It is unusual to find a museum or gallery that does not offer loan boxes in one form or another.
The idea goes back a long way. In the 1890s, museums in Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester were lending boxes of original artefacts to schools to give children the chance to handle a piece of history.
Loan-box schemes allow museums of any size to extend their reach. They provide a service tailored to users in their region and broaden access to their collections for those in more remote areas.
“It’s the enthusiasm and excitement sparked by an encounter with a real object, the potential to create new discussions around this and the interest generated beyond the immediate encounter that makes these resources so worthwhile to offer to as wide an audience as possible,” says Christine McLean, who helps to run the National Museum of Scotland’s Museums2Go loan-box programme.
While most schemes are designed for schools, an increasing number are geared to outreach work, as the benefits of handling objects have been recognised in reminiscence work with older people and those living with dementia.
Boxes are also a way to maintain a profile in challenging times. Much of Crawley Museum’s collection has been in storage in West Sussex for over a year pending a move to new premises.
“Our schools and reminiscence boxes are a good way of keeping our service in the public eye while we are closed,” says the museum’s curator, Helen Poole.
In more extreme circumstances, the Friends of the Red House Museum in Gomersal, West Yorkshire, which closed following funding cuts late last year, hope to keep its memory alive with a “museum in a box” scheme.
Creating a good loan box
All those running successful schemes stress the importance of collaboration.
This means engaging with potential users early on in the process to find out what kind of content they want and how a museum’s collections can support this.
“Subject matter, objects and their context are totally dictated by user need,” says Simon Brown, the curator of collections at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, which offers a scheme called Access Artefacts. “For school boxes, this means sticking closely to the national curriculum.”
Staff across the museum should also be involved. Loan boxes are normally administered by those in learning, but curators have a key role in suggesting artefacts and the stories each could tell.
Jennifer Whiteoak, a community engagement officer at the National Trust’s Knole House in Kent, is setting up a pilot loan-box scheme. This initiative is part of a building and conservation project at Knole, and costs are being met by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Whiteoak stresses the importance of seeking advice: “We consulted widely with likely users and made benchmarking visits to museums such as Glasgow Open Resource Museum. By getting input from all the relevant people we can ensure that the boxes will be well-used.”
The real thing?
The biggest dilemma for museums when designing loan boxes is whether to use real objects or reproductions.
Replicas are easily sourced from specialist suppliers or the auction website eBay, but there are strong arguments for using originals where possible.
“We use a mixture of both and they are clearly labelled,” says Anna Twinam-Cauchi, the education coordinator for Worthing Borough Council, which runs the Coast-Ed loan-box scheme covering the Sussex coast.
“I do think that there really is a greater value in users handling the real thing,” she adds. “With everything accessed so easily on the internet, to hold the real object is even more valuable to learning.”
This view is supported by research carried out by Reading Museum, which runs a highly-regarded loan-box scheme based on reserve collections that would otherwise remain in store. The research showed that a majority of teachers feel it matters educationally that an item is authentic.
However, teachers also want to explore the differences between a replica and the real thing. Ultimately it comes back to the needs of the user.
“There was a demand for a box on Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, but we only had three or four suitable objects in our collection,” says Nottingham’s Brown.
“We made the pragmatic decision to add replicas, which meant we could include the iconic Coppergate helmet. This has gone down very well with teachers and pupils alike.”
The idea goes back a long way. In the 1890s, museums in Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester were lending boxes of original artefacts to schools to give children the chance to handle a piece of history.
Loan-box schemes allow museums of any size to extend their reach. They provide a service tailored to users in their region and broaden access to their collections for those in more remote areas.
“It’s the enthusiasm and excitement sparked by an encounter with a real object, the potential to create new discussions around this and the interest generated beyond the immediate encounter that makes these resources so worthwhile to offer to as wide an audience as possible,” says Christine McLean, who helps to run the National Museum of Scotland’s Museums2Go loan-box programme.
While most schemes are designed for schools, an increasing number are geared to outreach work, as the benefits of handling objects have been recognised in reminiscence work with older people and those living with dementia.
Boxes are also a way to maintain a profile in challenging times. Much of Crawley Museum’s collection has been in storage in West Sussex for over a year pending a move to new premises.
“Our schools and reminiscence boxes are a good way of keeping our service in the public eye while we are closed,” says the museum’s curator, Helen Poole.
In more extreme circumstances, the Friends of the Red House Museum in Gomersal, West Yorkshire, which closed following funding cuts late last year, hope to keep its memory alive with a “museum in a box” scheme.
Creating a good loan box
All those running successful schemes stress the importance of collaboration.
This means engaging with potential users early on in the process to find out what kind of content they want and how a museum’s collections can support this.
“Subject matter, objects and their context are totally dictated by user need,” says Simon Brown, the curator of collections at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, which offers a scheme called Access Artefacts. “For school boxes, this means sticking closely to the national curriculum.”
Staff across the museum should also be involved. Loan boxes are normally administered by those in learning, but curators have a key role in suggesting artefacts and the stories each could tell.
Jennifer Whiteoak, a community engagement officer at the National Trust’s Knole House in Kent, is setting up a pilot loan-box scheme. This initiative is part of a building and conservation project at Knole, and costs are being met by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Whiteoak stresses the importance of seeking advice: “We consulted widely with likely users and made benchmarking visits to museums such as Glasgow Open Resource Museum. By getting input from all the relevant people we can ensure that the boxes will be well-used.”
The real thing?
The biggest dilemma for museums when designing loan boxes is whether to use real objects or reproductions.
Replicas are easily sourced from specialist suppliers or the auction website eBay, but there are strong arguments for using originals where possible.
“We use a mixture of both and they are clearly labelled,” says Anna Twinam-Cauchi, the education coordinator for Worthing Borough Council, which runs the Coast-Ed loan-box scheme covering the Sussex coast.
“I do think that there really is a greater value in users handling the real thing,” she adds. “With everything accessed so easily on the internet, to hold the real object is even more valuable to learning.”
This view is supported by research carried out by Reading Museum, which runs a highly-regarded loan-box scheme based on reserve collections that would otherwise remain in store. The research showed that a majority of teachers feel it matters educationally that an item is authentic.
However, teachers also want to explore the differences between a replica and the real thing. Ultimately it comes back to the needs of the user.
“There was a demand for a box on Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, but we only had three or four suitable objects in our collection,” says Nottingham’s Brown.
“We made the pragmatic decision to add replicas, which meant we could include the iconic Coppergate helmet. This has gone down very well with teachers and pupils alike.”
