The Big Bang is a "A celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people in the UK" There were a large number of high profile exhibitors and I harvested their ideas while Phillip and Sean entertained themselves (mostly eating subway by the sounds of it) I will just write up the highlights of what was most relevant to us here. Operating Theatre Live
This was probably the most 'Thackray' of the exhibits.
There were 4 low tables set up at the front of their stand, two with a bissected head and brain to the side and two with a full digestive system. They were at child level with no barriers and they smelt really ripe (i was there at the end of the last day of the show). There were a couple of signs telling people to wash hands before eating, but nothing to stop people poking, licking or putting a bit in their pocket. There were staff there, but each table wasn't manned or monitored constantly. There were also NO signs saying what animal the organs were from - It was almost willingly allowing visitors to assume it was human. (not the head obviously - which is pictured below!)
Behind these tables was a replica operating theatre with several fake bodies (a bit like full body versions of Renaldo), with holes and animal organs inside. At set times, kids could put on gloves and aprons and take part in an 'operation'.
It was incredibly immersive and used shock to good effect, but personally, I felt like the theatre of it devalued the learning a little bit. I don't know if I'm being a snob, but I would prefer to see a serious dissection where it is made clear that the organ comes from an animal and where the leaders are less like actors and talk to families more on the level.
They were getting an amazing response from visitors though, so I think I'm talking about personal preference here.
NHS Careers Stand
This was amazing. It was sort of opposite to the operating theatre as it was quite dry, and you had to work a bit at engaging with the staff there, but they were so knowledgable and with a bit of digging they gave me some really fascinating information.
They were also near the Institute For Physics in Medicine people who were great too. They had..
One of those things for looking in your ear linked up to a big screen so you could see inside your ear
a model fetus-in-tummy and ultrasound so you could do a scan and find out how the machine works
an ambulance to look inside!!
British Psychological Society
This was also ace!
They had an experiment where you tried on different types of glasses that messed with your vision and then got you to try and draw within the lines of shapes.
There was one brain trick which made you feel like your finger was being stretched, and one that made you feel like you had 6 fingers.
It was all better than I've made it sound here and I'm looking into getting some of the glasses.
Steps to developing autism friendly cultural venues
Find out more about autism and how different cultural venues have developed programmes and projects to encourage and support visitors with autism to their venues.
The day will include an introduction to the work of the National Autistic Society, and case studies from venues such as Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery, the Royal Air Force Museum, 42nd Street and an opportunity for networking and sharing best practice.
I have read a lot about ASD lately, as well as organising some in house training, so I wasn't sure whether this would offer anything new, but oh-my-god it was brilliant!
First was an introduction from a representative from NAS (National Autistic Society) about their (currently in redevelopment) Autism Access Award. I had already read about this award and have been aware that lots of the things we have been doing regarding ASD access lately are ticking a lot of boxes for this award.
She also spoke about our responsibility to ensure accessibility, referring to legislation around making REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS. She urged people to remember that this relates to hidden disabilities as well as obvious physical ones.
She was very enthusiastic about the way that museums have started making efforts to be inclusive and welcoming to ASD visitors. Her job involves signposting clients to the support they are entitled to and in this time of austerity she has less and less to offer those people who need some help. To be able to offer a positive thing, something uplifting is more important than we might realise.
Lorna Downer & Nadia Peters : What Is Autism?
Lorna Downer : Autism For The Arts
Nadia Peters : Autism For The Arts
Nadia and Lorna are from an organisation called Autism For The Arts. Nadia is an artist with a background in social work and Lorna is a fashion designer with an autistic son, Shiloh. They both had a wealth of experience and it was a privilege to hear them both speak.
They talked about how many autistic people are visual learners. This makes museums ideally placed, as much of our learning happens through looking and interacting with objects.
Autistic people are also very creative. This is, in part, a result of the lives they have led. For them, many of the things you might do without thinking are problems that have to be solved creatively.
In the consulting they did for Manchester Museum, they conducted some research. They heard back from parents of autistic children that they do not go to museums and the reasons they gave were things like 'my child is noisy' and 'my child jumps around a lot'. Nadia found it sad that parents were seeing their children as the problem rather than the museums. She said that a wheel chair user would not say they didn't visit because of their wheelchair, they would say the reason was that the museum had no lift. It is the same with autism, the issues come from the environment at least as much as from the individual, so we must be as serious about adapting for them as we are about making sure we have a lift.
What Is Autism?
"A neuro-developmental difference. A lifelong condition"
It is a spectrum including Asperger's Syndrome, PDD, PDDNOS, Atypical Autism and Semantic Pragmatic Disorder. It is estimated that 1 in 100 people in the UK have some kind of ASD. That is 700,000 people in this country. (That's a lot of museum tickets by the way!)
It is traditionally thought that more boys than girls are on the spectrum, but current thinking is that this is probably not the case. It may just be that girls are better at 'passing', or disguising their difficulties. There may be cultural reasons, perhaps our society is more accepting of difference in girls.
They showed us a diagram. Theirs was slightly different from this one as they had put SENSORY issues in the centre. There is more and more focus on this and sensory factors are now considered to be one of the most important issues when considering autism and people's behaviours.
As well as the five senses we all know about, there are two more
- Vestibular (balance)
- Proprioception (perception of things - eg someone might walk strangely as they cannot take for granted that the floor will remain horizontal)
Some sensory seeking behavious might be risky, for example head banging or biting themselves.
Lorna said something very moving at this point. She said that she absolutely takes her hat off to anyone with autism now that she knows how much they have to deal with. She thinks that people with autism are here to teach us. They teach us not to be inhibited or to worry about being 'different'. They teach us about true honesty.
For some people, sensory discomfort can manifest as pain. Something like an itchy label can feel like physical pain to someone with SPD.
How Can We Make Our Museum More Autism Friendly?
Pre-Visit Information. A social story (we have one of those!) is really helpful. Generally people prefer that not too much is changed in the museum, but that each family is able to plan ahead for what they might see.
Families still want the same high quality programming that everyone else gets. There's no need to dumb things down, just allow people to prepare.
ALWAYS consider the sensory issues of the museum There may be things that can cause discomfort at any point in a museum (Eg hand dryers in toilets, coffee machines in cafe)
Less Verbal Communication. Some people with autism might just not see the point of communicating (we all know that feeling!). They might have problems understaning nuances and gestures. Always use visual information when you can as a way to minimise the amout of verbal communication.
Remember that it is ok to say no to someone with autism. If someone is doing something you don't want them to (perhaps something unsafe, or invading your personal space) you can say no to them.
Just remember that the person might need a little longer to process what's being said. Go slower and leave a good pause (6 seconds) to allow them to process and reply.
Top Tips
Keep Language Simple and Clear
6 Second Response Rule
Don't Shout
Give Honest Feedback
Be Aware of Distractions in the Environment
Be Aware of How a Person is Reacting in an Environment
Use Social Stories
Be Creative About Your Interactions
Don't Give Up on Quiet Ones - try and find another way in. keep giving them time to process.
Consider Use of Visual Prompts and Cues.
Ellen Lee & Davin Keen : Case Study from RAF Museum
Ellen Lee : Learning Producer : Old Royal Naval College
Ellen spoke about the work she was involved with in her previous role as Education Officer at the RAF museum. She was involved in setting up the DCN (Disability Co-Operative Network), which ties together people and work going on in disability in museums.
RAF museum was one of the first to go through the process of becoming an Autism Access Award holder (from NAS).
First step was to self-audit. Then they did some consulting which led to changes including
A small quiet-room with a dimmer switch.
Staff trained in autism awareness
The creation of an SEN focus group, including those on the autistic spectrum and their siblings.
They found that a page on their website about autism specifically got over 3000 hits in a month (visitors had to click on the access page and then from there onto the autism page)
Communities and Museums as Active Partners was a one day seminar feeding back about the Our Museums project, which has recently concluded its third and final year.
"It explored how processes of organisational change can help organisations to embed community engagement and participatory ways of working into the core of their work." Regis Cochefert: Our Museum Project Summary
Regis Coquefert : Director, Grants and Programmes : Paul Hamelyn Foundation
Regis spoke about the key areas for participatory practice
Governance
Staff Professional Development (important to democratise decision making)
How to engage with community partners
Evaluation
He spoke about the importance of voices from outside the museum, in terms of deciding perameters for evaluation and for evaluation.
He pointed us towards the Our Museums journey planner document on their website as a method for evaluating. The Maritime Museum has been using this framework for their evaluation, as has Hackney Museum. (I've actually struggled to find this online).
There are two more partd of this trilogy of publications to follow. One is an evaluation of the programme by Paul Hamelyn Foundation and the other is an evaluation of Paul Hamelyn Foundation's Management of the Our Museums Project!
Iain Watson: Museum Temporality
Iain Watson : Director : Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums
Iain opened with TWAMS' Mission: To help people determine their place in the world and define their identities, so enhancing their self-respect
He is not dissatisfied with how well they are fulfilling their mission, but he talks about the challenge of moving from a resource-led to a needs-led programme.
Museums have log time-frames. It is important to change with the times, but also to keep an eye on the longer term.
He brought up the latest news of cuts to museum funding and emphasized that those who can't adapt won't survive.
Peter discussed the perceived binary of Income Generation vs Widening Participation.
He said that there is a tension and that that isn't a problem. He asked, 'If there are conflicting priorities, must we solve them? Must we reach agreement?'. His emphatic asnwer was No! That tension is necessary to bring energy to a situation, but that they do need to be balanced.
If either drive takes full priority, things start to go wrong. His example was social housing. The tension is public funds vs public needs. If too much focus on economy is allowed, the end housing may not help social problems. If too mush emphasis is on the needs of people then we might go way over budget. (I think this was his point, it's been a while since I took these notes..)
Museum people come from the public sector, so they are driven by a desire to please the whole public. This will never work as you can't please everyone and you'll end up with a grey offer.
A focus on differing audience segments involves different costs and different incomes. It may be that to reach a difficult goupr of people, costs are high and cash income low. Some secments of society bring in lots of money by buying coffee in the cafe, some by attracting specific funding. The total profit from all these visitors determines whether we stay in business.
Austerity has meant that the more costly customers show more, a normal business would simply stop serving those who bring in less cash. Obviously museums judge on more than income, so hopefully we can continue to be a service for all types of people.
If you can't be clear about why a pound we spend on disadvantaged groups can do more than if it were given to a care home to spend (or a hospital or a breakfast club etc etc), you won't get it, and you shouldn't either.
He talked a bit about the relationship between business goals and social goals and how they interrelate. By having both types we end with a better product.
We must also make efforts not to be self-serving. We shouldn't be trying to do good in order to make people grateful or to make ourselves feel good.
He said that the most successful museums seem to be those in working class settings.
John Orna-Ornstein
John Orna-Ornstein : Director Museums : Arts Council England
John offered us some 'provocations'....
He questioned what we mean by the word community. He said there is no consensus and that it seems to mean
"Those people out there"
"Those who we want to get hold of and make their lives better"
His own definition is 'Users and non-users of a museum in line with the purpose of the museum'
He asked 'Who are we doing it for?' Why work with communities?' and He suggested that the drive to do so doesn't come from within those communities. He said he only knows of one survey that has been done with members of the public in town centres where they were asked what they thought the job of museums should be. The overwhelming response was that museums should provide for school trips and that they should quietly look after the old stuff. They WEREN'T wanting to participate.
So that drive for audience participation comes from the top - from the Labour government via HLF.
Museum people are in general agreement that we should widen audiences, but why should we? Does the use of public money have to mean that we do stuff for the WHOLE public? He pointed out that many public services only work for a narrow segment of society.
Then he told us about his idea of the museum of the future.
It was a place with a fundamental focus on audience and needs NOT assuming what the public want. It involved being brave and doing things differently and being different from other museums.
He spoke about brave leaders in small museums being the future of the sector and that it is those people's job to make the rest of us feel uncomfortable.
Q&A
Someone asked how these future leaders would be found. John said they will discover themselves, particularly through brave funders like PHF. It will help if managers value and nurture difference.
Peter pointed out that leadership requires a set of skills rarely found all in one person, so he siggested that future leadership might be dispersed.
The panel settled on the term heretics to describe these bottom-up, unique leaders. They said that they need protecting as they are often seen as the enemy within. Apparently we need to be knowledgable and ready to fight our corner.
Overall I found a lot of the day quite combative and awkward. Personally, I don't feel that success has to be an overcoming of something or that we need to fight some higher power that is stifling everyone below. Perhaps this is a result of having a manager who isn't a nurb and working in a small museum where everyone is quite well listened to. Or maybe it's to do with lots of us being girls slowly working together to get places instead of trying to bash away at winning the whole time. I think that the whole idea of listening to people in the community to take on board their ideas of need and success and objectives is in direct opposition to the idea of leaders who aggressively innovate. If we are to respect communities then we shouldn't encourage leaders who stick up for them, we should evolve into organisations which are open and gentle with our audiences and potential audiences. moan over.
Essex Havard : What Are The Opportunities And Challenges For Adults In Learning In The Cultural Sector?
Essex Havard : Director : ALACS
Essex defined adult learning as relating to learners aged 19+. He asked 'what changes after 19 years of age?'.
He spoke at length about types of motivation. I'm sure we all know the difference between INTRINSIC motivation and EXTRINSIC motivation. For a refresher, click HERE and HERE.
Obvs. children are more likely to be extrinsically motivated (brought by school, learning for exams) and adults are more likely to be learning due to personal interest. There is, as he said "no curriculum for adults", wherein lies the opportunity and the challenge.
He spoke about the importance of speaking to other adult learning agencies in order to discover what provision is needed in the area. He also spoke very positively about the Our Museum project (Paul Hamelyn Foundation), which allowed adults the opportunity to plan programmes for themselves.
He pointed out very pertinently that Learning to Live Together should be a particularly important agenda in these times, but the govt. has just cut the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) budget. Breaking down language barriers is surely worth investing in!
He laid down some definitions of INFORMAL learning, NON-FORMAL learning and FORMAL learning.
Informal = not structured
Non-Formal = structured but not accredited
Formal = accredited
He spoke about the LEM project - (from their website : LEM - The Learning Museum is a Europe wide network which aims to
establish a permanent space for museums and adult educators to act in a
learning society and in a knowledge based Europe).
The following workshop involved hearing about one of the European Partners about their project.
LEM is now completed, but they produced 8 reports over the course of the project and the partners continue to collaborate.
Lastly, he spoke about a really great looking programme in Ireland called Beltane Festival. It involves Dementia Friendly Museums and it is all about age and creativity.. Loads of Arts organisations put things on to encourage older people in engaging wit the arts.
Julie Carr: How Do ESOL Learners Benefit From Engagement With Museums?
4.2 million people self-identify as non-native English speakers, and 1 million don't feel fluent.
This isn't an issue just of language, but of wider issues of belonging and identity.
Speaking about the social justice agenda in 2005, David Milliband said "The test of a strong and fair society is whether the most vulnerable can thrive. Thriving in modern Britain means not just getting by - it means living a life with prospects, dignity and control".
This is where ESOL in museums can contribute. Getting to a museum and spending time there helps with language acquisition, but it also opens the opportunities of the city to foreigners. It helps people to integrate into society.
The ESOL visitors increased in self-esteem and were able to communicate better with their children. Improved English, Increased Self Esteem and Greater Local and Cultural Awareness led to Better Health and Welbeing and a sense of Belonging.
Tom O'Connor: Learning Together (The Why Don't We Community)
Tony O'Connell : Founder : Why Don't We
Tony is the founder of the Why Don't We project, which lets adults with learning disabilities create work using photography and film. His work with groups is remarkable and I think they would be a great team to get in touch with if we are working on accessibility in the future.
Jude Woods: Partnership Working With LGBT*IQ Communities
Jude strode straight in with a top tip for working with LGBT*IQ communities (which I think follows on to all community work) and this was to allow loads of time to get to know existing groups in the area and to get well known yourself.
She talked about the tricky subject of words. She said tha if you are trying to work out the right words to use then her advice is give up! There is no right and you can never please everybody, so the best thing is to think about it a lot and then to be able to explain your choice of words - and be prepared to learn more and then change the words you use.
Her approach for the project work she has done with Leeds Museums is based on a community development model and is rooted in activism. She pointed us to the Whose Cake? document produced by the Our Museum project (Paul Hamelyn Funded). It's a very well known paper, but rich with things to think about.
She also suggested watching the It's Elementary documentary about how to talk about sexuality in schools. I haven't watched it yet but it is available on YouTube.
She works with Schools OUT - who have produced loads of useful resources for tackling inequality in schools (and beyond).
She started to explain what QUEERING means. I hadn't heard the phrase before, so I don't have a great grasp on it, even after this training, but she gave us all a handout about how it can be done, which I will leave a copy of in the staffroom.
She was very bold in the way she spoke about this subject and this helped us all to see that the type of work she does is not an add-on but is a legal and moral obligation. Inclusion is required by law. Education and Curatorial staff have a responsibility to include LGBT*IQ perspectives in displays and programming. We also have to welcome visitors appropriately (weeks of good work can be undone in just one homophobic/transphobic encounter). We need to be proactive about diversity.
There is accreditation available to evidence that we are a welcoming and diverse workplace/public space. Building on the stuff we did last year for PRIDE, I think it would be a great thing to think about aiming for in the long term.
Susan Griffiths & Nicola Bird : Adult Learning and Community Outreach
Nicola Bird & Susan Griffiths : Community Outreach : Oxford University Museums
These two share a job doing outreach across the Oxford University Museums (Pitt Rivers, History of Science, etc)
They talked about making adult learning sustainable. They have an adult offer in a similar way to how we have a schools offer. A set menu of workshops that adult groups can sign up for. 90% of these are delivered outside of the museum. Efforts are made to keep contacts and to then support visits back to the museums themselves.
Outreach is a way to overcome barriers to visiting the museum. Working in a space that belongs to the learners and in which they feel comfortable makes it a level playing field. It stops being about experts and novices and has a broader appeal.
They have used these techniques in many different contexts, in prosons and probation services, homeless shelters and at massive events.
It brings out skills like turn taking and investigative skills.
They have given out free cup of tea vouchers as a way of monitoring how many of these outreach learners then made a visit to the museum.
Rachel Crossley : Attracting New Audiences Through New, Relevant and Innovative Offers
Rachel Crossley : Adult Learning : Histopric Royal Palaces
Rachel spoke about an event she planned to bring new audiences into the museum (a bit like our museums at night forays).
Their leaerning team is broken into 0-11yrs learning team, 11-19yrs learning team and adult learning team.
They are working within a new initiative at HRP 'A New Approach', which is broken into 3 areas
-Scale and Impact
- Audience Focused
- High Quality, Distinctive and Transformative
SAhe talked about how they are aiming to provide "Fewer, Bigger, Better" Learning opportunities. To do less but to do it really well and to make sure it reaches a lot of people.
They evaluate using 4 indicators, REACH, QUALITY, LEARNING IMPACT and VOLUME
They used a contractor to create an after hours event for adults. It was a spy experience. It was tech-led, so as you arrived you are given a mobile phone, it rings and then you get clues that move you around the building.
They were using the following KPIs
-7 events with 10 tickets sold per night
- 70%ticket sales
- 50% first time audience
- 5+ press/media pieces
- 170,000+ impressions thru social media
good/v. good ratings
They gave local people a concession and unemployed people as well. They did better than they hoped in almost all KPIs and it did bring a new audience, but did those people go on to become regular visitors?
The day started well with sat nav giving me a scenic route through sunny Cumbria.
When I arrived at the conference, the tables were sporting these fabulous "reasons to have volunteers" sheets (it won't go bigger on this blog, so zoom in on your desktop or copy and open in something where you can make it bigger if you can't read the writing)
( I totally didn't know about counting volunteer hours in cash terms as match funding in some cases! )
Richard Gough : Why Am I Here? Nourishing Volunteers' Motivations
Richard Gough : Volunteer Co-ordinator : Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
Richard had creative tips on where to go to find new volunteers. He suggested figuring out what skills you needed as a starting point and then tracking those people down. Eg. For storytelling, try children's librarians. For IT skills, try students on computing courses at college or uni. For crafters, try craft fairs.
And be realistic and inventive about who might have time to volunteer. Where do people with spare time hang out? What do they read?
He spoke about the importance of identifying volunteers' motivation. In most cases, a desire to be included is among the reasons people volunteer.
Once you know a volunteer's motivation, you can match it to a need in your organisation.
It is important that volunteers are encouraged to learn and to grow and for the role you offer them to adapt according to their growth. And volunteers really benefit from the freedom to shape and control the work that they are involved with.
RECONSIDER RETENTION AS A KEY MEASURE OF SUCCESS
Instead, measure the impact of volunteering on the volunteer, as well as the number of hours of work done. The volunteers who stay the longest are not necessarily getting the most out of volunteering or being the most benefit to the museum.
Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is some external encouragement, be that the promise of a reward, the fear of punishment or the coercion by another. Intrinsic motivation comes from within, it is a result of the passion you have for the thing you are doing or the way it makes you feel to do it.
All voluntary work should be intrinsically motivated.
We run into legal problems if we offer rewards or offer something to a volunteer conditionally.
Richard has had many calls from the Job Centre from people trying to find a placement for Jobseekers. He says no every time. Those people who volunteer because they are pressured by the people who control their benefits are unlikely to make good volunteers or to get anything out of coming.
'The Three Circles Of Motivation'
Number 1 on this diagram is the ideal place to be. This is where the volunteer is well suited to the role and the role benefits the organisation. Everybody benefits in this area of the diagram.
Number 2 is not too bad either, in number 2, there is a need for volunteers and a volunteer is eager to help out, all that is needed is to hunt around and find the perfect role for them.
Number 3 represents having a really useful role in the organisation and just needing to do some recruiting to find the right person.
Number 4 can be a danger. In this area, the volunteer is comfortable in the role, perhaps they have been doing it for a long time in the same way, but it no longer suits the organisation. Here, the role needs to be re-negotiated to benefit both the volunteer and the organisation.
HOW TO REWARD VOLUNTEERS
Reward the whole team. If an opportunity comes up to thank everybody, don't just single out one person for praise.
An annual celebration is a good thing to have. Whether this is a day outing or a barbecue or something else. It needn't be too expensive, as volunteers are aware that money is tight in museums, and if it isn't then perhaps they should be getting paid!
A personal letter from the CEO cn be a nice way of thanking someone for doing something extra special or putting lots of hours in.
If possible, link rewards back to the original motivation of the volunteer (I have done this for Aadil who volunteers on the ed. team. He joined to gain experience for his CV so he could apply for customer service jobs. He has been reliable and hard working, so I arranged for him to be able to shadow FoH for the day)
Make sure that all staff, public, investors and trustees are aware of the contribution of volunteers. Make their input highly visible. Emphasise how important and valued volunteers are. Perhaps hold mini-events where their friends and families can be invited to see the work they have done.
ALWAYS
Say thank you as often as you can.
Ask nicely and be friendly.
Let volunteers know how much difference they are making.
Contact Richard Gough: Richard.gough@ironbridge.org.uk - 01952 601 044
Anna Smalley : Tullie House Case Study
Anna Smalley : Learning & Engagement Manager : Tullie House
Anna Manages a team of staff who run workshops for schools/community groups/etc. Volunteers were a new adventure for her when she embarked on a project involving volunteers.
Inspired by Manchester Museum's early opening days for people with autism, they planned a project where volunteers could design and deliver art sessions once a month before the museum opened to the public.
The Deep in Hull is another place that runs sessions like this. They will open an hour early and leave the sound effects and bright lights off and illuminate spaces that are very dark.
The project was equally about CPD for the volunteers and audience development.
They realised it was important not to ghettoise people on the autistic spectrum, so the session was marketed as a way for people to come in and gain confidence in the museum space, so that they could hopefully stay longer and come back more often.
STEP 1 - Was to come up with a detailed role description. They advertised with this and eventually recruited 3 volunteers for the project, all students studying primary teaching at university.
STEP 2 - Was planning and logistics. The museum used the specific skills and knowledge that the volunteers already had from their uni courses to help plan the project. They decided to use the Arts Award to structure the project around, intending to get children completing the arts award during the sessions. So far, there have been no takers for the award.
They also provided specific training for the volunteers. They used MENCAP to provide autism awareness training. After this, the volunteers came up with session structure. This included options to explore the galleries, arts and crafts and object handling. They left it free for visitors to choose what and how much they engaged with.
On the first session there were no visitors. This was very disheartening for the volunteers who had spent so much time planning and training for this (one volunteer had even taken the arts award delivery course). But these things are often slow growers, so it is important to stay positive.
Useful people thety contacted were SEN schools and SEN co-ordinators in schools
(We already have loads of good SEN contacts. I have been doing some work with Sadie Dunne who is the head SEN nurse over at St James' and I always try and have a good chat with the SEN leaders who bring groups here. Obvs. Liz knows all the everybody - go team!)
The built their sessions around themes (colours/under the sea/animals/etc). And another great thing they have come up with is extra materials for families to take away afterwards. They made sure to involve siblings, who often get overlooked at autism activities.
Shannon Quigley : Blackwell Arts & Crafts House Case Study
Shannon Quigley : Learning & Engagement Officer : Lakeland Arts
This was another project that used the Arts Award for its structure. (I've mentioned Arts Award in a previous post and I'm still not convinced if I'm honest. Having seen a few different people talk about it now, it is clear that it is very much a thing that either works well or doesn't really work depending on the organisation. I'm not sure there is much you can do to create an environment where it works and I'm not sure it works well for smaller museums?? It does come with quite a big cost, which makes it a bigger risk. I won't bother mentioning it again)
They ran an 'Arts Award In A Day' programme, where you could come and complete the first introductory level of arts award in just one day. They did this with school groups and for the next round they are going to offer the course unaccredited (and thus cheaper) as well as accredited by AA, and see whether the cost makes a difference to take-up.
One great thing about this presentation was the images in the powerpoint. They had takes some great pictures of participants and they are a really great advocacy (and recruitment) tool. I resolved to take more photos from now on!
Katey Boal : Embedded Learning; Personal Learning Plans At Culloden Battlefield And Visitor Centre
Katey Boal : Learning Manager : National Trust For Scotland (Culloden)
Katey had designed her volunteer structure so that much of their learning could be peer-supported and self-led. This took pressure off her and gave her back a lot of time.
She designed personal learning plans for her volunteers. These were modular and included sections such as..
history of the site
costumed interpretation
Workshop delivery
Presentation delivery
Tour delivery
This finite list of tasks (tours/costumed interp/workshops) made me realise how time and energy intensive it is to have a different activity every month. Our informal learning programme is brilliant and the variety makes it a much ricer experience for visitors, as well as encouraging repeat visits. But we have to train our volunteers in each activity right from scratch every month. One solution might be to give volunteers more responsibility for designing the activities so that they don't need training and can show each other the ropes..?
The training took different forms. There was a video produced to introduce volunteers to the history of the museum. There was peer-to-peer training and texts to read. I love the idea of a training video - and I love the idea of getting volunteers to make it!
The training helped build confidence in the volunteers, as well as helping them understand what we should be doing and how to do it. For example, some vols were less confident assisting family audiences, they needed support to grow confidence in talking to young people/SEN/etc.
The CPD ensured quality control. As the volunteers were challenged and stretched, they deveoped and discovered skills they didn't know they had. THIS IS GREAT FOR WELLBEING! Learning new things is one of action for happiness's 10 ways to wellbeing. As well as doing something for our visitors, we are giving opportunities to improve wellbeing to our volunteers by giving them a useful role and supporting them. We really get a lot of value out of having volunteers in the museum as long as they are properly supported. They are part of our aims as well as helping us to deliver them.
Katey spoke of the importance of letting volunteers know how their work makes a difference (after all, every one of us needs to know that in order to feel good and to be motivated)
The learning plans were not separate from the volunteer role, they formed a part of the volunteer induction. They were not intimidating, they were bite sized and volunteers were not told 'you must leearn this or you can't volunteer', it was more like 'there are lots of families coming in, what do we need to learn to deal with that?'.
RECRUITMENT
Culloden had some very creative ways of recruiting new volunteers. They sent out people in costume and then they called the press who came to do a photo shoot. They held volunteer open days.
Judith Holmshaw: Cumbria CVS Supporting You To Succeed
This presentation was mostly about services that voluntary sector organisations can access in Cumbria, so I've not written up the bits that aren't relevant.
Look out for #VolunteerHour on Twitter
RECRUITMENT
One way to search for new volunteers is to give free talks to groups such as the WI, community groups.
They held a volunteer speed dating event called Make A Date To Volunteer. Orgs looking for volunteers sat on one side of the tables and people looking for a volunteer role had 3 minutes to chat to each of them
Get current volunteers involved in recruiting new volunteers.
Cumbria has a volunteer management network - Does Leeds have one?
She said we should as 'What can we do for people through the volunteering opportunities we can offer them?' (This came up in a previous talk. The idea that we provide a service to volunteers and that they are important like visitors are important.)
Laraine Winning : Voluntary Arts England
Voluntary Arts have Voluntary Arts Week - an annual festival. The most recent one had a theme of craft bombing.
They are also involved with Up For Arts which is supported by BBC local radios. At the moment there isn't a Yorkshire one of these being organised.
Not the most relevant talk TBH, but she did turn me on to this publication which is a toolkit for supporting volunteers in arts organisations. Definitely worth a read!
Daniela Garcia & Andrea Winn : if:Volunteering for Wellbeing
D. Garcia: Volunteer Program Manager: IWM North
A. Winn: Curator Community Exhibitions: Manc. Museum
These wonderful ladies spoke about their project - which is described in the video below..
Training for their volunteers consisted of a 10 week course of training, followed by a period of being buddied up with a more experienced volunteer. After that, you would be sent to use and strengthen your new skills in another of the partner museums (see video).
EVALUATION
This project was evaluated using a SROI (Social Return On Investment) model` and QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Years), which is a model used by national health bodies.
Measure What Matters is one of the Happy Museums' Manifesto aims. I reckon that measuring success through other markers than visitor numbers and money is something that the sector is still figuring out how to do. SROI is interesting to read about, I'm less certain that QALY is an appropriate tool outside of the health sector. Both I think are imperfect, as are some of the methods that Happy Museum has experimented with (see here). But I think it is important to consider all types of success, and to look beyond number and cash as much as we realistically can.
The museums acknowledge that they can not take credit for all changes in wellbeing in a person's life, but they have found it worthwhile to examine how much impact volunteerng can have.
The see it as part of early intervention into lower level mental health problems. I agree wholeheartedly with this) And thus as a money saver.
They had some lovely examples of family volunteering, people volunteering alongside their parents or carers.
The talked a bit about their early openings for Autistic families (eg people on the spectrum and their families and friends), working with the Autistic Society.
They saw volunteers increase in confidence, make new friends and become more employable.
Contact Daniela: dgarcia@iwm.org.uk
Pippa Joiner : Thinking Strategically About Young People and Volunteering
Pippa Joiner : Arts & Heritage Development Co-ordinator : Orleans House Gallery
TBC! (the notes fell off my notebook and are in my other bag...
