Using Museums as an Educational Resource

An Introductory Handbook for Students and Teachers

Graeme K. Talboys

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781409401452
• eBook ISBN: 9781317003038
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Museum Studies

Visits to museums have long been an important aspect of the education of young people and in recent years it has been increasingly recognised that education is core to the purpose of the museum. Not only do they introduce students to the many and varied forms of our material culture, they also introduce them to social, historical and scientific encounters that are difficult to find elsewhere. The second edition of this popular book takes account of the ongoing changes in both museums and education to provide a comprehensive introduction for student teachers, practising teachers and other educators to all that is required to make good educational use of museums. It explores what a museum is, their value in primary and secondary education and why they require special teaching skills. It then goes on to look at the practicalities of planning, preparing and conducting a visit, including risk assessment. Next, it introduces the basic skills involved in working with the resources that are required to make the best educational use of museums, including online and digital resources. Finally, the author considers ways of following-up work done outside the classroom, including some of the longer term strategies that teachers should consider.

PART I

FIRST PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS A MUSEUM?

Before we look at the intricacies involved in planning, preparing, carrying out and following up a visit, we need to come to some understanding about what a museum is. Definitions are many and have proliferated over the years. They are, unsurprisingly, similar; differing in ways that reflect the perspective of those making them. In essence, however, a definition will be composed of two interrelated parts. The first will be a description of what a museum is in terms of physical presence; the second is concerned with the purpose.

To add to the complexity of the issue, terminology has also changed. Words go in and out of fashion, depending on cultural and political trends and pressures. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it requires each generation to re-examine that which they seek to redefine.

In the UK, for example, a large source of funding for museums is the Heritage Lottery Fund. They have a definition of what they mean by ‘heritage’ and applications for money invariably point up those aspects of a project and make liberal use of the word ‘heritage’. Although by no means new, it is a term that is fast becoming ubiquitous. Heritage sites, heritage centres, heritage landscapes, heritage trails, heritage education…all abound. Heritage is a useful blanket term, although there are those who feel that overuse has devalued its worth as a descriptor.

It is important, therefore, that we pin down what we mean, looking for what exists beneath the terminology of the day. But this is not just an exercise in pedantry. There are three very good reasons for having a definition. To begin with, as hinted above, it is important that you are aware of what is meant every time the word ‘museum’ is used in this text. Without that clarity, further discussion could well become confusing. After all, your idea of what a museum consists of may not be congruent with that used herein or, at the very least, you may not have formed a clear idea of your own and be in the dark about what is meant. Secondly, the discussion of definition necessarily stimulates wider discussion about museums. It is all too easy to use museums for teaching without ever considering their wider role in society. And, although it is beyond the remit of this book to consider this question in depth, it is nonetheless important when thinking about one aspect of what museums are (that is, places of learning for school pupils), to know of, or at least to have considered, some of the other aspects. Thirdly, to rehearse these arguments now is to give your petitions an extra dimension when convincing your colleagues, your head of department, your school head or your governing body that visits to museums are well worth all the costs involved.

To start us on the road to a definition, I would like you to try a simple exercise. Divide a sheet of paper into two with a vertical line. Head one of the resulting columns A and the other B. All I want you to do now is make two lists. To begin with, write down in column A the names of all the museums you can think of – that is, ones you have visited, ones that friends have told you about, ones you have learned of through the media and so on. While you are writing this list, you can be compiling your second list in column B. This should contain only those museums that you have actually visited no matter when or for whatever reason that might have been.

You will have noticed, in compiling your lists, that column B is, of necessity, shorter than column A. You may also have noticed that this was not quite the simple exercise I claimed it to be.

There may well have been institutions that you wanted to include but did not because, on reflection, you felt they were not actually museums. Did you, perhaps, feel the need for a separate column in which to place art galleries? Is an art gallery within a museum something in its own right or is it simply part of the museum? And were there some institutions about which you could not make a decision? For example, have you ever been to a site of archaeological interest in a remote field with minimal interpretation available only in the nearest town several miles away? And what about reconstructions where so little of the original remains that all that can be offered is a hi-tech ride through a replica peopled by the latest in animatronics? Or, at the other end of the scale, low-tech replicas using only those materials, tools and skills available at the time erected on original sites and populated by actors who play out the lives of those who would have lived there? And what about the vast sacred landscapes created in times so distant there is little or no psychological continuity between those who laboured to form them and ourselves? Or the foundations of an historically important building? What about a working farm or industry using pre-war methods, running as a commercial concern, that is also open to the public?

Which of these is a museum and how do we decide?

It is because of these uncertainties that we need to establish, if we are to get any further, a working definition to which we can refer and which will provide a framework upon which to build. But such a working definition will not be arrived at easily.

Let us start on safe ground. Let us start with something we definitely know to be a museum – the British Museum. The British Museum is a large building within which there are many galleries, rooms and corridors in which are displayed many collections of artefacts – artefacts large, artefacts small, artefacts foreign, artefacts domestic, artefacts prehistoric and artefacts which fall within living memory. There are also shops, places to get refreshment, guide books, attendants in uniforms – in fact, all the things you would expect of a museum.

But that is not all. There are many parts of the British Museum that the public never or rarely see. Within the building there are storerooms, workshops, offices, staffrooms and many people whose task it is to ensure the place runs smoothly – from Director to cleaner. And it does not stop there because the British Museum extends beyond the building in Great Russell Street. It has outposts where some reserve collections are held, it has outposts where other collections are displayed, it has staff working up and down the country, it is consulted by people outside the organisation, it is a tourist attraction that contributes a great deal to the local and national economy, and it is an educational establishment.

Furthermore, the British Museum has not always been as it is now. It was conceived, designed, built and has continued to grow and develop. It has its own history, one that is so interesting it could well provide sufficient material for a small museum all of its own.

But which of these things makes it a museum? Could we dispense with any of them and still call it a museum? Are there other essential functions that need to be considered but which are not to be found at the British Museum? Already the task of producing a definition is becoming complicated. After all, many of the functions mentioned above are not unique to museums. Conversely, some institutions that are recognised as being museums do not fulfil all of these functions.

Despite the many questions posed so far to which we have yet to provide an answer, we do at least have the first element of a definition. The clue to this is in the fact that, in common with the British Museum, all museums exist in four dimensions. That is, they all have a history. And just as a museum must have physical coherence to exist in space it must have conceptual and organisational coherence to exist in time. Nothing, however, can continue its existence without changing. So, if the existence is to remain coherent then the change must be coherent. Therefore, the one element that applies to any and all museums, even though we have yet to reach any conclusions about a definition, is that they are organic – organised structures that, through time, grow, develop and, due to ‘environmental pressures’, evolve. This is not unique to museums but it is something they all are and it must, therefore, be included in any definition.

It will be apparent from the limited discussion so far that museums, by their very nature, require a definition that is prescriptive. That is, it will need to be a definition that recognises long standing custom, one that suggests a museum should be a certain type of institute with a distinctive combination of characteristic qualities because that is what they have always been, but which also recognises that evolution has played its part and should be part of the definition. Any definition that is proscriptive, that is, a definition that inhibits inclusion or evolution by laying down strict laws derived without preferential reference to custom, will simply be inadequate.

We must, however, be careful with prescriptive definitions, especially if we are not conversant with the complexities of that which we are trying to define. In our thinking about things with which we are not overly familiar we often fall into the error of accepting stereotypes at face value. It is easy enough to do. And this is just as true of museums as it is of anything else.

Stereotypes derive from lack of knowledge and understanding. This can be illustrated by the fact that when I first started working in museums people used to ask me, ‘What do you find to do all day?’ Such a question derives from a lack of understanding about what museums are and what they are there for, other than a vague notion that they are repositories of old things the public can go and look at.

Similarly, most people’s image of a museum, even now, is of a late-nineteenth century building with large dark rooms, squeaky polished floors, a hushed atmosphere and glass-fronted cases containing objects. Despite the fact that museums increasingly no longer fit that description, it is still a popular image – particularly carried by adults from their childhood experience of museums. It is an image that must be dispensed with because it acts as a barrier. Even with my own experience of working in museums it is an image that is tucked away in my mind – probably because of the long childhood hours I spent in museums of that type.

It is important, however, to get beyond that stereotypical notion because the physical structure is not, of itself, the museum any more than the physical structure is, of itself, the church or the school. Admittedly the physical structure has a bearing on the thing (whatever it might be), but the essence of the thing is the reason behind the structure being there or being used in the way it now is. This applies even when the subject of the museum is the building that houses it.

Much better then, to consider what a museum is from the point of view of the purpose of the place; and if we do that it quickly becomes clear that the physical structure and the image of it we might carry can be quite superfluous. What we need is an idea about what it is that makes a museum recognisably distinct from other forms of institution. After all, much has changed in the museum world in recent times. Open air sites have become popular as have industrial archaeology, maritime museums, mining museums and so on. It often seems that any old closed down factory, warehouse or industrial site can become a museum.

All of these new institutions have come under the aegis of the museum world, reflecting the desire of our society to preserve some memory of those aspects of our daily life (no matter how grim) that are passing away. Such new entries to the fold have provoked arguments about just what museums are and how they should face up to the challenges presented by an aggressively competitive world that is so economically, socially and politically different from the early days of the founding of the great national museums and their provincial counterparts.

As with many other institutions (like schools and churches), museums do not have a single function. Rather, they consist in a set of closely related functions that derive from a core purpose. That core purpose, of course, relates to the definition we are seeking. If, however, we can identify and clarify the individual functions within the set we will have taken a step closer to that definition.

So, what purposes are served by museums? Or, to put it another way, what jobs take place within them? Some of the answers may seem obvious, but there are others that may not. Each of them is worth considering in their own right.

• Collecting: Finance permitting, museums actively collect artefacts that fall within the remit of their collecting policies. There are many sources for objects from the open market to donations and bequests. Some museums have wider collecting policies than others. A national museum will collect across a broad range. A museum in a house that was the residence of a famous person will only be interested in artefacts to do with that person (and then, perhaps, only from the period in which they lived there).

• Care of the collection: Once an artefact is in a museum it must be cared for. Whether it goes into a reserve collection or is on display, its environment must be carefully controlled to mitigate the effects of the atmosphere, temperature, humidity, light and so on.

• Conservation: Some artefacts need more than simple care. They are, perhaps, so badly damaged or decayed they need active conservation to prevent further deterioration and to make them secure for storage or presentable for display.

• Preservation and storage: Museums are repositories of artefacts, many of which are never displayed. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that many artefacts are not very interesting to look at. Nonetheless they are still important enough to be preserved for study. Most museums have much more in their reserve collections than is on display in public galleries.

• Research: Finding out about artefacts is also of importance. They are, after all, collected partly with the intention of improving understanding about them and their history. But research also takes place into better forms of management, presentation, preservation, conservation, interpretation and education.

• Display of artefacts: Museums are for the public, so artefacts have to be displayed in ways that allow best access to the artefact consistent with its safety, care and conservation. Curatorial and educational decisions have to be made about what should be displayed along with conservation and artistic decisions about how the artefact should be displayed.

• Interpretation: When artefacts are displayed there has to be some degree of interpretation so that visitors can make sense of what they see. Even if there is no obvious interpretation, the artefacts exist in a context that affects the way they are viewed. No form of interpretation is neutral and decisions have to be made about what a display is intended to convey.

• Public access: There is much more to this than just opening the doors. Revenue has to be balanced against costs such as heating, lighting, environmental control, wear and tear and so on. Other factors such as security and visitor flow need to be considered along with providing facilities such as toilets, refreshments and interpretation.

• Education: Museums are educational resources of great importance for pupils and students at all levels of study, and not just for the most obvious reasons. Learning and education are inherent in their very existence.

• Social function: Museums are part of the community in which they exist even if they are not museums relating specifically or solely to that locale. They may well have regular visitors, friends’ organisations and so on as well as offering a secular opportunity for solace and contemplation.

• Economic function: Not only are museums employers, they attract visitors to the area in which they are situated, generating income for themselves and their locale.

• Custodianship of heritage: There is an active role that museums can play beyond their own four walls in that, having the expertise, they can help in making decisions about what is worth preserving and how to go about it. They also have a role as protectors, lobbying when others fail to do so.

• Administration: All of the above has to be administered. Catalogues have to be made and kept up to date, information has to be processed, research has to be published, materials have to be produced for visitors, staff have to be paid and trained and so on.

That is part of what museums find to do all day. Of course, the above list is the product of contemporary thinking. Our concerns are not those of our forebears. We are much concerned (some would say obsessed) with preserving the past and recording our own times in the minutest detail for posterity. Actually working to produce a viable future in which our passion for preservation can be appreciated seems, at times, to have a much lower priority.

It has only been since the late eighteenth century that the word museum has come to mean a place that fulfils some of the functions listed above. And herein lies one of the problems that beset anyone trying to produce a definition. We have already identified that over time museums have evolved – some of them in seemingly unrecognisable ways. Yet they are essentially the same. The greatest change would seem to have taken place in our attitude towards them.

The original meaning of the word museum was ‘a place of contemplation, a philosophical institution, or a temple of the Muses’. As we have come to know them, museums are a way of satisfying our curiosity about other times and other places. They are a method of communication, transmitting from one generation to the next that which is considered of importance to the culture in which the museum exists. This is not necessarily a narrow, xenophobic aim, for many museums contain items from cultures other than the one in which they exist. While this can, in a number of cases, be contentious (especially with regard to objects of religious and spiritual significance to the culture from which they were removed), it does express a desire to understand cultures other than one’s own.

There are, of course, many ways of communicating from one generation to the next. Many cultures had, and some still retain, strong oral traditions and through this medium have, for many centuries, passed on those parts of their culture thought important enough to need to survive mere human existence. Hence a museum was originally a place of contemplation or philosophical discussion because not even concepts worthy of preservation remain unchanged. They have to adapt if they are to survive.

Oral traditions were and are to be found in cultures that do not set much store by material possessions or which do not possess the means to manufacture on a large scale. Where concepts hav...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I First Principles
• Part II Preparatory Strategies
• Part III Using the Resource
• Part IV Following-Through
• Bibliography
• Index