Pandemic Objects: Exams and Exercise Books
Summer holidays are here. Allegedly. For young people the rhythm of their days will have changed to a variable degree, depending on factors including the extent to which their school and home...
View ArticlePandemic Objects: Laptop
I am writing this now on one of the best representations of a pandemic object: the laptop. It perfectly embodies how we blend work and play in new ways during the COVID crisis. In an... The post...
View ArticleEducation for change – a global view
I am just back from this year’s Varkey Foundation Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF), which brought together educators, world-leaders, thinkers and technology experts to discuss ‘who are the...
View ArticleIllustrating the Process is a Process
One of my responsibilities as Project Manager for VARI, is tracking and documenting the progress of our projects. I’m a big fan of the classics for this; spreadsheets and report writing, but its...
View ArticleTeacup Travels episode on Cbeebies uses Museum object as inspiration – last...
A Japanese woodblock was chosen as the inspiration for a new Teacup Travels episode on Cbeebies. Teacup Travels is historical fiction for young children incorporating genuine historical artefacts into...
View ArticleInspiring the next generation of designers with the V&A’s DesignLab Nation
The principles of design should form a portion of any permanent system of national education. So recommended the 1836 Select Committee on Arts and their Connection with Manufactures. Sir Henry Cole was...
View ArticleMay half-term 2016 Family Art Fun
Over 9 days from 28 May – 5 June, 12,000 participants took part in activities as part of the May half-term Family programme, inspired by the Engineering Season at the V&A, and most notably, Elytra,...
View ArticleV&A Museum – Engineering Season and Hip Hop robots! Review by Issy
This is a guest blog, by Issy, who has written an excellent review of her visit to the V&A Museum during May half-term 2016. Issy took part in Pop-up Performance – the Dance of the Robot and... The...
View ArticleDesign and Maker Education for Shenzhen’s Children and Young People
Shenzhen is a global manufacturing hub, centre of innovation (digital and product design) and UNESCO City of Design. I wanted to explore how children and young people living in the city learn about and...
View ArticleJoubert: Anna Maria Garthwaite, and Women Working in Silk Design
One of the most unusual, and refreshing aspects that I have found whilst reading Le Dessinateur are Joubert’s opinions on women being involved in the process of silk design, which he discusses in the...
View ArticleFebruary half-term 2016 Europe Family Fun
During February half-term, we welcomed 14,273 participants to celebrate the opening of the new Europe galleries 1600-1815. Four activities were focused on the Ommengang painting of 1616 as part of the...
View ArticleAt least 75% of the children behaved themselves properly
Here’s another gem from The Times in the 1920s. The perennial problem of children in museums had arisen in the letters pages, and the newspaper approached Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith, Director of the...
View ArticleFashion cycles and design culture
Anyone standing outside the disciplines of fashion and design research might be surprised to discover that conversations between the two are not as fluid or productive as they might be. Within the art...
View ArticleAll work and no play makes the museum a dull place?
by Grace Bremner “[W]e learn by interacting with bits of the world even when our words for how these bits work are inadequate.” -Davis Baird All work and no play makes the museum... The post All...
View Article‘Model Teaching’
This post has been written by Matthew Wells, a PhD student on the V&A/RCA History of Design postgraduate programme. Matthew’s research, supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council...
View ArticleIllustrating the Process is a Process
One of my responsibilities as Project Manager for VARI, is tracking and documenting the progress of our projects. I’m a big fan of the classics for this; spreadsheets and report writing, but its...
View ArticleTeacup Travels episode on Cbeebies uses Museum object as inspiration – last...
A Japanese woodblock was chosen as the inspiration for a new Teacup Travels episode on Cbeebies. Teacup Travels is historical fiction for young children incorporating genuine historical artefacts into...
View ArticleInspiring the next generation of designers with the V&A’s DesignLab Nation
The principles of design should form a portion of any permanent system of national education. So recommended the 1836 Select Committee on Arts and their Connection with Manufactures. Sir Henry Cole was...
View ArticleMay half-term 2016 Family Art Fun
Over 9 days from 28 May – 5 June, 12,000 participants took part in activities as part of the May half-term Family programme, inspired by the Engineering Season at the V&A, and most notably, Elytra,...
View ArticleV&A Museum – Engineering Season and Hip Hop robots! Review by Issy
This is a guest blog, by Issy, who has written an excellent review of her visit to the V&A Museum during May half-term 2016. Issy took part in Pop-up Performance – the Dance of the Robot and...
View Article