Should museums be family-friendly?

I imagine that if you've ever read my blog or follow me on twitter then you've probably already decided the sort of article that this is going to be. I make it very clear, I think, that some of my chief concerns in museums are families; family education, especially.

So I think all museums should be family friendly, right?

Well, not exactly. Yes, and no. I'll explain a little better.

Firstly, there are some museums that by their content alone should never be encouraging children into them. I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say that if a museum's collection is primarily of material you'd expect to only see on television after the watershed then I don't think it's really ever going to be a good candidate for a family fun day out.

Having said that, I do think there is a case for museums to try and be accessible for families. But definitely with certain provisos.

My second biggest irritation (I'll get to the first in a minute) with people who immediately start shaking their heads when you mention family friendly museums is that so often they're equating "family friendly museum" with "museum for children" in their head. And that's annoying, because they're really not the same thing at all. Eureka, in Halifax, is a children's museum. It's designed for kids, with them in mind as the exclusive audience. And it's fantastic, in my opinion, anyway. I'm pretty sure someone who likes visiting the Courtauld Gallery to look at paintings once a week probably wouldn't think it was for them, but that's not the point. It's a children's museum. Somewhere like the Herbert, in Coventry, however, is not a children's museum. Its exhibits can appeal to anyone, and it is the interpretation created by the museum staff that make an object more appealing to a particular type of visitor, whether that's an adult or a child.

Just because a museum is 'family friendly' doesn't mean that it suddenly doesn't want visitors that don't come bringing childen with them. I'd hate to see that, just as much as I hate to see a museum excluding people who do bringing children with them. I firmly believe that museums are an excellent place to encourage inquiry in young minds and I hope they will always continue to be. I also hope they'll continue to welcome inquiring minds no matter what age they are.

My biggest gripe (told you I'd get to it in a minute) is that whenever you bring up the issue of family friendly-ness in museums, you inevitably get someone who'll say something along the lines of "don't let museums be over-run with noisy children", "museums are the last quiet space I have to think, it's terrible that you're trying to destroy them" and so on.

This bugs me a lot, and for quite a few reasons, not least the somewhat hypocritical attitude of "museums can't be the way someone else wants them, because they must be the way I want them". It also bothers me that there are people who seem to want to ban all children from museums because they perceive them to be a personal nemesis of some kind, a sort of anti-peace-and-quiet. I've known some wonderfully calm and polite children; should they suffer a museum exile because not all of their peers can behave in such a socially acceptable manner in a museum? And lastly, it bothers me because if someone were advocating against people of a race, or religion, or gender being allowed into a museum we'd be up in arms about it - so why is it less of a problem when people are discriminating against potential visitors because of their age?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and maybe somewhere in there they have a point. Perhaps we should be trying to hold events that are aimed specifically at the people who want to come and sit in the peace and quiet, to use our spaces to think or get away from the hustle and bustle. Their wish for that use of a museum is just as important as any other user-group, and we should think about providing for it if we don't already. Just not to the point of exclusion of others.

So that's where I stand on the issue, really. But before I sign off, I'd like to leave you with some really good reasons to consider as to why I think all museums should think about being family friendly, even if you're not actually wanting to attract hoardes of children to annoy the naysayers out there.

Think about the height of your displays
Because children aren't the only people who are short. What about people in wheelchairs?

Think about the language you use in interpretation
Because not everyone is an expert in your subject, or has the benefit of an excellent education.

Think about making things engaging and fun
Because everyone likes to enjoy themselves. People engage more with content if they're emotionally invested in it, no matter how old they are.

Explain things in simple ways
Because not everyone shares the same life experiences. The more simple your references, the more of your audience that will be able to identify with them.

Don't make your interpretation panels too long
Because most people don't have the patience to read lots of text at once. Give people information in bite-sized bits so that they can decide whether to just read the highlights or to go in depth.

Provide pictures and hands-on activities
Because not all visitors learn by reading. Lots of people are kinesthetic learners who will understand and remember something much better by trying it out than by just reading it.


And if you start to think about all of these things, I daresay you'll find your museum is well on the way to being family friendly... and a better, more inclusive experience for everyone else, too.

Short on money, not on ideas

I had an email yesterday which was inviting me to buy a ticket for a fantastic looking conference. It was to do with digital publishing, it had some amazing speakers and it was in England, as opposed to all of the conferences I get excited about that turn out to be on the other side of the Atlantic. In fact, I was all set up to go and buy a ticket until I saw the price; £350 for a day ticket.

Three hundred and fifty pounds? It might as well have been three hundred and fifty thousand.

It's not the first time I've gotten excited about a conference right up until the moment that I saw the price tag associated with being a part of it. Gaming conferences, museum conferences, digital conferences. You name one of my interests and I've probably found at least three conferences or training courses I'd love to attend but can't afford to.

I understand that hiring venues is expensive, not to mention paying top-class speakers. I'm sure the food is top-notch too. I just wish that having a high amount of disposable income, or a large training budget, wasn't such a pre-requisite for being able to hear the ideas of the best in the business, and being able to share your own ideas with them.

In a time of recession, I'm sure even more museum professionals are feeling as I do, and wishing it wasn't so. Is there anything that we can do about it? It feels like such a waste to think of all the students, the staff from small museums and those just unable to commit half their training budget to one conference who aren't able to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the sector.

In the meantime, if you know of any good conferences or meet-ups, networks or anything else that brings good people together, do let me know. I'm particularly interested in gaming, museum education and digital and new media, but love to hear about anything new and exciting.

On a digital treasure hunt

This week, I'm setting out on a quest to find the most exciting interactive content there is to find online. Today was day one; I'm hoping that my treasures each day are more exciting than the last, though they'll have to go some way to top some of things I've found today.

I found a few gems today, and thought I'd share them with you.

The Curfew

A game about freedom, oppression and doing the right thing; somewhere between a video and a point and click adventure game, you navigate your way through the stories of four characters to decide who to trust with some secret information you've got that'll bring down the corrupt government.

What I love about this is the realism of the environments within the game; characters shift and shuffle whilst they're waiting for you to do things, signs flicker and things blow in the breeze. They're very real environments and that makes you invest more in the game, I think.

7NK

There's nothing I love more than a good murder mystery, and as they go this looks pretty fabulous. It was designed for the BBC's Shakespeare programme to give visitors an understanding of some of the bard's most key characters. Unfortunately, the link on the BBC website doesn't look like it works anymore, which is a crying shame. The artwork looks fabulous and the game looks to be full of puzzles and questioning suspects; both key factors in any good murder mystery game.

If anyone knows where I can find it online I'd be very greatful; I'd love to play it.

MyUK

A game from the government, of all people. This one is supposed to engage 13-15 year olds with the idea of laws and governance, but I think it'd be pretty good fun no matter how old you are, especially since you get the chance to do very serious law-type things in your five years in office, such as pass rules about the offside law and paint the front door at Downing Street.

It even links into your facebook and twitter profiles so you can share your moments of prime ministerial genius with all of your friends.

You can look out for mine soon, I'm sure...

High Tea

This one is from the Wellcome Collection, and was created to highlight the opium trafficking that took place in the British Empire in the Victorian period. It's a strategy game, where timing is key and gambling helps. I say that; I'm not very good it!


So there's four good examples; unfortunately they don't all work, but some of them should give you some good productive procrastination!

I'm looking for more inspirational interactives out there on the internet. If you know any, please share them with me. In turn, I'll share them with everyone else!

Making a name for yourself on facebook

Just a short post today, because I realised something really important that I'd left out of my facebook summary post: how to get a customized url for your page.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I mean being able to type www.facecbook.com/yourmuseum and have it take people directly to your museum page.

Getting a "vanity url" as they call them for your page is actually really simple.

1. Set up your page.
2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/
3. Select the page you want to set the url for with the dropdown menu
4. Choose your preferred url (the bit that goes after the www.facebook.com/)

And that's it!

A couple of hints and tips:

1. Once you've chosen your url you CANNOT change it. So double check your spelling and be 100% sure about your abbreviations before you type it in.

2. Facebook changes the requirements for a page to have a vanity url all the time. It's usually a number of fans/followers that your page needs to have. At last check it was 20 fans, so it's not exactly a steep challenge for most heritage organisations. This may change in the future, of course. Whatever the requirements are though, facebook will tell you on the /username page.

3. You want your online profile to be as seemless as possible, so if you have a twitter account name, consider using that as your facebook username url. Of course, you might decide you want something more obvious if it's going to be a place you have to direct people to often.


As always, I hope that's useful. Ask if you have questions and if I can answer, I will.

Facepaints and Visitor Feedback

You might not think that facepainting and museums go all that well together. Dogs, butterflies and spiderman in lurid colours on kids' faces are more the realm of birthday parties than museum events, right?

Well, I'm sort of hoping I might change your mind about that in this post.

Here are the top reasons I think facepainting should be included in at least a couple of your events every year. Oh, and it's important that it's your staff doing it too - but I'll get to that in a minute.

1. Kids LOVE it. And I mean LOVE. Most children who would otherwise not sit still to engage with anything remotely museum-y (is there such a thing?) will happily sit quietly for ten minutes and let someone doodle on their face with a paintbrush.

2. Parents love it too. Mostly because of #1 - they love that their kids get to sit quietly for a few minutes. I'm sure they love the animal impressions that come after you've finished just as much, too.

3. Most importantly: it gives you a captive audience. Whilst the child is sitting there, at the mercy of your artistic talent, you can ask them all the questions you wish you could ask every visitor. Are you having a good day? What's your favourite thing you've seen or done? Is there something you're looking forward to later? Have you been here before? Everything you ever wanted to know. And their parents are right there too, ready to be quizzed. Have you ever had a better chance to do some on-the-spot evaluation?

Bearing that in mind, because I'm sure I've just convinced you all to slot some facepainting into your programmes for next year, here's a few things you need to think about before you get out your "facepainting here today" sign.

1. Buy good paints. I can't stress how important it is not to give your visitors an allergic reaction with cheap face paints. Invest in a decent brand, like Snazaroo. It's honestly worth it; not only are good paints easier to paint with than the ones you might pick up from the poundstore, but you'll get some instant respect from any visitors who have painted faces before just for having a good brand on the table.

2. Find someone with some artistic talent to do the painting. It's not fair to say that everyone can be a face painter. Having said that, though, just because you've not done it before doesn't mean you'll be terrible; there are some excellent books out there which have some great simple designs in. If you're only confident doing a tiger, a butterfly and a dog then that's fine. Just make sure you make that clear on the signs that that's what you're offering.

3. Consider your event and your audience. Nature events are a great time to get out the facepaints because it's so easy to find loads of great inspiration for face paint designs in the animal kingdom. But that's not your only option; I've done painting for "princesses" and "fairies" at a magical event before, just by offering small stars or glittery swirls. Small children often won't sit still long enough for a full face so if you know you're going to get a lot of little ones then think about what cheek or arm designs you could do.

4. Facepainting doesn't have to cost the Earth. Parents are very grateful when you can offer it for free, or even for a small charge such as £1 for a full face. If you're not confident in your abilities just yet, offer it for free. You can always start charging at events later in the year when you feel you have improved.

5. Facepainting is time consuming. Make sure you plan enough time into your day for it. If you're expecting a lot of visitors then don't expect your facepainting staff member to have time to do anything else that day.

I've been facepainting for about five or six years now, so if you've got any other questions about it then just ask, as always I'm happy to answer.

Inspiring places

I spotted a post this morning from @museummedia on twitter, pointing at a summary of ten beautiful historic libraries. It's no surprise that I love old buildings really, given my chosen career, but looking through these pictures reminded me just how inspiring a building can be, without any extra effort put into the whizzbang of interpretation.

I started to think about other places that have been inspiring over the years, and soon realised that there are far too many, and of such great diversity, to share them all. Still, here are a few places I've been that really stuck in my memory.

Photo credit: The Guardian

This is Ditherington Flax Mill, in Shrewsbury. It was the first iron-framed building in the world, which makes it the forerunner for the modern skyscraper, and as such it's a Grade I listed building. It's also a building site at the moment, as English Heritage work to turn it into something that will last for the future. When I visited a few years ago there was little there but room upon room of these iron supports, occassionally with holes at the top to allow the belts that drove the machines to run the length of the room. What was most impressive about it, as I remember, was the sheer scale of the place; each room very long, and knowing that there were more floors above you just the same.

If you're interested in the Mill, you can read more about it on English Heritage's website.

Photo credits: English Heritage Prints

There's a lot to find inspiring about Bolsover Castle, in Derbyshire. These two pictures, of the Pillared Parlour and the Star Chamber respectively, are just two of the fantastic interiors that you can find in the Little Castle, a smaller building within the castle grounds. The exteriors are pretty fabulous too, not to mention the views across the surrounding countryside.

Photo credit: TravelerFolio.com

I've already said I love libraries, so it should come as no surprise that the library at Cardiff Castle completely blew me away. The detail in all the carvings on the bookshelves and painted around the room could keep anyone occupied for hours hunting for all of the animals, flowers and so on that are depicted there. They didn't, as far as I could see, run any such sort of hunt for families, but you could easily invent your own!

Photo credit: BBC

This is the chained library at Hereford Cathedral. You can just about make out in the picture that all the books are chained to the shelves with heavy iron chain! A hark back to the days when books really were that valuable. Not that I think you'd be able to slip out unnoticed with most of these tomes; they're rather big and heavy. For anyone who has read the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, this is rather how I imagine sections of the library at the Unseen University to be!

Photo credit: Shropshire Star

This is the Picture Room at Attingham Park in Shropshire. The room is full of pictures that one of the house's inhabitants collected on an extravagant Grand Tour as is the case in many historic houses, but my favourite thing about the room is the fantastic sky-light in the roof. The panels of glass are held together by a then-innovative ironwork structure; who would expect less from a home so near to the famous ironworks at Coalbrookdale? Unfortunately the roof has a terrible tendency to leak, so today it's protected on the outside by a secondary clear roof, invisible from the inside. 

I could go on listing inspirational places all day, but I think I'll leave it there for now. What inspirational places have you got to share? I'd love to see them; I'm always looking for more places to go and see.

Twitter tips

This is the second part of my series of introductions to social media. The first was about facebook and you can find it here.

The idea of these posts isn't to tell you everything there is to know about social media, just to give you an overview of the most important things to know when starting from scratch if you've got little or no experience with the medium.

Today's post is about twitter.

Twitter is perhaps more daunting to approach than facebook, for someone new to social media. It has a lot of technical terms, such as tweet and retweet and url and so on that are used all the time on the website, that can be mystifying if you don't know what they mean. I'll try and explain as many of them as I can on the way through.

Setting up your account

Setting up an account on twitter is very easy. Start by heading to www.twitter.com and clicking on the button that says 'sign up'. The username that you create will be how people find and refer to you on twitter, so make sure that it's something that represents you well and is easy for people to remember. Good examples of twitter names might be PooleMuseum or NationalTrust. Bad usernames might be the name of the member of staff who created the account, or a complicated acronym. You'll also have a chance to write your name; this can include all the characters that your username couldn't, such as spaces. The rest of the sign-up process is quite straightforward; there is very little information to fill in.

Updating your 'look'

You are represented on twitter by five things. Firstly, your username and 'real name', which we've already covered. Next is your 'descriptive text'. Here you get 140 characters to describe yourself to the world at large. This is the only space you get to do this with, so make all those characters count. Usually it's good to summarise your institution with a sentence or two, then say who is tweeting on behalf of you if it's going to be one person. You might want a thesaurus handy to come up with shorter equivalents for things you want to say to get as much information into those 140 characters as possible! 

The other two are your avatar and your background. Your avatar is the little square picture that shows next to your username throughout twitter. It will be the visual representation of your institution, so you want to choose something that will stand out and be recognisable as you. You can change your avatar whenever you want, but it's probably best to keep it fairly stable. Museum logos make good icons, as do striking pictures of your notable collections if you have something particularly well known. It's worth knowing that although your avatar shows up as a small square most of the time, twitter users can click on your picture for a full-size version to get a better look at the image if they want to, so you don't have to use a tiny picture, or even a square one. If your picture isn't naturally square, twitter will automatically crop it for you.

Twitter has a wide range of background pictures that you can choose from, but you can also upload your own. If you choose a picture that is smaller than the screen size it is being displayed on then twitter will automatically tile the image unless you tell it not to. Cunning use of background colour and a picture that fades into it will help your page look good on any size monitor. If you're not sure, twitter's default backgrounds or plain colours work well to start.

Short and sweet

You'll know that one of the key characteristics of twitter is that each "tweet" (the messages or status updates that you post) can only be 140 characters long. One of the drawbacks of this used to be that it made including links to things difficult. Luckily, this is less of an issue now as twitter includes an automatic url (the address of a link) shortener. There are still plenty of separate ones out there that you can use; the likes of bit.ly and tiny.cc to name two. Their benefits often include click-through statistics tracking that twitter doesn't give you, but it's nice to know that twitter now offers something automatically so you shouldn't have to worry about links taking up all of your 140 characters.

I had a good suggestion in the comments from John Bibby so I'm adding it in here. If you do use an url shortening service, you are given the option of choosing what your shortened link appears as. Usually the abbreviation you wanted to use has been taken before. However, if you give yourself an acronym to use at the start of each shortened url, you'll probably find you can use whatever you like after it and still be unique. John uses aa42; you could use something that fits with your organisation, for example the V&A might use VnA as the start of all of their addresses, giving them shortened urls such as VnAart or VnAoffr and so on.

Retweet, retweet!

As well as "tweeting" your own posts, you can also "retweet" things that other people have said. Retweeting something is basically a way of saying you like or approve of something, or of raising awareness of something that other people want to be more widely known such as an event or a request for information. In the character-precious environment of twitter, retweet is often abbreviated to RT. To retweet a post, hover over it. You'll see icons for replying to the post, as well as one for retweeting it. The retweet icon looks a bit like a square recycling sign.

Talking to other people

No twitterer is an island; part of what makes twitter valuable is the conversation between people. There are two ways to talk to other people on twitter; by public tweet or by direct message.

A public tweet is something everyone can see. To make sure someone knows it's aimed at them, you put @Theirtwittername at the start of the tweet. This is like having a conversation with someone in a room full of other people; everyone else can hear (see) what you're saying.

A direct message is a private conversation between two people. You can get to your direct messages from the 'messages' tab in twitter. Type in the twitter name of the person you want to send the message to and away you go. Twitter keeps a log of all the people you've messaged in the past on the left hand side of the screen so it's easily accessible in the future. Bear in mind that though your message can't be seen by the public that doesn't mean the other party won't share it; think of it like sending email messages.



And that's it for the basics! I hope it's been useful to people. If people are interested in the more intermediate hints and tips, such as using programmes like TweetDeck and HootSuite to schedule tweets, or statistics tracking, let me know and I'll be happy to write a second post.

I haven't planned any more social media introductions at the moment, but I'm happy to write some up if people are interested in anything in particular. Foursquare, youtube... ask and I'll get writing!

When I grow up I want to be... Results!

Well, I promised them and here they are. In total, I surveyed 175 children between the ages of 3 and 16. Really, it's not enough to get any conclusive results (says my GCSE in Statistics) but it's certainly enough to start seeing some interesting things coming out.

To summarise the trends that came out of the data, then...

The most popular careers for girls under the age of 9 are vets, dancers and hairdressers. I also hit upon some of the classics you might expect from the under tens; princesses, queens, famous people and 'just like my Mum'. 10-12 year old girls surprisingly (but pleasantly so) favour being scientists over anything else, including forensic scientists, zoologists and marine biologists. Also popular are artists and fashion designers. 13-16 year olds are more interested in care jobs; social worker, nurse and midwife scored highly, as did physical training jobs such as PE teacher, sports coach and physical therapist.

Popular careers for boys under the age of 9 are soliders, firemen, policemen and footballers. There were some gems here too; pirate, millionaire and Santa were my favourites. The 10-12 age group did well for engineers and mechanics, as well as policemen and firemen. This group seemed to have the widest range of desired careers, with everything from chefs and carpenters to astronauts and archaeologists. 13-16 year old boys were rather under-represented in my sample group, but the ones I did have favoured teachers and soldiers as their preferred careers.

If the results are anything to go by, it seems that the under 12s have the most imaginative ideas about their future careers. By the time they get to 13/14, they've started to think more realistically about their futures, and abandon the princesses and pirates in favour of social workers and soldiers.

If you're interested in this and would like the raw data for anything you're doing please let me know and I'll be happy to share. It's something I'm going to keep working on so if you know any children under 16 and can help out by contributing what they'd like to be when they grow up, please do. All I need is gender, age and career choice. I'm particularly short of boys 13-16, but I'm happy for more data regardless of which category they fit into.

Curators of the Future: Summary

It's been a fun day at the careers fair today. I've done a lot of talking about museums and a lot of teaching kids how to use a hobby horse. And enjoying the looks on their faces when I introduced them to the smell of carbolic soap.

"That's what history smells like, kids."

This is just a short summary whilst it's fresh in my head. If anyone else out there gets asked to do a careers fair for young people, hopefully this will be helpful for you.

Things that went well

We took museum objects to play show-and-tell with, and they went down very well. From the hobby horses to the washboard, the objects were a great talking point for all the kids from the real little ones all the way up to the 14 year olds. Watching 14 year olds ride hobby horses around a sports hall is at once hilarious and slightly terrifying.

Some kids are clearly there to get as many leaflets as they can possibly manage, so I was glad of the shortened version of the events programme that I'd printed out. The small papers on the web resources went down well too.

Things I'd do differently

We took two boxes of craft materials to make things with the younger children and didn't end up using any of it. They came around in groups of eight or ten and only stayed a couple of minutes, so making anything at all was rather impractical.

Some of the other stalls had stickers, badges, bags and other freebies. Big things are obviously not in the budget for small museums, but a few hundred button badges would have gone down a storm and wouldn't have cost all that much.

Things I overheard

Being a museum, I guess we have a lot of stereotypes that people associate with us. I heard one boy say in a rather derisive tone "a museum? What sort of a job would you have at a museum?".

It wasn't all doom and gloom though. We had a few people who specifically wanted to know about museum working; a few historians and a couple of archaeologists and one palaeontologist.

When I grow up I want to be...

I've asked a lot of children today what they want to be when they grow up. When I've got all the data tabulated I'll share (and of course I'm still hoping for more contributions from everyone out there!) but for now here are my favourites from today's fair;

Boy, 13yrs - "I'm not sure. I always used to say I wanted to be a Teletubby." 
Girl, 7yrs - "I want to be lots of things. I want to be a dancer and a singer and a film maker and a pilot."
Boy, 12yrs - "I want to be Doctor Who, but I don't think he exists, so I guess a policeman instead."

When I grow up I want to be...

Tomorrow I'm at the 'inspired to work' careers fair, where I'll be talking to just under 2000 young people about the jobs that they could do in the future. It'll be a great chance to tell kids as young as six and seven about what we do in museums. Hopefully I might even inspire a few towards a career in heritage if I'm really lucky.

But really, that's not what this post is about. I've learnt during my time working with children that one of the things that usually engages children are events and activities that give them the chance to be something they've always dreamed of. Whether it's a spy, a forensic scientist or a pirate, the childhood dream-careers are always a good recipe for a fantastic day out and a really engaging learning experience that they really invest in.

So what are the careers of choice nowadays? I know what I wanted to be when I was younger (an astronaut, thank you very much) but I'm not sure whether today's youth have the same aspirations that I did when I was a child.

I'm hoping to do a bit of research to find out, and I'm hoping that you all can help me. Do you know any children? Anyone aged 16 or younger will do. All you have to do is ask them what they want to be when they grow up. Then let me know what it is, how old they are and whether they're male or female. You can tell me through twitter @Sarah_Fellows or by email at fellows.sarah.m@gmail.com

Easy, yes?

When I've collated all the results I'll share them here. Hopefully we'll all get something really useful out of it.

And of course, I'll try and gather as many responses tomorrow as I can. Surely in two thousand children I'll find some who know what they want to be when they grow up?

Distribute my quest as far and wide as you can and I'll be very grateful. And so will everyone else, when I send the results out.

In advance, I thank you!

Facebook tips

Today's post is on the subject of social media. There's a good number of courses you can go on to learn everything you need to know about social media and more, but a lot of them do cost a fair bit of money and that's something most people don't have at the moment. So, I thought I'd put together a quick how-to on using facebook and twitter for your venue.

First up is facebook.

Creating your page

There are various different sort of pages and groups and so on that facebook has or might have for your venue. Community pages, groups and a 'page' are the main three; most people will want to have a 'page' because it's best tailored of the three to the sort of thing most venues will want to do with facebook. To create a page for your venue, you'll need to go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Once you're there, just follow the prompts and enter the information as requested. It's fairly self explanatory. You can have as many page admins as you want. When any admins are on the page, anything they post will come up as being posted by the venue. This applies to photos, links, page status updates and 'likes'.

Creating events

Your venue can advertise 'events' on facebook which it can invite its followers/fans to.

To create an event, click on the events link. You'll find it on the left hand side of the page, under the venue picture, above the 'about your venue' information. The button to create an event is on the far right of the page. From there, just fill in all the information you can about the event; where, when, a picture and so on. You can also select guests to send an invitation to if you want, though you don't have to.

Once your event is live, you can edit the information at any time, as can any other page admins for your venue.

What is a check-in?

Your venue page will say on the left hand side how many check-ins your venue has. A check-in is when a person has tagged themselves in a post at your venue. Keeping tabs on how many people have checked in at your venue will tell you how many people who use facebook a lot are visiting your venue. Geo-location activity, such as checking into a venue, is getting more popular all the time, so it's something worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Sharing photos and collecting photos

A venue can share its official photographs through its venue page. To do this, click on the photos link on the left hand side of your venue page. There, you'll have the option to create new albums and to add new photos to existing albums. Give your albums names that are very descriptive; if it's clear what's in them, people are more likely to browse through them.

Your fans can share their photos of your venue via your venue page too. Whenever they post a picture to your page wall, it'll get collected into the 'photos of your venue' section which you see under your own albums on the photo page.


I hope that was useful! It doesn't include everything that you can do on a facebook page by any means, but it's a good start. If anyone wants hints and tips on anything else by all means ask and I'll be happy to do what I can in a follow-up post.

I'll be looking at twitter in another post.

If you've got questions I didn't answer do comment or drop me a line through twitter @Sarah_Fellows or by email to fellows.sarah.m@gmail.com.

Slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails

I was reminded this evening by a post on twitter just how much gender stereotyping by corporations bothers me. And no, funnily enough this had nothing to do with the Apprentice, though from what I gather from the odd tweet I saw it might as well have been.

What particularly bothers me is the categorisation of fairly mainstream consumables, like toys, magazines, books and so on, into "girls things" and "boys things".

Such as, for instance, Tesco.

I'm a girl. Can't I like Doctor Who and Kung Fu Panda and Pokemon now?


But they're by no means the only ones. The Entertainer split their toys into "girls" and "boys" sections. What saddens me most about their segregation is that there doesn't seem to be anything allowed into the girly side that isn't pink, and all the science experiment kits and electronic puzzles reside exclusively in the blue boys' zone. What message does this send to aspiring young female scientists? Is it any wonder we have universities struggling to attract women to science and engineering degrees?

Having said that, it's always nice to see that there are plenty of rational people out there in the world who denounce such stereotyping and do their best to encourage the positive idea that boys and girls can share interests. I dislike being negative, so I'll end with a link to a wonderfully uplifting story about the power of the internet in breaking down gender-based stereotypes. It's about a young girl named Katie who got teased for taking her Star Wars lunchbox into school, which inspired an internet campaign.

And what has this got to do with museums, anyway? Well, I think gender stereotyping is clearly so rife in modern society that we should be cautious that we don't find ourselves getting swept up in the tide. Just because Tesco thinks that it's ok shouldn't mean that it is. By all means, offer a princess tiara making and a knight crown making session. But if you have a young girl who wants to be a knight, or even a boy who wants to be a fairy (and I've had both) then don't discourage it. Let them find their own interests; we should be here to help children learn and explore, not to discourage them.

When Rain Stops Play

It's beginning to look like we might be in for another fantastic British summer of liquid sunshine. Working in the open air as I do, I'm used to the unpredictability of the English weather. Activity plans always include a contingency for wet weather, which isn't always "the dry weather programme in waterproofs", though admittedly that does often seem to be the case.

Wherever possible, I try to go ahead with some version of the original plan no matter how foul the weather gets. I've run events in the snow, and torrential downpours, and howling wind. I think it's always more satisfying when the people who do make the effort to come out to visit me in all that horrible weather have a fantastic time regardless. I've found that there is no rain so heavy that it can drown the fun of making hats, swords and anything shaped like a TARDIS.

I have learnt a few things about wet weather planning that I thought I'd share for the benefit of others in anticipation for a rainy summer.

Don't let your craft get soggy
Even if you're inside, if the humidity is high enough then it'll dampen any papercraft you've got planned. Damp paper doesn't have the same crispness of dry paper, so bear that in mind if you're planning headbands or anything else where the paper needs to stand upright. It also reacts differently to colouring pens and so on when it's damp; felt pens will absorb better but with less crisp lines and wax crayons and pencil crayons won't colour so easily.

Maybe it'll pass...
We're all optimists at heart. Even when it's been raining non-stop for the last week, you'll still find that people will dwell longer in the inside, dry spaces, hoping that it might stop bucketing it down outside in a minute. If you'd usually expect a family to do one or two activities, you should expect them to do three in rainy weather. If the children are enjoying themselves then the adults will be only too happy to allow them to stay and carry on in the hopes of avoiding more showers.

It only rains on the adults
For some reason, wet weather bothers adults a lot more than it bothers kids. If the parents are happy to let them, you'll often find most kids don't really mind running around in light rain. Some don't even mind heavy rain. Just make sure that if you do you're running around on ground that isn't likely to get too slippery. If you can provide a nice warm room for them to dry off in afterwards then all the better.

If anyone else has wet-weather hints and tips, I'm always eager to hear them. After all, there's never a shortage of rainy days!

Curators of the Future

I'm off to a local careers event in a couple of weeks. I'm very much looking forward to it, because rather than your average hall full of university students I'm going to be talking to kids as young as first school age (6/7/8) about all the things that make working in a museum pretty darn cool.

I've been having a lot of fun today and yesterday thinking about the best ways to present what we do, since I know I'm representing the first contact most of these children will have had with thoughts of working in the heritage sector. So, y'know, no pressure or anything. I love doing what I do, and I'd hate to give any child the impression that working in museums is anything less than the off-the-wall, constantly changing, always slighty-unusual experience that I truly believe it is. After all, as I said to someone today; in what other workplace could you legitimately and seriously say "we couldn't use the room, it was full of tea cosies"? Well, other than in a tea cosy factory, maybe. Or a prolific knitter's house.

Hypothetical workplaces aside, I think I've come up with some fun tasks to give the idea of working in a museum; some dressing up clothes, some collections items, some replica items, some make-and-take craft... what's not to love?

Oh, and did I mention I'm thinking of bringing a pirate with me?

So yes, it should be fun. I'd love some feedback from you out there. Was there anything you wish you'd known about working in museums when you were a child? I've still got time to put in extra bits and bobs (but probably not any more pirates).

Thanks!

The Power of Google

As I'm sure is the case for many of you, I'm often planning new events and activities. Now, I do have a degree, of course, and yet I find that most of the time I'm not planning events about rocks, fossils, dinosaurs or prehistoric Britain (my degree was in Geology and Archaeology). I've got a fairly good working knowledge of a wide range of historical and scientific topics, but still whenever I'm event-planning I like to have a look around on the Internet for some more specific information.

The point of this post is really just to share a couple of fascinating articles I found this week whilst doing some googling. Maybe they'll inspire you into some event or activity planning of your own.

BBC News - CIA Secrets - from the US and Canada branches of the BBC I found this fascinating article about declassified CIA secrets from the first world war. There's some fabulous ideas for making invisible ink that I'm pretty sure you could do in practice with museum visitors for a start, not to mention some great stories about etching messages into toenails that kids will love and parents will squirm awkwardly at.

Wikipedia - Fife - whilst searching for information about the 'fife and drum' that is referenced so often in the Sharpe-esque music of John Tams and his contemporaries, I learnt an awful lot about their use in military units. Did you know you can hear a fife and drum being played from 3 miles away, even over the sound of artillery fire? Neither did I, but we both do now.

Visit Worcester - Vesta Tilley - star of the Victorian and Edwardian music hall, Vesta Tilley was a popular entertainer who was a male impersonator. Apparently she was so famous and well-loved that when she retired she received a series of books signed by over 2 million of her adoring fans, including famous names such as Charlie Chaplin, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini!

So have any of you found anything interesting recently that you'd like to share? I'm always on the look out for interesting information and quirky facts and ideas. You never know what will inspire you next.

The Real Deal

I was on a bit of a busman's holiday today. Or maybe more like a busman's day off; since it was a weekend where I didn't need to be in my own museum I went and found another one to look around.

Whilst wandering around, I overheard a child defiantly tell his mother "but this isn't real. It's fake" to which she replied "It's got to be real. We're in a museum."

I wasn't sure whether I should be heartened or worried by this point of view. On the one hand, I was pleased to hear someone of the opinion that a museum is truthful and honest and presents the world as it is. On the other, I was somewhat concerned that perhaps people do just assume that everything in museums is 'real', and that perhaps we need to be a bit more obvious (not to mention careful) when we do include replicas and best-guesses.

It also reminded me that no matter how hard you try people don't read what you put in front of them; it was clear in the museum's introductory exhibition and in their guide map that some of the things on show were replicas or reconstructions.

But that's by the by.

What does everyone else think? Is this opinion of 'everything in a museum is real' as widespread as I think it might be? And should I be pleased or worried about it?

Back to Nature

I've been exploring the wildlife in and around the pond at the museum this evening with a group of Scouts, and it's reminded me of the profound impact that the natural world can have on everyone, kids and adults included.

I think that those of us who work in natural settings often take them for granted, and it's easy to forget that actually most people who live in towns never get the chance to be up close and personal with a water boatman or a pond snail. Newts are ten a penny to me, and though I do like them I'm never surprised to see one. For families from the city, though, even a duck is a foreign species to a lot of them, let alone a moorhen.

Kids always get rambunctious in the outdoors, especially when it's after hours and they're the only ones on site. But the focussing power of a tray full of water fleas and bloodworms was quite startlingly effective. Not even the draw of playing lightsabers with the fishing nets was greater than the total engrossment of staring at a damselfly nymph for the first time.

I guess it comes back to the fact that nine times out of ten the simplest things are the best. And a story about bloodsucking water worms probably didn't hurt, either.

Vinylmation

Hi everyone. Sorry for the extended silence; I've been out of the country for a while. Following a beautiful pre-Easter wedding, we enjoyed a lovely honeymoon out in Florida. I've come back with a mind buzzing full of ideas, which you can expect to see coming out in the blog here in dribs and drabs over the next few weeks.

A short post today to get me back into the swing of blog writing. Do you remember the Munnys that I talked about a while ago? Well, whilst in Florida we found that Disney have their own version of the Munny figure. The trend is called Vinylmation, and it's a Mickey Mouse blank canvass figure. They also sell a lot of pre-decorated versions, available in various designs of famous and more obscure Disney characters.

You can find out more about them here: http://vinylnation.net/ or by searching 'vinylmation' in Google.

Personally, I like the Star Wars ones...

And yes. I did buy a blank one to have a go myself. Results will be forthcoming, as long as I don't make too much of a mess of it!

If a museum falls over in a forest...

I didn't set out to write a political blog, and I still certainly don't intend to, but I couldn't help wanting to voice a few thoughts on the discussion that's going on all over the place at the moment about the lack of fuss people seem to be making over threats to heritage provision by recent cuts.

The #savelibraries campaign has been amazingly evocative and effective. Some fabulous examples spring to mind; the school children campaigning to save their local library, the nine year old who wrote directly to the head of the MLA, the Milton Keynes library emptied of books by local residents. Can anyone name a single news story about the public defending their local museum? I know I can't think of one.

I've heard a few opinions on why this is; most worryingly that we in museums don't engage our stakeholders as much or as well as libraries do. I'm not sure that's the entire story, and I think in fact that it might have more to do with the way that our stakeholders interact with us, compared to the way they do with libraries.

A library is a public service. You don't get private libraries that offer collections of subject specific books, not outside of universities anyway, and certainly not that the general public can borrow from. Libraries are funded from the tax payers' pockets. Libraries provide a free service to everyone, giving people access to all the media (books, CDs, DVDs, etc) that they want without having to pay for it, or paying significantly less than they would to buy it in the shops.

Museums can be public services too, but often they're not. For every local authority museum there are ten or more heritage sites and galleries that charge entrance, and are funded by their visitors and grants. They often have specific collections, rather than the general appeal that a public library has. Neither do they provide something for free that can be taken home; a museum's collections are not available to take out on a ticket, they exist purely within the confines of the museum's walls.

Museums and libraries are often equated because they both provide access to knowledge. But when you start to evaluate them on a deeper level, that's almost where the similarities stop. It's almost like trying to equate a theme park with a toy shop; they're both about fun, but no-one expects to be able to take the rollercoaster home with them, do they?

I'm heartened by the passion that has driven the #savelibraries campaign. I would like to think that there is some similar passion out there for museums too, but I think we're going to have to look for different ways to harness it if we really want it to make a difference.

A guide to trails

It came to my attention through the GEM email list that apparently there are a lot of people out there who want some advice, or maybe just examples of good practice, for writing trails for their venues. It also seemed that there was little training on the matter, and little out there to read about it.

This seems a great missed opportunity to me; are there any museums or natural sites or anything like that out there these days that don't have trails for children and/or adults?

I put together an awful lot of trails, and I've learnt a lot about them in the years I've been writing them. So, I thought I'd put together some free general advice about them, from my point of view. I'd also like to highlight some great examples that I've seen around and about, but I'll do that in some separate posts.

So, here goes. I hope it's helpful!

Trails: Some Hints and Tips

In no particular order...

Be clear about your aims
- Before you start writing anything, you should decide what you want to achieve with your trail. Are you trying to highlight certain items in your collection? Promote numeracy skills? Stimulate creativity? Teach people about the Victorians? You'll probably find that your trail manages to do more than one thing when you've finished, but it's important before you start anything that you know what one key thing you really want it to do.

Themes are fantastic
- No matter what you want your trail to do, coming up with ways to do it always seems easier if your trail has a theme. Sometimes, this might be governed by an event or exhibition that you have on at the time. Other times, you could pick a theme based on the time of the year (Christmas, Easter, Summer) or on something completely random (pirates, fairies, animals).

What media you will use?
-  Knowing how your final trail will be produced should influence your design. If it's going to be photocopied to be given out, then you don't really want it to be full of colourful pictures; they won't copy properly and it'll just look amateurish. Equally, if you're producing something that'll be professionally printed, you really want to make the most of colours and images. Think about size too; you'll need text to be readable, so if it's a small booklet that might limit the amount that you can write in it.

Think about your audience
- It's not enough to just say 'this is a trail for children'. Is it going to be done by one child at a time, or a family together? Is it going to be done by toddlers, or 5-7 year olds, or 12 year olds, or teenagers? Or all of the above? It's not just the content that you'll need to think of here, but also the presentation, and the tasks that you ask them to do. Very young children love to spot things and tick them off lists. Older children will quickly get bored of that, and probably need something a little more varied and goal-orientated to keep them interested.

How long will your trail be?
- Trails don't have to be long to be effective. Especially with younger children, four or five points might be enough for them to have had a good time, learnt something, and not yet got bored. Even with older children, nine or ten points is usually enough. Generally, the more you're asking visitors to do at each trail point, the less points you need on the trail. Think more about the overall time you're expecting visitors to spend on the trail.

Tasks and activities
- Spotting things and ticking them off and following clues from point to point doesn't have to be all there is to trails. Counting is a good step up from just noticing, and gets children to engage a little more deeply. You could ask questions about information on panels, or get children to draw pictures of things they see, either copying from real life or from their imagination. Multiple choice questions are always well received. Sometimes you can provide relevant activities, such as providing semaphore flags to have a go at sending a message with, or asking them to decode a message written in knots on a piece of string. Whatever your theme is, think creatively about associated tasks and activities for it.

How else can you engage your audience?
- It doesn't have to be all about the things you write on a sheet. There are some excellent 'explorer' trails I've seen where families get a whole bag full of exciting toys to play with. Use the binoculars to look at something, or the magnifying glass. Measure something with the ruler... and so on. But if you haven't got the budget for props, that doesn't mean you're limited to writing answers. Get visitors to touch things, to say what they can smell, or to close their eyes and listen.


I hope that's been a helpful overview! I'll pick out some good examples from places I've been and things I've done in other posts.

From the mouths of children: Chimneys

A very short post today. This little gem comes courtesy of one of our teaching staff.

Last week, during a teaching session at the museum, our teacher asked the class why they thought one of our buildings has two chimneys on it. Straight away, a little hand shot into the air.

"So that Santa can come down one of them!"

It's good to see what's important in a child's mind.

Munny munny munny

I found these cute little toys completely by accident, and immediately fell in love with them. They're billed as a creative toy for children and adults, and I have to say I can really see the attraction. It's called a Munny.

The idea is that you can colour with crayons, sharpies, marker pens, paint on them, stick things to them, carve into them... really, do whatever you like to them to create some rather awesome looking models.

There are some pretty amazing Munny's out there, which I daresay were adult creations, but the creative approach that they promote works no matter how old you are. They even do packs for schools. Who can argue with a slogan like "you can do anything you want!"?

Some favourites... yes, I'm showing off some of my geekiness here I know...

Little blank canvases of toys that promote creativity. Love it!

Ten things you can do with a piece of paper

I'm of the firm opinion that you can make pretty much anything out of paper, given enough time and rolls of sellotape. Over the years, we've tried to do just that at our events and activity days, always coming up with new uses for the scrap paper that would otherwise get thrown away.

Of course, the best thing about paper? It's recyclable! So once you're finished crafting, you can just pop into into the recycle bin.

So, I thought today I'd share ten things you can make with a piece of paper (or two or three). These are just some of the most fun or the most useful; I'd love to hear what papery creations other people have made!

Especially for today, I've even included some pictures of some of these papery crafts. I think they're all pretty self explanatory really, but if you want any making instructions for anything just drop me a line and I'll be happy to share!

1. A paper aeroplane

It doesn't matter how old you are, a paper aeroplane is always a winner. As you'll see from the picture here, we've made some pretty big paper aeroplanes, some just as large as the children we made them with! These uber-planes don't fly all that well, to be honest, but the kids absolutely love them anyway.

2. Hats

You can make pretty much any type of hat you like from a sheet or two of paper. The usual suspects for us include witch and wizard hats, pirate hats and princess hats, but the only limit is usually the child's imagination (which you'll know is pretty limit-less).

3. Masks
We've made masks on pretty much every theme you can think of. Animals, transport, and yes, aliens. The great thing about masks is that they're so simple, and yet you can spend hours and hours getting it just how you want it. When I say "you", let's pretend we mean the children and not the staff, ok?

4. Paper towers

These are great fun for a construction-based event, and best run as a team activity. I love how competitive parents and grandparents get when they're trying to see who can build the biggest tower.

5. Snowflakes

Great for winter or weather events, and they make fantastic Christmas decorations. The look on a child's face the very first time they see one opened up is priceless.

6. Musical instruments

We've made horns, wobble boards (thanks Rolf), shakers, drums, rainmakers and more from rolls and balls of paper. It's surprising how much extra noise children can make with a few sheets of paper, really.

7. Phoenix Feathers

Or indeed, any feathers at all. The phoenix himself is made of cardboard cut to shape and stuck together, then covered in toilet paper and spray painted red. He's a fantastic model, and over a year later he's still hanging in the store cupboard.

8. Secret message envelopes

These are great fun. We make them from greaseproof paper because it comes on a roll which is nice and convenient, but you could make them from normal paper too. A couple of folds in the right places and you have an envelope with a secret compartment! What could be better for a budding spy?

9. Models

Because paper is so fantastically easy to fold, you can make nets of pretty much any shape out of them. We built an entire village onto a hand-drawn paper map to demonstrate the ideas of town planning, including buildings which families made out of rectangles and triangular prisms. We had some remarkably inventive building designs; as well as the the mini museum you can see below we had houses, supermarkets, a school, a church and a cathedral.

10. A bin!

Yes, we've made bins out of paper before. These are excellent if you know you're doing a paper craft that has a lot of paper off cuts. Just make sure that you don't put any non-paper in the bin, and you can put the entire thing straight into the recycling when you're done. How's that for efficient?

Flat as a pancake

In honour of Pancake Day, I thought I'd share with you a couple of things that I've done over the years that didn't really go as planned. I'm a firm believer that any learning experience is a valuable one, just as any pancake tastes good even if it does end up a bit misshapen when you try and flip it in the frying pan.

Lesson #1: A boat isn't any fun unless you can race it (unless it's a pirate ship)

You've already read my experience with the coracles I'm sure, but that's not the only time we've had fun and games with boats. Last summer, we were making small bowl boats from polystyrene bowls as part of a transport event. I'd expected it to be really popular, and a good chance to talk about how wind on the sails makes the boat move. To my surprise, no-one seemed particularly interested. I'd got a little paddling pool out for them to try and float the boats on (so they could blow on the sails and move the ship) but the responses I got were very much of the "Are we going to race them? No? Oh. I won't bother then." type.

Eventually, I managed to persuade a little boy to have a go. He drew a big skull and crossbones on the flag, and was very proud of his little pirate ship. After that, I suddenly had a lot of requests to make 'pirate ships', and the small paddling pool (now one of the seven seas, of course) was immediately in great demand. Somehow, just by having that touch of fantasy, the same activity suddenly became a lot more attractive.

Lesson #2: Demand will sometimes be greater than supply

Conversely, sometimes you're a victim of your own success. You come up with an idea so fantastic that everyone wants to have a go. This can be a problem if the activity has limited resources, or is time dependant. Over the years I've gotten much better at predicting what the 'most-wanted' will be, but every now and then you'll still find something catches you out and proves to be madly more popular than you expected.

Most bizarre popular activity? A game called 'feed the ostrich' where you threw beanbags into buckets. I've still no idea why (I asked, but no-one seemed able to tell me why they liked it so much) but everyone wanted a go.



Have you got some flat-pancake-lessons you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!

What would you like to make?

Regardless of the event that we're running, I usually try and find the chance to ask children if there's anything else they'd like to make or do, aside from whatever we might be making and doing for the event already. I find this really useful, because there are definitely some trends that come out of this which I can use for event activity planning for the future.

In no particular order, I thought I'd share the top three things that kids tell me they'd like to make, and some of the reasons they give for wanting them. Some are funny, and some are downright adorable. I hope they'll all be useful in some way.

A sword

I said 'not in any particular order' but really this is what I get requests for more than anything else. As a consequence, I've developed a few different sword making methods that suit a variety of kid's ages and abilities, and the materials I've got at the time. My favourite involves cardboard, aluminium foil and a paper plate. If you want the 'recipe' let me know, I'm happy to share. Some of my favourite reasons for why they wanted a sword include; 'because I can't be a Knight without one!', 'I want to fight my sister' and 'because Johnny Depp has one'.

A hat

I've said it before, I know; kids love to wear what they've made. Usually, they're quite specific about the sort of hat they'd like, and it's not always relevant to the event going on. We've made a princess hat at a pirate event, and a crown at an animal event. In response to this, I've usually got a stack of paper bands on which they can stick anything they've made at most events. Instant hat, no planning required.

A bag

Something else that you can wear. My favourite reason for a child wanting a bag was 'well where else am I supposed to put my dinosaur?'. Quite.


And just for fun, here's a few other random things I've been asked for...
- "Can I make a mouse so it can go live in the windmill?"
- "I'd like to make the smallest elephant in the world."
- "Well if he gets a sword, I want a sheild. A really big one. Bigger than me. Please."
- "A catapult! So we can attack the castle." - this becomes less understandable when it was a Victorian event and you know that we have no castle at our museum...

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Do share if you've had any frequent or odd requests from any of your visitors!

A risky business

Risk assessments aren't exactly my friend, I'll be honest about that. More like the awkward relative who comes to every family function, and you can't not invite them, because everyone expects you to, though really you'd all be happier if they didn't come, because they're boring and suck all the fun out of everything.

Oh they're useful, I can't deny that. Anything that forces you to think critically about the risks involved in what you're planning can't be a totally negative thing. But I still don't like them very much, and I think that's probably because at least 10% of the ideas I come up with get scratched at the drawing-board stage because the idea of trying to mitigate them in a risk assessment seems like far too big a headache.

Yesterday, I was introduced to the idea of a risk benefit analysis. This sounds fascinating to me, and it's basically based on the idea that children need risk to develop effectively, and so activities should be assessed based on the potential positives and negatives of the risk. Where the positives outweight the negatives, it's actually ok to go ahead and run the activity, even if there is some small chance that something might go wrong.

This strikes me as a very logical and level headed approach, and there's a part of me wondering exactly why I never thought about it that way before.

In some ways, I guess we've been doing it to some extent already. I know when I run a pond dipping day that there is a remote chance that a child might fall in. They might catch some pond illness, they might even get seriously ill. In the most extreme circumstance, they could die. But we do our best to make sure that none of that happens; our pond isn't deep, we impress on the children the importance of not eating or drinking anything that comes out of the pond, we encourage them to wash their hands when they've finished, we have life saving equipment nearby and we always have lots of staff on hand ready and willing (though probably not pleased) to jump into the pond after any children that do fall in.

If risk is about teaching children what they shouldn't be doing, then really we should be using our risk assessments as a chance to tell the kids why they shouldn't be drinking the pondwater. Explain to the children what risk they're avoiding, so that they learn they shouldn't put any pond water into their mouths, not just the water from our pond. In effect, the risks can be a benefit to the children without being a hazard.

If you're interested in this idea of the benefits of risk, then I recommend you have a read of Tim Gill's 'Nothing Ventured'. It's based on activites in the outdoors, but it raises some interesting ideas that I think apply to anything we do.

Leading by example

This is another thought from the SLIME conference I was at a few weeks ago down at Brooklands Museum.

Someone mentioned there that they've found that people are a lot more likely to do something if someone has already done it. This makes sense to me; apart from the select few (I'm thinking budding Christopher Columbuses and so on), most people don't like to be the first to do something. Most people prefer to have someone else test the waters, be the guinea pig and smooth out all the potential creases before they get to having a go. Once they've seen that it's an achievable goal (and that they're not going to get hurt, or splashed with water, or humiliated, or whatever) then they'll find it a lot easier to pluck up the courage to have a go themselves.

I rely on this principle a lot. We always have examples of craft items around when we're doing a make-and-take activity, so that kids can better visualise the end result of their potential efforts. It works well in building their confidence before they even start, and often acts as a springboard for them to create bigger and better models than the ones we put out for show; they're very rarely just carbon copies.

What left me thinking though, was that this same person suggested that perhaps we should be telling visitors that others have already Boldy Gone before them even when actually, they haven't.

Now, this idea I'm not sure whether I like or not. If it builds confidence enough to have a go at something, is it right to say that it's been done before? Our models are made by myself and my staff usually, rather than other children. Is that a cheat, or is that fine as long as I'm honest about who has done the making? I'm fairly sure that I draw the line when this 'fake achievement' is no longer promoting a sense of creative confidence. If you're making up reviews of products to sell something, then I'm not in favour of that. Encourgaging people to fulfil their potential is one thing. Manipulating them out of money is another. But then, maybe that's why I'm in education and not advertising...

I'd be interested to hear other views about this, so do drop a line in the comments or through twitter if you've got a point of view for discussion.

Imagination Gap

Forget the generation gap. It's the imagination gap that's the real difference between children and adults.

This isn't a new thing. It's always been so; as we grow up, we all start to see things as they really are instead of what they might be. There's a good amount of logic to this, really; adults have a need to understand the true nature of things. It's why we have 'science' after all. But children, especially young children, haven't yet quite reached the 'age of not believing' as they say in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. And understanding that, and how we can use that to our advantage, is important in planning activities for kids in our museums, especially if you're working with a small budget.

Take a piece of paper and roll it into a cone shape. Chop off the two ends so you have a symmetrical cone shape. You might still see a paper cone, but to a child, that's a wizard's hat, or a magical horn of protection, or a princess hat, or a telescope... or a good deal more, I'm sure. I've seen children spend an hour decorating a paper tube to be a hat or a horn. They only do that because they really believe in it. Obviously, the child understands that it's really just a piece of rolled up paper, but they can believe that it's something else entirely, and that's really where the magic has happened.

That's not to say that children aren't discerning and will put up with any old tat, of course. Children will always be some of your harshest critics, in large part because just as they might not have learnt to be cynical, they haven't learnt to be tactful either. If a five year old thinks your event is boring, they'll say so. If a ten year old thinks your activity is lame, you can be sure that they'll let you know in no uncertain terms.

So it's a fine balancing act, between genius re-invention of materials and quite literally a pile of rubbish. If you're looking for inspiration, try browsing through the Blue Peter and Art Attack websites; they've got loads of good ideas. Don't be afraid to adapt what they've got to something that suits your materials, or time frame.

Most of all, don't be afraid to let the children be creative. Remember that cardboard box you had a child that you used to pretend was a rocket, or a pirate ship, or a house? The simpler the starting materials, often the more that children can get out of them. It might be that you planned to make coracles and you end up making hats, but that's fine. Embrace their imagination, whilst they've still got it.

Creative Chaos

No matter what we're making, never does an event go by without hearing at least one parent say "we love coming here... it's great not to have to tidy up afterwards!". This usually provokes a grin-and-bear-it sort of expression from my volunteers, who know very well that clearing up the mess the children are making will be how they're spending their first hour after all the visitors have gone home, and who can blame them? They're very good at not moaning to the visitors about it though; I've impressed upon them the importance of providing this mess-making facility to families.

If the comments of our visitors are anything to go by, then children are no longer allowed to make things, paint, or construct rocket ships out of old boxes and fairy liquid bottles at home these days. I'm sure that's not the case everywhere, but it certainly seems to be a large proportion of the population who have banned this creative chaos from their houses.

And that's exactly why I tell my volunteers that it's so important that they put up with tidying up after finger painting, or fabric dyeing, or junk modelling. These creative experiences are important in a child's development, and if parents can't or won't make room for them in their home lives, it's even more vital that we as museums and other family-activity-providing institutions make room for them in our programmes. For a start, we've probably got more space for children to make a mess in, and staff to clear it up, but it doesn't end there. Craft is often so much more creative when it's collaborative; there's something very heartwarming about seeing two families working together to build a castle out of old boxes, tubes and scraps of paper and fabric.

I'd like to think that sometimes we manage to show a parent that it's not as scary as all that; the idea of children with hands in paint sounds terrifying, but many kids are actually very particular about not getting paint down their new dress, thank you very much, especially as they get a bit older. For every child that up-ends the paint pot over their paper (and the table, and the staff) there is another who makes a beautiful picture, has a lovely time and assures their parents that they can do it without re-decorating the walls.

So the next time you're wondering whether the PVA glue and sand and poster paints were really a good idea as you're scraping them up off the floor, think how much good you've done for all the children who had a go, and whose parents might let them try again at home. It makes the scrubbing a little more worth it.

A coracle is not a hat

One thing that never ceases to amaze me, no matter how much I work with children, is that your best laid plans will always be cast to the four winds the moment you include children in the equation. Something that seemed perfectly simple and logical on paper suddenly isn't any more the moment that it's in the hands of a five year old.

This week, amongst all of the other crafts going on at the museum we're been making paper coracles. Each child was given the paper, cut up the strips themselves, was explained to about what a coracle was and what it is used for ("It's a boat. For sailing on the water in.") and then they were shown how to weave the strips together to make the coracle.

It was all going fine. Until one of the children put it on their head.

Now, a coracle isn't a hat. We told every child that it wasn't. But that didn't stop them all measuring the bands to fit their own heads and wearing them. Even the parents joined in, helping the children to modify the boats into headwear. As soon as one child had a cool hat, they all wanted one. So much for teaching children about traditional craft methods and boat building. Perhaps we should have been focusing on millinery instead.

It all goes to show, really, that at the end of the day a boat is exciting... but a hat is better. Apparently, craft is more exciting when you can wear it.

Half Term Fun

It's half term week in most of the country this week; some of you celebrated a week with the children at home last week, it's true, but for the majority it's this week where parent's midweek peace and quiet is shattered and many a mom or dad are looking for something to do with the kids.

It's always struck me as funny that as a child we look forward to half term week with great delight, probably due to the week without school and homework, and yet as we get older we lose that mid-term break that falls between the Summer and Christmas, or Christmas and Easter, or Easter and the Summer.

As a museum educator myself, I'm very used to planning half term events into the calendar. We spend more time on February half term than almost any other holiday, in fact, as parents are struggling to find a week's worth of activities to entertain their children with. And yet, I wonder as I do all this planning whether perhaps half term holidays are in fact a perfect opportunity for planning something that isn't family focussed at all.

Think about it. Christmas already feels like years ago, and it seems like there are months yet until the Easter holidays and bank holidays roll around. Couldn't we all do with a break, a chance to do something fun and different to break up the monotony of the coldest months?

I'd love to hear of anywhere that is running something this half term that isn't aimed at the under sixteens. An evening opening, maybe, or a special event. A sort of mid-term adults. An anti-work, remember-when-we-used-to-get-a-break-between-Christmas-and-Easter sort of thing.

Let me know if you find one, won't you?

Inspiration from SLIME - part one

I was fortunate enough to attend an excellent conference the week before last, run by Renaissance South East, all about their fantastic Green Slime project (Science Learning in Museum Education - isn't that a wonderfully evocative acronym?). There were some really wonderful projects being run by museums across the South East, and as a Midlander myself it was a refreshing change of scenery to hear about new projects going on a little further afield than my own back yard. The conference was held at Brooklands Museum, which was a rather exciting venue in its own right (at least, all the cars and planes and fire engines and so on appealed to me!) that I hope to return to in the future to have a better nose around than our short lunch break allowed.

It's my intention to talk a little about various exciting and inspirational things that I heard at the conference in more detail in separate posts, but for today I'm going to start with the overwhelming themes of the day.

As you'd expect from Green SLIME, the main overarching themes of the day were sustainability, promoting biodiversity and generally encouraging others to be more aware of the world in which we live. I was very impressed with the variety of ways that the SLIME partner museums had found to engage with the topic; from playground fauna and flora surveys to town planning, the work was a lot more varied than I'd imagined that it was going to be. But really the lessons that I found most compelling came from the ways in which the partner museums had engaged with their target audiences, moreso than the content of the projects themselves.

Words like "consultation" and "ownership" are thrown around a lot these days, and sadly they're often just token efforts to making people feel involved in the things that we do in our museums. Thankfully, I had my confidence restored that it doesn't always have to be that way; I was particularly inspired by a project at Tunbridge Wells Museum in Kent where a school group had been allowed to evaluate the marketing of a museum and actually make a real change to their strategy to make their practice more sustainable. The impact with the children involved was immense, all because they will see their ideas put into practice 'for real', not just as a part of some exercise. As far as showing that you value the opinions of your stakeholders goes, that's a pretty powerful message of trust and respect right there.

Welcome to Museum Neverland

Well hello there everyone! Welcome to my new blog.

I've called it 'Museum Neverland' not because of some tenuous link to Michael Jackson but rather in reference to Peter Pan's world where children never grow up. I work in museum education in the broadest sense, including everything from events and activities to outreach and schools work, and my interests are in mostly in to how to make museums more fun. I dislike boring, stuffy museums and I love those that give you something to think about, something to play with, and something to remember when you go home. Creating engaging learning experiences is definitely my aim.

I do a lot of work with and for children, but I'd like to think that the lessons we learn whilst planning child-friendly exhibitions don't have to stay solely in that 'family-friendly' section of a museum. Most adults like to play with the toys too, don't they?

So that's going to be the tone for the blog. Look out here for a gamut of exciting and inspiring things from the world of museums!