I have worked as part of project teams on a number of education spaces, including the V&A’s Sackler Education Centre, which won a Riba London Award in 2010. Developing the Sackler Centre really brought home the need for thorough planning to scope out the space and to make sure that it was flexible enough to cope with future use.
To start, we looked at our existing education audiences and the types of events and activities that we ran. However, we soon realised that this was inward-looking, locking us into our current situation. To view the new education space as an opportunity, we needed to look outwards and to understand the potential to run different events and reach new audiences.
Therefore, before specifying the requirements of the education space there should be a creative planning process of imagining different use. This could be simply researching activity ideas from other venues, including those outside the museum sector, to see if they could apply. Another approach is to canvas those crazy ideas for activities that colleagues have always dreamed of doing, but did not have the facilities.
A powerful way forward is to challenge assumptions. For example, spaces often get labelled as belonging to one audience – the “schools lunch-room” is typical. However, there is no reason why spaces cannot have multiple uses. In the Sackler Centre the schools lunch area is also designed to function as a space for receptions and as a bar area for late night openings. Creating opportunities to generate income is vital.
Working through the “life cycle”’ of the education space also highlights new possibilities.
What could the daily schedule from opening to closing look like for a typical week? What about week-to-week and monthly? Are there any seasonal possibilities that should be incorporated?
Once the type of activities and audiences have been specified, flexible use then needs to follow into the design. Plan carefully how out of hours access will work, as well as access routes to and from the displays and the rest of the site.
Flexibility needs to extend right down into the design of service functions. Using spaces in different ways requires extensive planning of storage space and how equipment and materials can be moved around. Catering requires careful thought, as do computer points, Wi-Fi, telephones, lighting controls, and so on. Flexible use often needs very generous provision.
Colin Mulberg was the interpretation coordinator at the V&A for 12 years. He is now the director of Colin Mulberg Consulting, working with museums, galleries and heritage venues to improve their visitor experience
The Museums Association will be running a one-day conference next year as part of its Future of… series. The Future of Museums: Learning and Engagement will take place on 27 March 2019 at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Speakers will include, 20 years after the publication of the influential A Common Wealth: Museums in the Learning Age, its author, David Anderson. Click here for more.
