Developing Discover
Discover, a hands-on centre for children in Stratford, East London, has involved children in its development from the start. It has a well-established Children’s Forum which plays a central role in shaping the Centre. Discover also ran creative ‘exhibition workshops’ with groups of local children to develop ideas for the contents of the Centre. For example, artists worked with four play groups to develop ideas for a role-play area and a sculptor worked with children from nearby schools to design the outdoor Discover Story Garden. See www.discover.org.uk.
Who Lives in the Woods?
A summer holiday project in the Scottish Borders, ’Who Lives in the Woods?’ empowered children aged 8 to 12 to build a story trail in a local community woodland. Inspired by stories of real and mythological woodland creatures, and by exploration of the woods themselves, the children created dwellings for actual and imaginary inhabitants. The children took the creative lead throughout the project. They were not accustomed to following their imaginations to this extent and often didn’t believe that their fantastic ideas could be translated into concrete reality: “We couldn’t really do that, could we?”. The project team worked hard to provide the children with encouragement, new skills and the necessary equipment and materials so that their unfettered creativity could be turned into concrete reality.
Local lives at the Livesey
The Livesey Museum for Children in Peckham, South London, is a free hands-on museum which is very much part of its local community, providing a home from home for local children who drop in on their way back from school. It runs weekly Sure Start sessions for families from local estates with activities relating to the current exhibition and an opportunity for parents to talk with the Sure Start midwife in a relaxed, fun atmosphere. See www.liveseymuseum.org.uk.
An expectation of community
Art in the Park, based at Burgess Park in South London, aims to give young children a sense of ownership of the park, and to encourage their participation in the life of the park. Art in the Park workshops can resemble a pantomime or a village fete, and are seen as a practice for the world outside, an ’expectation of community’. Through playful, creative activities in the park, children begin to see their community as productive and busy, and in turn become very active: collecting things, making their own nests and environments, and adventuring out together over the park land. See www.artinthepark.co.uk.
Rollercoasters creating choice
Rollercoasters, a play service for children with disabilities in Camden, North London, provides multi-sensory learning opportunities including ’interactive stories’: children can experience ’We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by wading across a river (made of crinkly paper, or even a water sprinkler) and encountering the bear in its cave (by crawling into a large tent). An underpinning principle of the service is that children have the right to be involved in planning their own activities, despite the fact that most of the children cannot speak. For example, children can indicate their choices through attaching velcro symbols to a board showing different options. See www.camden.gov.uk/play.
Snowy’s Journey of Discovery
A polar bear is at the heart of provision for families at Sheffield’s Weston Park Museum. Local children named the bear Snowy and came up with the idea of a fantasy world in which Snowy and a group of animal friends guide families on a playful voyage of discovery and imagination through the Museum – there are five family trails to explore, including ‘Find Snowy and her Friends’, ‘Opposites Attract’ and ‘What’s Bugging You’. Other playful learning opportunities including dressing up, the crawl through tunnel under a reconstruction of a 300-year-old oak tree and interactive computer points. See www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk.
The Touring Mackintosh Tearoom
Inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, primary school children on the west coast of Scotland created their very own life-sized tearooms. A touring tearoom set, developed by The Lighthouse (Scotland’s Centre for Architecture, Design and the City in Glasgow), visited the four schools and the children learned about the work of this famous Scottish artist, designer and architect. The children then designed and made cardboard furniture, paper stained glass windows, lampshades, cutlery, crockery, menus and so on. Local people were invited to a tea party for the grand opening of each tearoom. The children often surprised themselves, their teachers and the local community with the quality of their creations. This led to high levels of motivation. Some of them were inspired to do more research into Mackintosh on the internet, and to make ’Mockintosh’ items at home. The project even encouraged some children to see themselves as future artists. See www.thelighthouse.co.uk.
Exploring Hackney
The Building Exploratory in Hackney, East London, aims to give local children an understanding of their built environment, empowering them to participate in decisions affecting their local area. A popular feature is a 10 foot tall model of a tower block which has now been demolished. Looking through the windows, visitors can see scale photographs of the people who used to live there. Many of the exhibits have been created by children and other local people; for example, Hackney residents of all ages have contributed models of tower blocks, shops, churches and so on for a giant 3D map of the borough – often with quirky personal touches. See
www.buildingexploratory.org.uk.
