Hands on Base

Hands on Base (HOB) is a room which is a teaching space. It is a gallery, with handling objects and is a facilitated experience. It houses the handling collection of about 3,700 objects that reflects the diversity of the main collections. The Handling Collection is housed in the highly accessible and innovative Hands-on Base gallery (HOB). The HOB provides an intellectual and physical gateway to the rest of the Museum by engaging visitors in object discovery and providing them with a toolkit for exploring objects around the Museum. Question and answer sessions allow schools, families and community groups encompassing all age groups to discover objects through touch and is usually combined with other learning activities, such as storytelling, art and craft and talks. We also use the collections in performances such as dance and music.



This object-based learning approach used by the Horniman Learning section and operated out of the HOB, is recognised across the Museum and Education sectors as a centre of excellence.

The Learning Section implements a Collecting and Disposals Policy that mirrors that of the main collection. It enables us to rationalise what we accept into the collection, ensure the care of our collections and improve the level and quality of information available for educational use.




Discovery for All sessions held on weekends and in holidays introduce families to objects in the HOB through fun handling and interaction, activities, Question and Answer and secondary research that provides them with a toolkit and a vocabulary for how to ‘discover’ objects throughout the museum. Trained Enablers artfully encourage engagement with the hundreds of free handling objects and can bring out less robust objects on request. Families can discover Puppets, Masks and Costumes and learn how these are manipulated, made or worn. They can also learn about the theatrical and cultural traditions they originate from. They can follow connections we have made between objects in themed boxes (with associated activities) entitled ‘Teeth’, or ‘Red’, or ‘Structures in the Natural World’ for example. Or, they can make their own connections between the objects. There is a strong storytelling and dramatic element in the gallery with a dedicated performance stage.

A similar deductive Q&A method is used in facilitated curriculum linked handling sessions in the HOB with Primary and Secondary schools. Adult Learners and Community Groups work with the objects in a similar questioning way to achieve their learning objectives be it raising levels of literacy/basic skills to making carnival costume to mounting a issue-based campaign.

The museum has developed the gallery so as to provide maximum physical, sensory, intellectual, cultural and emotional access to its unique Education Handling Collection which serves in turn as an introduction to the Museum's main collections and to ways of relating to those collections.

Self guided discovery and educational programmes in the gallery aim to introduce a network of thought threads permeating the gallery itself and the wider museum that can be explored by visitors and supported by a wide choice of ongoing self guided activities in the other galleries (or away from the museum) including simple or more complex trails appropriate to different age groups or learning styles.

Everything in the Hands on Base is handle-able. Some objects are more robust than others but the museum has a policy in place that ensures rotation and repair of the handling collection.
Hands on Base is meant to be a gateway to the rest of the museum and helps visitors get to grips with some of the intellectual concepts. It is used as a tool kit for the rest of the museum to enhance the visitor experience and ensure a varied approach to learning.

Target Audience

All ages with 3 sessions daily with schools Monday - Friday.
Wednesdays are for community groups.
At the weekends it is used with families. Also sometimes opened after hours for groups such as MENCAP.

Aim

Hands on Base is used to inspire people's sense of discovery and self-achievement, stimulating learning in diverse ways. By touching, looking and listening, the senses are engaged in an active way, making the experience more memorable than other forms of learning.
The Hands on Base team use their 30 Discovery Boxes of handling objects to support learning for community groups of all ages. There is also a small performance space, situated very close to our puppets and masks, to encourage all sorts of performance arts and interactive experiences. Other popular objects include toys and musical instruments from around the world. Hands on Base is intended to be open to all - training sessions are also planned to open up use to a wider network of community groups.

Process

Hands of Base uses a specific and unique approach based upon questioning techniques. It encourages those using it to use their existing knowledge along lines of enquiry. The process involves some guesswork which gets people involved and empowers them via a journey of discovery. Revisiting collections' diverse audiences -the knowledge process is very much a dialogue. The new website will also facilitate this process.
The galleries that do not always link to the collections areas - in Hands on Base relationships can be more cross-disciplinary. For example, a session on Rainforest people could include natural history and anthropology as well as ethno-musicology. Lots of linking and the creation of a holistic cross-disciplinary centre.
Hands on base houses a huge range of diverse collections and subjects.
The schools team are able to be a bit bespoke about 50% of the sessions are, in addition to Storytelling - using objects to enliven and enrich the stories.
School sessions are teacher led - hands on puppets and hands on masks.
There are also weekend Discovery for all Sessions - to enable families to access the collections
plus hands on sessions for families - teacher led and taking part.
Museum interested adult audiences - now organising curators talks in the space. Talks are animated with handling objects - covering all bases.
The Horniman Museum received approximately £124,000 from 2006 to 2008 from Renaissance London to redisplay a section of the Hands On Base and create a new interactive, object-based website, Hands On Line. The redisplay was complete early 2008 and the website is soon to launch.
The development of the Hands On Base was part of a much larger award from the HLF, which doubled the size of the museum overall.

Number of participants

For Hands on Base alone, numbers are:
12,752 from schools
16,599 from family and community groups
Total figures for learning at the Horniman are approximately three times this amount.

Impact and outcome

- The Hands on Base is purpose-built to provide access to a really large handling collection
- Increased care of the collection - the handling collection is now in better condition and available for longer. The objects are now well looked after - the sense of awe of holding something special and unique imparts a richness that wouldn't otherwise be there
- There is an accessions and disposals policy
- Space is at capacity - need to use freelancers and therefore need to have really clear systems, which is better
- Able to increase the volume of people accessing the handling collection
- There is a better system for the handling collection
- Hugely increased access
- Improved quality of access due to an increase in the diverse groups who attend and numbers
- The space is flexible and meets the needs and interests of a huge variety of audiences.
- It is a gateway to the rest of the museum - and sessions link to different parts of the museum, therefore engagement is deeper when viewing the rest of the collection in the museum
- Forged links firmly within programmes. Improve intellectual and physical exploration of the museum as well.
- Improved accessibility - working in partnership with hearing impaired groups to enhance their experience, for example, using visual and tactile cues, as well as sound and smell - instruments.

Evaluation

- The Discovery for All sessions currently under evaluation
- The schools sessions are all evaluated via a questionnaire
- There are teacher consultations prior to new session sew science programme linked to natural history
- The Horniman holds consultation evenings when developing projects

Tips

- Be flexible - broad and people-focused.
- Having a great facilitator who can respond to the groups who come is a bonus.
- Diverse groups meeting a diverse collection
- The world culture collections are of great relevance to the East London community

Future development

A community leader training programme - "community projects with our objects". This involves days when community leaders are trained in how to use the Hands on Base, they also receive one on one mentoring to put together a project for their specific community group
This covers costs and empowers community leaders. This aspect has been running for 18 months. It brings in new people and there also has been a number of return visits. The Horniman wish to expand upon this.
When Hands On Line is launched it will be used to enhance a visit. Exploration of objects online - online curating and discussion - for pre or post visit activity. Schools really do need an explanation from the museum first - for schools, community groups and families. Objects will be added to and groups can choose objects. Groups can pre-select objects they specifically want to see - this facility assists with collection management. It also is encouraging the revisiting collections concept also.
More opportunities will be developed to bring the handling objects out from the HOB into the museum galleries using them more directly to interpret the main collections. This approach will be piloted in the new Natural History gallery, with volunteers trained to interact with our visitors in this way.

Project website :

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/