{"id":34,"date":"2016-08-09T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/?p=34"},"modified":"2021-03-16T16:56:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T16:56:16","slug":"inspiring-a-passion-for-london-as-students-go-behind-the-scenes-at-the-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/2016\/08\/09\/inspiring-a-passion-for-london-as-students-go-behind-the-scenes-at-the-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum of London: Digging deeper into London’s history"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Untitled

Vyki Sparkes, Curator of Social and Working History, with some of this year\u2019s students at Museum of London Docklands<\/p><\/div>\n

Sarah Castle, Higher Education Programme Manager at the Museum of London, and Beatrice Behlen, Senior Curator for Fashion & Decorative Arts, reflect on a memorable collaboration between the museum and King\u2019s Summer Programmes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Curating the City: 1900 to now\u2019 is a course of two complementary halves; a morning of academic teaching at King\u2019s on the Strand, followed by an afternoon going behind-the-scenes, exploring galleries and handling objects with curators at the Museum of London. Armed with the theory and critical insight provided by the lead tutor at King\u2019s, students immediately get to see this theory put into practice as curators discuss both the art and science involved in curating the city of London.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This course introduces undergraduate students from a wide range of disciplines to a subject area largely unfamiliar to them. This year, courses being studied at home institutions ranged from Medicine to Industrial Design and from Information Engineering to Medicine. Students who wouldn\u2019t usually learn together were united in their desire to find out more about the workings of a social history museum and to dig deeper into London\u2019s history. \u2018In-class\u2019 and \u2018at-museum\u2019 discussions and activities meant that students got to hear the perspectives and opinions of classmates from countries and cultures often very different from their own. This year, we welcomed students from India, China, the US, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and the UK. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We know from feedback that students love the hands-on aspects of the course and alternating lectures with activities at the museum; with comments such as \u2018It is very different from anything I\u2019ve ever done\u2019 and \u2018the curators were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful\u2019 being common. But what do we at the museum like best about this collaboration? Above all, it is great to watch the students grow in confidence throughout the three weeks; confidence not only in asking questions, navigating the city, and understanding the collection and display decisions which museum professionals must make, but also confidence in thinking about objects. From the overriding desire in week 1 to simply identify what an object is<\/span><\/span>, to a more reflective and interrogative approach to the material culture by week 3. As they develop skills of observing, touching and contextualising, so you see students\u2019 faces light up as they begin to experience the very same passion for objects which is shared by all our curators.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now in its 7th<\/span><\/sup> year, this Summer Programme continues to attract enthusiastic and industrious students who really appreciate and embrace the uniqueness of the teaching experience on offer. One of this year\u2019s students commented: \u2018If you love history and talking about historical artefacts, you\u2019ll love this course\u2019. We at the museum say: \u2018If you love history and talking about historical artefacts, we\u2019ll love having<\/span><\/span> you on this course!\u2019 Looking forward to welcoming next year\u2019s cohort of London-curious students already\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Castle, Higher Education Programme Manager at the Museum of London, and Beatrice Behlen, Senior Curator for Fashion & Decorative Arts, reflect on a memorable collaboration between the museum and King\u2019s Summer Programmes. \u2018Curating the City: 1900 to now\u2019 is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,14,11,13],"tags":[18,3,4,16,17,6,15,5,7,8,9],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-kings-college-london","category-london","category-summer-school","category-teaching","tag-curating","tag-kings-college-london","tag-kings-summer-programmes","tag-museum-of-london","tag-museums","tag-summer","tag-summer-at-kings","tag-summer-school","tag-teachers","tag-teaching","tag-teaching-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}