Busy Hands was an outreach project designed to encourage more families from deprived areas of Blackburn to visit the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. The museum commissioned an artist who worked with a local Sure Start group to deliver craft sessions in their community venue. The artist then led a visit to the museum for the group and put on a display of the children’s work in the museum’s community gallery. The project provided the parents and children with an introduction to the museum as a possible venue for future visits and participation in free family programmes. The project also enabled a new Sure Start group to become established in the Mill Hill area of the borough.
Aim
• To target families in deprived areas of Blackburn to encourage them to visit the museum’s free family programmes.
• To pilot an outreach learning programme for under 5’s and their families as a model for other Sure Start groups.
• To produce an exhibition of Sure Start families work for the museum’s community gallery.
• To demonstrate the contribution of the museum to council priorities including life long learning, health and social inclusion.
Process
Why did the project take place?
As a local authority community museum, Blackburn has a strong remit to engage people who are in danger of social exclusion. The museum already attracts a substantial family audience whose profile matches the culturally diverse population of Blackburn, which has a large South Asian community. However, the museum recognised that more needed to be done to target families who are socially and economically disadvantaged.
The Education Officer, Steve Irwin, had already set up a fledgling outreach service to families in deprived areas by visiting local Sure Start groups and events. He had introduced families and staff to the museum and some of its collections for example, through Victorian costume for dressing up. Although these sessions were successful and stimulated an interest in the collections, it became clear through interaction with the parents and carers that these families were unlikely to visit because of their perceptions of the museum. They felt that museums were generally “not for them”, partly because of the behaviour of their children. As one parent put it “We’d never visit a place like that, we’d just get barred.”
The museum therefore decided to apply for further investment for outreach work and commissioned an artist to lead a series of creative sessions for a new Sure Start group in the Mill Hill area of the borough. The aim was to build a stronger partnership with Sure Start and its local coordinator, then use this opportunity to engage the families with the museum and persuade them to take up the family offer.
What happened?
The museum used the artist Jude Wadley of Action Factory Community Arts (with whom they had worked before) to deliver art and craft based sessions, similar in format to those available free to families at the museum. A range of three dimensional and multi sensory pieces were made to be exhibited in the museum and memory boxes were compiled telling stories of childhood, containing for example, shoes, locks of hair etc.
Twelve sessions were run over a five month period with anything from seven to twenty five children and adults attending each one. The children were aged between two and three years and over two thirds were deemed by Sure Start staff to have behavioural difficulties. The parent’s were aged between eighteen and thirty five years and participants were all white-indigenous. Six Sure Start staff took part in the sessions, including a coordinator and five behavioural support staff.
Over the course of the programme the artist gained the trust of the group to the extent that she led a successful visit to the museum mid way through the programme that thirty parents and children attended. The group was introduced to museum staff and toured some of the galleries.
The project culminated in a bright and vibrant exhibition of the group’s work at the museum which opened in May 2005 and ran for eight weeks. This followed a successful launch event which was attended by all the children, their parents, friends and two local Councilors.
Impact and outcome
The main impact of this project was felt by the new Sure Start group that was established through the creative sessions.
Although target family groups did visit the museum as part of this project, there is no recorded evidence to show that those families have continued to visit or use the museum’s services. Anecdotal evidence suggests that participants enjoyed their museum visit and the exhibition launch and were pleasantly surprised by the welcome they received.
Word of mouth recommendation of the Busy Hands sessions was strong and caused numbers attending the sessions to grow steadily. It also provided a model for other Sure Start groups.
Evaluation of the sessions using the Inspiring Learning for All generic learning outcomes suggests that they improved the self-esteem and confidence of parents both in terms of their own learning and helping their children to learn. There was an increase in behavioural management skills of parents. Some impact on the practical art skills of the children and on their social skills was noted, but it was felt the latter were more difficult to measure over a short period.
Sure Start staff also increased their confidence and skills in leading art and craft activities with the group and the artist increased her experience of working with very young children and benefited from the expert behavioural support provided for the group.
The museum raised its profile with the Local Authority and the launch event, which was attended by councillors for the Mill Hill ward, showcased its contribution to engaging target groups.
Evaluation
An evaluation of the impact of the project on the families learning using the Inspiring Learning for All generic learning outcomes was carried out. Evidence was collected from informal conversations with parents, Sure Start staff and the artist.
What could have been improved?
More links could have been made between the activities in the sessions and the museums collections to encourage interest in the museum and to stimulate attendance at its free family sessions.
More of the budget or extra budget allocated to evaluation to gain evidence of impact on perceptions of the museum by parents and careres.
Better control over the numbers attending the sessions by Sure Start Staff. Numbers at one stage outstripped capacity of the artist, staff and the physical resources.
What went well?
The strength of the partnership working between the museum’s education officer, the artist and the Sure Start coordinator who were all building on an existing partnership.
Tips
Be prepared to hold family project launches at the weekends to maximise the numbers of working parents or carers that might attend.
If you have little or no track record of family programmes, think about the practicalities of provision including right height tables and chairs and healthy refreshments.
Future development
The new Sure Start group was maintained for at least 6 months beyond the life of the project with Sure Start staff running the art and craft sessions and one of the parents went on to join an art class at the local college.
The legacy for the museum is unfortunately less clear. The Sure Start coordinator, with whom the museum and the artist had developed a strong partnership, moved to a new role and her replacement has been less keen to work with the museum and to incorporate cultural activities into the sessions. Without further funding, the museum will be unable to build on its experience with other Sure Start groups or family support agencies.
Project website [1]:
http://www.actionfactory.org.uk/html/SurestartMuseum_220.html
Case Studies