MA Student in Museums and Galleries in Education placed at the Pitt Rivers

I am an MA student from UCL learning about Museums and Galleries in Education.  As part of our course we have to do a placement at a museum, gallery or heritage site, and I have been quite incredibly fortunate in being able to do mine here at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Hattie Kimberley in the Museum © Pitt Rivers Museum

Not only has everyone working in the Education Department been welcoming and friendly, they have also been more than ready to share their expertise.  Becca McVean, Primary School Education Officer, has been particularly generous with her time, working out a timetable for me and allowing me to watch various presentations from Extreme Environments to History Detectives, and Aboriginal Art to Take One Tahitian MournersCostume.  Andy McLellan, the Head of Education, has offered a great deal of welcome practical advice.  

Andy McLellan © Pitt Rivers Museum

I have helped Katherine Rose with Adult Handling Sessions, Beth McDougall with the VERVE-funded Langtree Amulet Project, and Carly Smith-Huggins with Under 5 events themed on Hats and Feathers, and half-term Family Activities based on the Haida totem pole.  I have also shadowed some of the museum’s inspirational learning volunteers as they guided children round various themed trails.  All participants, whether child, teenager or adult, have been both engaged and entertained, listening to presentations and learning more when exploring the museum independently.

Katherine Rose © Pitt Rivers Museum

A fascinating opportunity arose when I was asked to assist Nicola Bird with a Sensing Culture tour for blind and partially sighted visitors.  This involved guiding visitors round the museum, describing what was in the cases, followed by a handling session based on what we had just discussed.  I was then able to attend a day’s workshop on how to develop museum learning sessions for the blind and partially sighted – it is much harder than one would think to describe something to someone without using ‘sight’ vocabulary, and to be constantly spatially aware on someone else’s behalf.

Haida Rattle © Pitt Rivers Museum

The Education Department’s handling collection is nearly as exciting as the contents of the museum itself.  Each time I walk into the office another strange and wonderful object is sitting on the table waiting to be used in a session.  The whole office is looking particularly organised just now following the sterling work of Rachael Utting who has been cataloguing the entire education collection and storing all the objects in carefully labelled boxes so that when someone needs to lay their hands on an African shield, a headrest, a flywhisk, a fish trap or a Naga spear, it can be done in an instant!

Cataloguing Handling Objects! © Pitt Rivers Museum

I will miss my newfound friends and colleagues very much when I return to London, not to mention my lunchtime strolls round the streets and alleyways of Oxford.  I have been so impressed by this department’s professionalism, dedication and commitment to learning for all – the museum is lucky to have them!  I know that my time here has been a really positive addition to my MA learning, and I very much hope to put much of what I have learned into practice in the near future.  Thank you everyone!

Hattie Kimberley
MA Student in Museums and Galleries in Education, UCL

Family tour guide training: Summer holiday tours

This month we have been busy training up a group of Museum volunteers to become Family Tour Guides at the Museum. Five volunteers will be running a set of tours, designed especially for families, on Fridays during the summer holidays. This is a pilot project and we are hoping these summer tours are popular so that they continue as a regular weekend offer for families visiting the Pitt Rivers Museum.

To prepare the volunteers to guide families through the Museum and tell them more about the fascinating stories behind the objects, myself and Caroline Moreau from the Volunteers Service ran an interesting, and hopefully not too challenging, training session! During the session the volunteers took part in various activities including charades and asking lots of questions about Museum objects. During charades volunteers were asked to act out a museum object, trying to get the others to guess which Pitt Rivers Museum object they were. This included what the object was, what it was made from, and where in the world it was from.

Volunteers playing Museum Object Charades © Pitt Rivers Museum

Volunteers were also given mystery objects and were asked to write down as many questions that they could possibly ask about the object. It helped that they had no idea what the object was so would ask the most basic questions that perhaps visitors who may never have seen it might ask. This helps the volunteers to understand viewing an object from a visitors point of view. 

Volunteers asking lots of questions about a mystery object © Pitt Rivers Museum

Volunteers were also asked to lead each other around the Museum whilst one of them either partially closed their eyes or looked at the floor. The point if this exercise was to encourage the volunteers to think about how they might guide families around the Museum using just their words. This included guiding people around the physical space and also considering how to describe an object to a large group of people where some people might not be able to see the object on display.

Leading the way: One volunteer leads the other around the Museum
 © Pitt Rivers Museum

During the tours, volunteers will lead families around the Museum to look at five objects from around the world. Families will get the opportunity to see some of our lesser known objects and be able to ask the volunteers lots of questions about them. At the moment, they are working hard, reading up about all the objects and getting ready for the tours which start on Friday 29th July. Come along this summer to meet our great Family Tour Guides.

Carly Smith-Huggins
Families Education Officer 

Explaining a bit more about the five tour objects to the volunteers © Pitt Rivers Museum