As part of the revamp of the National Museum of Scotland, The Robertson Trust donated a large sum of money toward the development of a brand new Learning Centre. They also funded an outreach project which would expose the museum’s collections to previously unreached audiences, encouraging these families to visit the museum for themselves.
For more than a year I have been working in partnership with three schools, to deliver this project. Methilhill Primary School Fife, Park Primary Clackmannan and Knightsridge Primary School, West Lothian. The plan is to put together one box of handling items per school from our collections that could be loaned out to other schools, giving a flavour of the fantastic objects we have here at the National Museum of Scotland. These will be officially launched in May at the National Museum of Scotland.
The pupils and teachers picked their topics, based on themes from the new galleries – Africa, Rainforest and the Carnival of the Animals. Next I got together objects from our handling collection to give to the pupils to research. They visited the museum, asked curators questions and did their own independent research.
Last month we ran a community day at Methilhill Primary and Community School, giving pupils an opportunity to show off their work to other pupils in the school, their parents and wider families.
Pupils, parents and teachers took part in an African drum and music Workshop lead by Chief Sulemen Chebe before performing to their parents later on.
Pupils explained their exhibitions to parents.
In this video the pupils explain in their own words what the project has meant to them.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/36476154]