've been volunteering for all sorts of projects in London, and let's face it there are so many around to get stuck into.

A couple of months ago, I found advertised on http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/ the St.John's Organ Project. What really appealed to me was the idea of a church creating an exhibition.

The exhibition will focus around a newly restored grade II listed organ, while touching on local history and the church as part of the community. The space is open and light, perfect for an exhibition. After meeting the management team and visiting the church to see the space and logistics I grew in enthusiasm.

Once signed up as a volunteer I was offered a workshop to refine my research skills and learn about archives. This day was a great opportunity to meet more people also involved as research content volunteers. The first meeting was this week and it has helped me focus my aims and ideas about the project.

For more information about the project click on the link and the exhibition is hoping to be open during the musical May Fayre held in the church next year.

Science Museum, London (Museum Cafe 02)

As it was a dreary day and half term it was to be expected that the Science Museum, London was packed out! Greeted by the staff in the Energy Hall I was overwhelmed and inquisitive of all the moving objects and hustle and bustle from the visitors. I visited with my partner and we planned to go on the Flight Gallery Tour on the third floor so we headed straight there. The tour was lead by a volunteer who knew her stuff! She articulately provided the overall history in great detail while uncovering many fascinating facts, even the reason why windows on planes are now round!

I’ll never look at them the same again

  

After an amble down through the other floors we were ready for a snack so we headed to the Deep Blue Café. It was busy and so we had to wait to be seated but it wasn't long until we were sitting at the funky under lit tables. The ordering system was a little confusing, as we were not told if we had to go to the till or wait for the staff but once resolved we settled for the tasty Soup of the day (Sweet potato) and a cappuccino and hot chocolate. My hot chocolate was more like milk than chocolate, but I tried the cappuccino and that had a lot of flavour. Our soup was delicious and we didn’t have a long wait for any of our items to come.

We finished with a slice of Lemon drizzle which I thought was great, very flavoursome. The food in the restaurant was well presented and the portions were generous. However the menu lack variety and was quite expensive when you added the service charge. The service was impersonal and not incredibly warm but we could see everyone was busy. The facility of placing buggies just within the café entrance was useful for families as well as having clearly signed toilets close. Free wifi is accessibly from the table but I found the intense dark/light atmosphere and the narrow seating not very inviting.

Some notable worthwhile exhibitions to visit are What do you think is fair? Live science research being complied by Queen Mary, University of London. Based in the Who am I? section it’s a great way for children to learn more about themselves. We also wandered through the James Watt and Our World passing The Toaster Project (a truly innovative personal challenge taken on by Thomas Thwaites)

In essence the museum as a whole is worth a visit rain or shine. For more information about the museum, click on the links.

Fulham Palace est 704 (Museum Cafe 01)

Along with another Kids in Museums volunteer (Laura) I set out on a very sunny Tuesday to view the charming setting of Fulham Palace museum. Neighbouring the Thames but hidden away in the autumn colour trees the retired Bishop of London’s residence has been on this site since 704. We decided to first ramble around their beautiful walled garden and the orchard, before we entered the house through the main court yard and past the exquisite fountain centre piece. As we had some time to kill while waiting for the exhibits to open (Saturday – Wednesday, 1pm – 4pm) we headed to the Drawing Room Café.

 

                                   

Situated at the back of the property the café offers a fine view onto the lawn. The waiters were incredibly welcoming and we sat contemplating what to snack on. We both ordered a latte and agreed that it was good quality coffee. We were easily persuaded to get a cake as they promptly rolled out of the kitchen and into our view. There was a vast collection including for the free-from eaters a gluten free cake and some seasonal spooky snacks. I had a toffee chocolate brownie and Laura ate carrot cake. Both were delicious, reasonably priced and of high quality.

The space was modestly decorated and had hints of its previous use as a drawing room. The Fire was lit while we sat there but it was already very cosy. The facilities were outstanding, I especially liked the extra family room that housed toys for the young children and also the outdoor tables that meant the children could go off and play while their parents relax, keeping an eye on them from a distance.

When the museum spaces opened we ambled through. Although the exhibits aren’t particularly big the research information and displays were well laid out and presentable. Staff were chatty and even told us unique stories that weren’t on the display boards. The only thing it could have done with was more obvious signage to say the Chapel was also open as this area is quite a distance from the main visitor area.

                               

I’ll finish by saying that it was a tranquil and sweet little place with the fattest squirrels I’ve ever encountered. Overall they have done a very good job with the exhibition space and created a family friendly atmosphere.

For more information on the museum click on the links.