The art of sound and light at the Pitt Rivers Museum

Hopes and Fears from Pitt Rivers Museum on Vimeo.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is a great place to work if you enjoy rubbing shoulders with a vast range of creative people.  As an educator at the museum for quite a long time I have worked on some amazing and inspiring projects, but none simpler and more effective than working with sound and light artists Luxmuralis, and the whole project had a turnaround of six weeks.

I was approached by Fusion Arts in East Oxford and they suggested that they could apply for Arts Council funding for artists to project onto the front of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. At that point I didn’t realize quite how extensive their projections would be, but if you watch their short film you will get a pretty good idea. The forty minute long film was looped for the evening and the projections ran at the same time as one of our late night openings, Hopes and Fears.

1,400 people attended the event to experience talks, debates and live music in the museum while Luxmuralis did their magic on the outside of the building, mixing museum images, film and field recordings into an explosion of sound and light. The following week they took the film around town as a series of ‘guerilla’ projections.

Andy McLellan
Head of Education

Teacher Training at the University Museums

The University Museums hosted a training day on 21st January for over 80 trainee teachers as part of The Cherwell OTSA SCITT scheme. The Primary and Secondary School teachers were welcomed by Tom Hilton, the Salaried School Direct Programme Leader and Cherwell History teacher, who introduced the focus of the day - how we can learn from objects.  As Jo Rice, Head of Education at The Ashmolean explained, some people might refer to it as 'material culture', 'artefacts', or 'objects', but at the end of the day Museums have 'stuff' and it is how we use that stuff to stimulate and enrich learning that is so exciting.

Practical activity started in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History as teachers took part in an object icebreaker which was like a speed dating event!  Museum Education Officers wowed and wooed teachers with objects from their collections, showcasing how objects can be used to stimulate questioning and analytical skills.  As teachers moved round handling stations they handled a diverse range of objects from Chinese tea bricks used as currency to fossilised dinosaur poo.

Teachers visited three different venues, experiencing sessions that might be delivered to their chosen age groups at the Natural History Museum, the Pitt Rivers and The Ashmolean. They also visited the Museum of the History of Science.

Secondary School teachers investigate objects at the Pitt Rivers © Pitt Rivers Museum

Primary School teachers ask questions at the Pitt Rivers © Pitt Rivers Museum

There was much practical discussion about how activities could be transferred to the classroom.  As the Primary School Education Officer at the Pitt Rivers Museum, I ran a 'History Detective' session which encourages participants to read objects as they piece together the identity of a mystery person from looking at their objects.  We talked about how in a classroom setting a container of objects could be used to dramatise topic work and encourage enquiry skills. At The Ashmolean primary and secondary teachers were shown creative ways to engage with paintings.

Exploring Objects in the History Detective Session © Pitt Rivers Museum

It was an exciting and positive experience, and as one teacher wrote in an e-mail to Tom that evening:

"Completely pooped with loads still to do this evening - including prepping for another lesson observation tomorrow and feeding my hungry children!  Just had to take a moment however to say what a totally fantastic day I've had today. Hugely valuable experience.

Museum team were just brilliant with heaps of practical tips not just for visits but lovely creative learning opportunities that could be transferred to the classroom.  Brain is buzzing and (physical exhaustion aside) feeling quite re-energised".

If you are interested in organising a teacher training event at the Pitt Rivers Museum, please contact: education@prm.ox.ac.uk

Becca McVean

Primary School Education Officer

Making Museums Project

Our Education Intern describes her involvement in our Clore Award for Museum Learning winning project Making Museums:

"It has been an incredible two months being part of the Making Museums project with both the Pitt Rivers and Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUM) education teams. My main aim from my traineeship was to be involved in more delivery of sessions - and I can safely say I have certainly achieved that with this project! As Making Museums is a partnership between both museums and eleven local schools in Blackbird Leys, Cowley, Littlemore, Rose Hill, Barton, Wood Farm and Headington, we taught almost 500 Year 6 students.

During the first month Aisling (the OUM Education Intern) and I were overseeing the delivery of sessions within the schools. Here the children discussed ‘what is a museum’ and what are the roles of people who work there. They also had an opportunity to explore real museum objects to discover what they were made of and what they were. They would use their senses to explore each object (but not taste!) and would ask questions to help further their discovery.

The next step was for the children to come to the museums and follow the journey of an object on its way through a museum.  Firstly the children would reflect on what they did when we came out to their school and would warm up their object investigation skills with a ‘what is it’ game. Here they would be presented with objects and would be given three options; they would need to decide on what the objects were by using their senses.

After a discussion about how we find objects in museums there was the big reveal that they would in fact be archaeologists for the day!  We then took the groups of very excited children to their own archaeological dig. It would be their job to dig carefully and as a team to discover what was underneath! 



The Dig! © Pitt Rivers Museum

This part would often be quite frantic, often stopping to remind the children to dig carefully. Once finished we discovered the skeleton of a human body and around it were some real museum objects. It was really interesting to hear how the children were already coming up with suggestions about who the person might be from their observations.

Mapping the Dig © Pitt Rivers Museum

The next step was to map the dig and then to document specific objects.  We explained how objects need to be recorded when received at a museum so we can see their condition and record any damage.  It was then time to go behind the scenes to see real museum professionals in their work environments.  Here they would learn the importance of conserving objects.

Researching Artefacts © Pitt Rivers Museum

Children then researched their chosen objects in the Museum.  Finally we gathered back to reconstruct the dig and hear what everyone had found out about their objects.  In this way a picture was built up of who this person might have been: Where did they come from?  What did they do for a living?  And how did they die? We had some very imaginative ideas.





Sweet Tasting at St Andrews© Pitt Rivers Museum

The final part of the project entailed the children going back to their schools and making their own museums.  We really enjoyed going to visit their class museums and seeing how they engaged their visitors.  One group had researched different sweets and you can see me here doing a blind taste tasting of their favourite sweets.  This was a very popular display!

I think I can say for both myself and Aisling that we have thoroughly enjoyed delivering the project and have a great sense of achievement from all we have done."  

Hannah Eastwood
HLF Skills for the Future Trainee