Sydney Crochet Coral Reef

Image courtesy of Institute for figuring

Not long ago I wrote about the Museum presenting the Sydney Crochet Coral Reef</a> as part of Ultimo Science Festival in August.

Well the Institches Collective will be in the museum this Sunday March 29 from 3-5pm running a workshop.  Wether you are an experienced crocheter who wants to be part of this global phenomena or an inexperienced crocheter, the workshop will cater for you.

To take part simply turn up at the Powerhouse on Sunday, normal Museum entry applies but this will also let you come back to workshops each month and into the exhibition in August.

All workshop participants will have the opportunity to submit completed coral pieces for possible inclusion in the exhibition.

Future workshops

April 26, May 31, June 29, July 30
3-5pm
Powerhouse Museum
Free with Museum entry

August 8th
Exhibition 10-2pm
Workshop 12-2pm
Powerhouse Discovery Centre
Cost:  TBC

Bursary reports – melbourne learning seminar

5 March 2009 at 3:45 am On behalf of Amanda Coleman

Learning Oppotunities and Museum Seminar Some time ago, in the deep dark past. I attended a seminar in Melbourne. A fellow college, Gabrielle and myself, were the resipricants of a Bursary funding us to attend the Learning Opportunities and Museum seminar down in Melbourne in September 2008. It was a fantastic opportunity that I am very gratefully for. Thinking back on the seminar I remember many inspiring talks. It is hard to comment on all of them so I will mention a few.

I felt very inspired by many presenters and how they think abstractedly to make museums a appealing, challenging and assessable for all, particularly school learners.

My most lingering thoughts from the seminar (and I have had a bit of time to reflect) were the discussions on how to tackle the vast sea of the World Wide Web, blogs and the internet. How these could be used to enhance the experiences of museum goers. On a personal level I have a great fear of the CYBER world and I am overwhelmed by the enormous possibilities.

Brett McLennan gave an insight into how today we have “Twitchers”. A generation of learners learning in a new way. He talked about how “twitcher” work on many levels at once, with quick responses. In the past we have learned slowly and cumulatively. These two types of learning may be at conflict. Brett mentioned the use of websites to help with continuing learning after the museum experience.

Angelino Russo added that as educator we can be a great help to teacher by using blogs allowing our resources to be accessed before or after the visits to add to the overall experience. Projects like Andy Braid’s from Tasmanian Museum were an inspiring example how blogs are an essential part of his ice.e.mystery program, linking Tasmania to the other side of the world.

Dr Lynda Kelly, from Australian Museum Sydney, spoke passionately about the need for blogs and the internet. She backs this up with survey evidence showing that people who attend museums are also logging on. I personal am trying harder to embrace all the possibilities of these connective mediums.

My only problem now is not the know how, not my fear as I have conquered that (yes I have a face book page!) but my lack of time to explore all the inspiring possibilities. This may explain why it has taken so long to add to a blog! Thanks to the speakers, organisers and to IMAGE for allowing me to attend the seminar.

I am a new educator and have learnt and been inspired. I now am scanning for new seminar possibilities for this year. Amanda

National Curriculum and Museums workshop

Invitation to Workshop

Museums and the developing National Curriculum: Making our voice heard

Responding to the National Curriculum Board’s framework papers

for History and Science

 

The Education SIG of Museums Australia has asked David Arnold, Manager, Education, at the National Museum of Australia, to lead a team of people to investigate how we can engage with the national curriculum development process.  David has been working with Louise Zarmati (Macquarie University) and Marie Wood, (National Office, MA) to establish strong museums sector relations with the NCB. Many of you were at the Melbourne symposium of Museums Australia Victoria on learning in museums and will have heard David and Louise discuss the impact a National Curriculum will have on the museums sector.

 

Since then, several MA members have taken part in the workshops organised by the NCB to discuss the development of the four key curriculum areas, history, english, mathematics and the sciences.  The revised draft framework documents are due for release in mid November, so we invite you, as museum educators, to help us develop a formal submission to the Board in response to these draft documents. Our aim is to identify how museums can contribute to best practice national curriculum outcomes, especially in the areas of history and the sciences.

 

To this end, I am excited to invite you to be part of the discussion.  The National Museum will host a forum of educators from cultural institutions and other relevant interested parties in Canberra on December 9^th from 10am to 3pm (program attached). 

 

I realise this is short notice, and only one location, but hope as many of you as possible will join us.  To register for the day please contact Marie Wood at Museums Australia – details overleaf.  If you are unable to attend, feel free to forward your thoughts on the National Curriculum process and museum involvement in response to the documents to me at derekw@phm.gov.au or David at d.arnold@nma.gov.au

 

Remember that this is a key point in the development of the curriculum that will be taught to young Australians in the future and will have a significant impact on where they will learn, and the manner in which they learn. 

 

Museums hold a special place in education – we are the custodians of the collections of significance, the Australian story that underpins so many aspects of curriculum, knowledge, process and skills development in students.  We are also sources of motivation, international context and social connection for many of the outcomes contained within curriculum documents around Australia.

 

I hope to see you in Canberra

 

Kindest regards

Derek Williamson

President Museums Australia Education SIG

 

To register for the Workshop, contact

Marie Wood, MA National Office

02 62732437

networks@museumsaustralia.org.au

 

For information regarding the release of the draft curriculum documents, see

www.ncb.org.au

Teaching the teachers about Australian History

From 13 to 23 Jan 2008 the Australian National University, National Archives of Australia, Old Parliament House, National Museum of Australia and Australian War Memorial hosted 120 primary and secondary History teachers from across Australia. An initiative of the Australian Government, the Australian History teachers’ summer school provided a 10 day intensive program packed with amazing lecturers, research opportunities and site visits.

The National Archives of Australia provided two half day workshops which included dramatisation, demonstrations of experiential learning strategies, case studies and research opportunities. An evening event also presented ‘living archives’ – people who have stories to tell about their personal records in the Archives collection. Feedback from participants has been excellent. Here’s a recent article on the Summer School.

I was lucky enough to attend most of the lecturers associated with the ANU Summer School. The program was AMAZING. My personal highlights included:

• May Leckey, Precarious Empathy in Historical Understandings: Problems and possibilities
  
• Tracey Banivanau-Mar, Decolonising History: Hidden histories and silent voices
  
• Inga Clendinnen, Workshopping a Document for maximum results
  
• Ann Curthoys, Revisiting is History Fiction?
  
• Marilyn Lake, The Militarisation of Australian History
  

The Summer School really demonstrated how collections and cultural institutions cab be utilised by teachers. They are such valuable resources and are often at the cutting edge of education research, developments and theory. And of course the staff are always extremely helpful and approachable!

The ANU Summer School was a policy of the former government. It is yet to be confirmed whether the new government will take it on, although it looks a little doubtful. Follow up sessions and a website for participants has been set up to create a dialogue.

Museum Education and Social Media: 10 points from the conference

I was at the social media and Cultural communication conference last Friday which looked at the way the latest developments in internet interactivity (called web 2.0) could be used to enhance the reach and impact of museums. So here are 10 of the more salient points I took.

1. Kevin von Appen, Ontario Science Centre, gave examples of museums which are using web capabilities to engage their “community” in co-creation of content. Questacon’s own Climate x change being a perfect example.
2. Caroline Payson, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s online Educator Resource Center suggested that in the first instance at least we should not use the opportunity offered by social media to pursue new audiences but to creatively engage important current audiences with an “A+” experience.
3. Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum, spoke about the opportunity of learning from the way our audience use and interact with our web presence to inform our “physical” museum activities. See Seb’s work.
4. Seb again, we need to look to the ability of web activities to build our impact and influence. That the effort may not generate direct physical visitors to our door, but can enhance the reputation of the Museum among different and enlarged audiences.
5. Lynda Kelly, the Australian Museum, highlighted research they have done which had teenagers explaining that museums do not need to try to be “cool” but rather the audience knows what we are, and if they are visiting our sites they are there to use us as Museums. They have plenty of other places to play games and socialise. Lynda has a very informative audience research blog.
6. Tim Hart, Museum Victoria, posed the question of how we will support 21st century learners, those people who are learning to be participants ion a future we can’t really see and certainly don’t understand.
7. Tim Hart again, from the film Shift happens, China has more gifted and talented students than Australia has students. How can museums be part of ensuring we don’t fall behind in the clever country race?
8. Brett McLennan, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, told us how the brains of “digital natives” think and act differently.
9. Brett again, as quick as we train teachers, new and old, in the new contexts of knowledge and understanding – that training becomes outdated.
10. Damien Tampling, Deloitte’s Corporate Finance Advisory group, encouraged us to see the highly innovative way the modern museum/cultural worker thinks.

I am sure others who were there will add their input soon. I will have more after a little time to digest it.

An audience with Australia’s first pregnant man

The Powerhouse played host to a theatre piece for our recent Ultimo Science Festival, titled ‘An audience with Australia’s first pregnant man’. A staged press conference with a character actor playing Adam Jones, a pregnant man, the piece is designed to explore the possibilities offered by science and to allow the audience to informally question the ethical dilemmas raised by those possibilities.

The piece involved a 20-minute interview of our pregnant man by an education officer at the museum, in which Adam explained why he became pregnant, how it was possible, the public reaction and the complications posed by the procedure. Then the audience had an opportunity to ask Adam questions.

There were a number of surprising outcomes from this program:

• Firstly, the audience was completely accepting of the possibility of science enabling a man to carry a baby. I had expected at least some people to have a problem with the concept on moral or ethical grounds, but no.
• Secondly, the audience went far further with this piece of theatre than I had expected, to the point where the questions from the audience really challenged our poor actor whose script – though well researched – didn’t cover things like… How would he explain the procedure to the child as it grew up? Could/would he breastfeed the baby? What about his maleness after the procedure?
• Thirdly, people had difficulty separating fact and fiction. Although not explicitly stated during or before the performance, we had asssumed that people would know this was theatre. But in each session there were a number of people who eventually piped up with the question – is this real?

These observations have raised what I think are important questions that we could consider here at Assembly:

• How careful need we be with the fiction/fact boundary in the museum setting? Should we have stated that this was an actor playing a part before the show – or after the show?
• How much prior knowledge can we assume for our audience? How much should we let the content interfere with people’s interaction with a program as a piece of theatre? After one audience – in which the fact/fiction boundary had been explained to the best of our ability and elderly man walking out the door walked up to our actor and wished him all the best with the imminent birth.

We never knew quite where people were at between belief and suspension of disbelief, as thespians say.

Does any of this matter?

Thanks to Spectrum Theatre UK who first developed this piece for roving performances at the Science Museum, London.

Museum theatre in education

Collaborating to perfection… Lyn Beasley, Manager of School Visits at the National Museum of Australia, describes her work with Peter Wilkins, Drama Coordinator at Narrabundah College.

Museums have an opportunity, indeed a responsibility, to enable students to learn in ways that differ from but complement their school learning. Even before it opened, the National Museum of Australia regarded performance as a key element. In a paper he wrote for the Museum, Peter Wilkins, Drama coordinator for Narrabundah College, said:

Schools offer an invaluable resource to national institutions. Similarly the National Museum offers the opportunity for interaction with all subject areas of the curriculum …

Collaboration between schools and the National Museum provides a unique experience to interpret and present ideas that reflect the Museum’s collection, at the same time as presenting the talents of young people who participate in the performing and creative arts.

Peter and I began to collaborate in 2004 with a production called Stranded. Based on the story of the Mozart Vienna Boys Choir in the Horizons Gallery at the Museum, it also drew on emotive themes in the Eternity Gallery. Stranded was performed at two conferences in Canberra in 2004 and 2005, and elicited very positive responses. We decided to collaborate again in 2006.

In January 2006 I went to the National Gallery of Victoria to see Exiles and Emigrants and think about what programs we might develop when it toured to Canberra. I found the images extremely evocative and felt they could inspire a performance piece. Peter had seen the exhibition too, and agreed that it had great potential for theatre.

As the exhibition was due to open in Canberra in April, we had not left ourselves much time. And because it is not a National Museum exhibition, our access to the background information was more limited than it had been for Stranded, however generous the curator, Patricia MacDonald, was (and she was, extremely).

We used the exhibition catalogue to choose stories, images and characters. A trip to the National Library supplied letters and newspaper clippings, and from there we developed the synopsis. Letters with dramatic interest formed the basis. We added pieces of poetry and songs to create a poignant, atmospheric work called Exile. Sue Webeck, the director, workshopped with the students to produce the dramatic outline, while Cati McCarthy and Michael Caesar worked up the musical numbers.

The production used no set and minimal costume. Paintings from the exhibition were projected as backdrop. The students used extracts from letters and poetry to tell the story, and song and dance to evoke the emotion and passion of the paintings. Exile was performed three times while Exiles and Emigrants was showing at the National Museum, to both school groups and the general public. Both audiences received it enthusiastically.

The piece was then taken to Melbourne, to a national forum on performance in cultural institutions. There, the audience was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. I don’t think it is going too far to say that these museum and theatre professionals were absolutely blown away by the talent, dedication and sheer presence of this group of young people. Earlier in the conference, one speaker had delivered a paper on what he called the eight P’s of interactive theatre. In closing the conference to a close Patrick Watt spoke of the ‘ninth P’ – the perfection of the performance by the students of Narrabundah College. While in Melbourne, the students also performed twice a day at nursing homes and schools – in seven other venues.

Peter and I look forward to our next collaboration. We are exploring the possibilities of stories currently featured in the Museum as well as looking at upcoming temporary exhibitions for inspiration.

Stone art on the beach

World beach is a project of the V&A Museum, in which people on beaches all over the world are invited to make a drawing in stone and photograph the result, the people who made it, and the beach itself.

Read how it started, and keep up with where it’s headed at Concealed, Discovered, Revealed, the blog of artist-in-residence Sue Lawty.

[wondering when I can next get to the beach...]

Sites of Communication 3

7 & 8 September

National Gallery of Victoria

The Sites of Communication Symposia series has sought to investigate the ever-evolving role of the art museum and provide a forum for art museum professionals to discuss contemporary issues.

The 2007 symposium will seek to continue this dialogue. Speakers, presentations and forums will investigate and debate the role of new technologies, theories of learning, partnerships and collaborations and the spatial dialectics of art museums.

Enquiries and bookings

Telephone

Email sites@ngv.vic.gov.au

Web www.ngv.vic.gov.au/sites

Alltime heroic and villainous xmas event

Members and associates of maegvic met at the State Library of Victoria on Thursday 14 December. We were invited to explore the fascinating exhibition, Heroes & Villains: Australian comics and their creators. There was also an opportunity to see a new selection of material in Mirror of the World: books and ideas. Andrew Hiskens and Samantha Tidy then hosted refreshments in Experimedia. A small but enthusiastic group enjoyed the opportunity to network prior to the Christmas break.