Student Name:

Claire

Programme of Study:

MA Museum Studies (MA) 2017-2018 Academic Year

Career/ Sector Interests:

I am particularly interested in learning in museums. Specifically, I am interested in informal learning in museums and working with less engaged audiences. My career aspirations are to work in the learning department of a museum or lead a learning department. I also have some previous experience working in museums in front of house and learning roles. I really wanted to work with other age groups I had not interacted with before, for instance: toddlers and young people.

Placement Venue:

Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Carlisle

Placement Duration (30 or 12 days):

30 days June –July 2017

What type of activities did you undertAKE whilst you were on placement?

Completing my work placement at Tullie House allowed me to have a lot of variety in what activities I undertook every day. I was placed within their learning department so much of the activities were centered around learning.

Some activities include:

• Assisting with school workshops which involved object handling and crafts. Some topics of workshops include: Vikings, Romans, Egyptians, Victorians, Prehistory, Habitats and many more.
• Assisting with toddler sessions, every other week the museum hosts a toddler drop in where kids can come make crafts, or play with other toys the museum has to offer.
• Outreach: I was able to assist with outreach at Finlandrigg Wood, Carlisle Unity Festival, Turma! Roman weekend and other festivals and outreach activities around Carlisle.
• The outreach at Kids Expo in Carlisle, my colleague and I interacted with 500 people in one day. Great experience to learn how you can work under pressure.
• Developing new assemblies for schools, for example about the Anglo Saxons.
• Assisted with sleepovers at the museum, I did not sleepover, but helped with crafts, behind the scenes tours and trails.
• Helped with a special events week called Roman Week, assisting with school workshops, and watching Roman soldier reenactments.
• Developing new crafts for family fun drop ins.
• Helped develop activities and crafts for a Roman themed family fun weekend.
• Participated in CPD training at a museum in Kendal, learning about history as storytelling.
• Observed a meeting of the Youth Panel, a group of 14-21-year old’s who meet once a month at the museum. The meeting was about a project they’re working on as part of an exhibition.
• Observed exhibition planning meetings, really interesting as a MA Museum studies student to see the planning involved in creating and facilitating exhibitions.
• I did work a couple of late nights and weekends during the placement but I was always given time off in lieu of working those days.

What were your placement highlights?

I absolutely loved everything about my placement! I really enjoyed interacting with school groups and families on a nearly daily basis. It was great to interact with all different year groups and age groups, from toddlers, early years and schools. I really liked assisting with school workshops because Tullie House emphasizes the use of objects and replica objects. It was wonderful to see children interacting with Roman objects from thousands of years ago. I could learn ideas on how to use objects and artefacts for lessons about history.