Ground breaking learning initiatives in museums and galleries

I have just spent a great evening viewing a very well attended interactive show of Cass Business School’s MBA student work, created as a reflection of their navigation through the Flow, Tide and Rapids of their Business Mystery elective, MBA and career journeys. 



The year's course involved workshops at the Barbican Art Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Premises Recording Studios and Drill Hall Theatre. Classes encompassed student observation, communication, performance and design based on the theme of Flow, Tide and Rapids. What emerged is a series of multi-media student works bringing forth distinct perspectives on the art of management, rooted in imagination, summarizing personal and professional journeys through the elective, MBA and career paths.


I’ve found it exciting to teach on this ground breaking elective course, and seeing how the students seized hold of the opportunity to work with me and other colleagues in the Whitechapel Gallery’s current installation by artist Goshka Macuga. Based on the tapestry of Picasso’s iconic Guernica Painting, it is set in the context of it’s extraordinary history and links with the political scene in 1930’s east end of London. Using the Guernica image and the reconstruction of its placement as a backdrop to dialogue, viz the round table at the United Nations, students went through a process of co-devising, negotiating and producing an eight-section large scale art work on the theme of Flow, Tide and Rapids; where each component could both stand alone and be viewed as an integrated whole.

There was so much to enjoy in this student curated exhibition. The personal sketchbooks and journals kept through their coursework were illuminating, and reinforced my long held view that this is a wonderful analogue tool for exploring and capturing personal learning journeys in a deeply reflective way.

My work with museums has convinced me that one of the fundamental purposes of galleries and museums is to communicate and encourage discussion and further learning. The outcomes of this project have more than reinforced that belief.

Meeting Space for Capturing Stories: The Nature of The Beast

The Whitechapel Gallery in East London has recently undergone a major development of the physical space, with a thought provoking installation, that mines the rich social history both of the East End and of the Gallery. Goshka Macuga’s exhibition: The Nature of The Beast revolves around:

The presentation of Picasso’s original painting, “Guernica” at The Whitechapel Gallery in 1939 and the placement and role of the tapestry of Guernica at The United Nations Headquarters in New York from 1985 to 2009. In both instances the image has been used as a backdrop for political debate. The room has been designed with a real emphasis on accommodating and encouraging meetings for discussion groups, with Guernica used once again as a backdrop”

The artist offered an invitation to host meetings and discussions around the large central table, which displays under glass, an extraordinary narrative around the circumstances of Picasso’s famous painting coming to the East End in 1939. This original event had been organised by the Stepney Trade Union Council who approached the gallery for help in their efforts to fight Fascism, and to help enlist volunteers for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. Stories can be powerful tools: an example that has stayed with me is that a small charge was made to the public in 1939, to view the Guernica painting. Or they could pay with a pair of boots!
Over 400 pairs of boots were collected and sent to the soldiers in the Republican Army, fighting Fascism in Spain.

Sometimes one encounters an opportunity where everything seems to come together, in this case my abiding interest in how organisations use physical space for meetings, and how the design of such spaces can deeply affect the tone and outcomes of meetings. But also I was interested in the creative and learning potential of holding a meeting with this extraordinary theatrical backdrop, and to explore new ways to use archive material in my work with museums, libraries and galleries.

I pitched the idea to a small group of associates, artists and practitioners who all work in different ways towards innovative ways of learning. It proved to be an exciting event. Each of us brought an idea, a prompt for an activity or a set of materials to the “table”. The exhibition remained open to the general public throughout the two hours, and our event became part of the exhibition, with some members of the public becoming intrigued and taking part in our meeting.

Our documentation, including video footage, will become part of the gallery’s archive.

Taking Ideas Into Action, Shine 09 London Event

I’ve just spent two fantastic days at the Shine 09 event:Taking Social Ideas Into Action. Described as an UnConference, it brought together social entrepreneurs with organisations including Ashoka, Lovells, Futurebuilders, UnLtd and The School for Social Entrepreneurs. The two days were a terrific mix of structured and unstructured events, where we could all learn from each other. The balance was just right, dynamic yet also relaxed. It was also very affordable, a big point these days! And really important in ensuring inclusion of a wide range of people. There were two venues, both exceptional spaces: the Kings Place and The Hub Kings Cross.

One of the first people I bumped into was David Wilcox, (who co-ran a brilliant Social Collaboration game on the second day.) We’d recently talked about the work I do with heritage, museums and libraries. David invited me to be a Shine Social Reporter for the next hour or so. I’m more used to interviewing on camcorder, but didn’t need my arm twisting when David lent me his small flip (video) camera. It seems like everyone at Shine 09 had a great story to share. I had great fun capturing a few of them and it also proved an interesting way of networking. They can be viewed at Social Reporting at Shine together with loads of background, outcomes, and thought pieces on the whole event. I’m even more fired up now to continue encouraging the people I work with in the cultural sector to use social media tools to share ideas and stories.

Being Present and Represented

Last week I took part in a seminar at The Museum of London Docklands, exploring representation and retelling people's stories, using the exhibition Living Ancestors as a starting point. The event was free, and each speaker an innovator in his or her field. They put forward their motives, methods and ethics around working collaboratively with people to document their lives and knowledge in creative ways. We were invited to critically consider their practices, draw inspiration from their methodologies and values, and share our own.

Gabrielle Le Roux is a feminist cultural activist and artist, who combines portraits drawn from life and first person narratives in travelling exhibitions that raise awareness of social issues. After her presentation she invited us to accompany her to look at her Living Ancestors exhibition, and question her about it.

Solomon Yohannes talked about their oral history work undertaken at The Museum of Londonwith refugee communities. This impressive project has deeply resonated with me, especially in its challenge of media stereotypes about refugees, and the way in which community organisations have ownership of the project, playing an active and fundemental role. Fieldworkers were drawn from the communities and trained in oral history methods and approaches at MA level. I was also impressed by the innovatory lightness of curatorial touch , which allowed poignant and essential feelings and experiences to shine through: impermanance, longing, separateness and belonging. I came away inspired and thinking that these are the deep conversations that those of us working in the heritage and cultural sectors need to actively persue, and engage in a free and open dialogue with communities, artists and curators.

Notebooks and Creativity

As an inveterate user of personal notebooks, both for my writing and work in museums and heritage, I’ve become fascinated in the whole subject of notebook keeping for developing creativity. There is something about these little paper and card artefacts that seems to stimulate a different way of thinking, from say capturing your working process digitally. I’m not alone! History is littered with secret and not so secret notebook keepers.



My current interest is in encouraging their use by the people I work with on diversity issues, to help them explore ideas for projects in museums, libraries and galleries, that lead to projects that can reflect our diverse society. The designer Michael Bierut has posted a wonderfully rich account and images of 26 years of his notebooks. It’s a fascinating insight into his working processes, but the single thing that stands out for me is how often they capture an initial idea, that in essence remained the core of a project, no matter how many iterations it went through.
These initial thoughts, sketches, even doodles, are so often the gold dust for a future creative project, but like fragments of a dream that slips away on waking, can be ephemeral, unless they are captured.

Hard to Reach Groups of Young People, a challenge for the Cultural Sector

I’ve recently been involved in fundraising to help support a group of young people from East London to take part in a 12 week expedition to South India withRaleigh International. Aged from 18 to 25 they are all not in work, education or training, and have been taken through a programme to help build confidence and team working, towards this fantastic venture. They will be working with grass roots communities in extraordinary forest and mountain locations, to help make a real difference to people's lives. Raleigh International is currently celebrating 25 years of also making a real difference to the lives of young people.

The Princes Trust is giving partnership support to this group of young East Enders. It has just published an interesting report. The Princes Trust
The YouGov Youth Index was based on interviews with 2,004 young people aged 16 to 25 across the UK, revealing the state of their lives today and how confident they are about their future. Alarmingly more than one in ten feels that life is meaningless and more than a quarter admitted they are often depressed, with over 1 million of those not in Education, Employment or Training, most likely to feel this way.

The cultural sector, including museums, galleries, libraries and heritage organisations are engaged in many projects and initiatives for young people. However often young people who are not in education, get missed out and are far more hard to reach. It is shocking that 60% of media coverage of young people is negative, yet Raleigh International’s work demonstrates the huge potential they have for meeting challenges, and making a significant contribution.

Museums: reaching out to new audiences

In looking to engage all members of the community, Hackney Museum in East London, has developed a Platform Programme. This encourages local community groups and organisations to put forward their proposals for an exhibit. Hackney is a thriving and lively inner city borough, with one of the most diverse range of people in Britain. It is sometimes the case that gender can be overlooked when thinking about diversity. So I was interested to see this powerful exhibition, resulting from the Platform initiative. Called Hackney Women Rise, it marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The text and images celebrate and remember the achievements of women and girls who have experienced male violence. This seems to me to be a cutting edge initiative, and it is both moving and inspirational. It also ties in strongly with many of the other exhibits, which tell diverse stories of the histories of the people who have settled in, lived and worked in Hackney over the centuries.

There are many objects displayed which inspire, and ensure that individuals and communities see themselves, and their heritage, represented, including
successfully overcoming adversity, and contributing to the fantastic cultural life of Hackney.