Learning spaces

Developed by CDF in collaboration with nine other arts, cultural, environmental and heritage sectors, the handbook’s latest edition was published in 2015, and contains a wealth of information about how to maximise the opportunities for education in a museum space.

First published in 2004, the guide has helped many museums make huge improvements in their learning spaces, from initial design to construction.

The Garden Museum in Lambeth, London, underwent a two-year redesign from 2015 to 2017, part of which included a Clore Learning Space alongside a smaller learning centre. For Christopher Woodward, the director of the museum, the handbook was invaluable. 

“You get clear, articulate advice on what makes education spaces work,” he says. “The challenge is then to combine how many square metres you need, and exactly what facilities, with creating an atmosphere that is conducive to creativity. It can’t just be a classroom.

“You can give the handbook to the architect and it’s all there, whereas with cafes and galleries you don’t get that, you get a diversity of opinions,” Woodward says.

Although CDF is not the be all and end all for either funding or design advice, the network of Clore-funded education spaces is an obvious point of inspiration for any museum looking to improve what they offer. Museums now have a broad blueprint with a proven track record to draw on.

London’s Royal Academy of Arts (RA) opened a Clore Learning Space this year as part of its 250th anniversary celebrations. The RA’s head of learning Beth Schneider says that the team took direct inspiration from the Hepworth Wakefield’s Clore Learning Studio

“They had some incredibly clever solutions for storage, art materials and the arrangement of the space,” Schneider says. “One very clever idea that we copied were small trolleys that you could pack with art materials for future use, put in a cupboard and then have a quick turnaround when it was time for a workshop.”

Before the Clore space opened, the RA had no dedicated learning room. “This space means that there is an identifiable home for our work with the public, and that’s really powerful,” says Schneider.

However, while Clore has funded more than 50 learning spaces across the UK since 2000, a museum still has to ensure that its educational spaces are unique, meeting its own needs and context. This involves considering the educational schedule – it’s important to consider day-to-day and weekly usage, as well as additional seasonal factors such as school holidays. A learning space’s usefulness may be limited if designers haven’t considered capabilities beyond term-time school visits.

A design brief that incorporates diverse feedback can help the space work for a range of activities. The Garden Museum hopes welcome up to 60 school groups every year, twice as many as before the redesign. Its Clore space has plants, microscopes and a wide view of the former churchyard that is the museum’s centrepiece.

The space also is used for a wide range of activities, from meetings of the local tenants and residents association, to a clay-pottery class for people with dementia. Even when thinking about schools, there are vast differences between hosting groups of primary and secondary school children.

Like the Garden Museum, the RA’s education space has a variety of uses, from groups of 30 primary schoolchildren, to a monthly class for rough sleepers, to 200 guests during the academy’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

The Garden Museum highlights how museums can play a unique role in in their local communities. Being in an inner-city location, its ability to provide practical tools for engaging with plant life sets it apart from most local schools.

“We wanted it to feel special,” says Woodward. “You’ve got to offer something that a school can’t, and a lot of children are coming from school buildings without anything growing inside or outside, so we wanted to make the space full of plants. We also aim not to have more than one school in the building at any one time, so they can feel special.”

In this way, the museum combines a memorable day out with a valuable educational experience – a principle for education and outreach that all museums can subscribe to.

The balance of fun and education is a perennial issue for curatorial staff. To pull it off, museums need to make design choices that help with concentration.

Museums and galleries have had a reputation for having dark, cramped education rooms. But it is now widely recognised that these spaces need to be easy to find and access, with bright colours and lighting.

Details such as large windows and close proximity of toilets are vitally important as they help improve the mindset of those using the space.

The Hepworth Wakefield has a Changing Places toilet at its Clore Learning Studios, with a fully adjustable changing bed with hoists, as well as space for carers.

There can be a concern of staying true to the museum’s aesthetic while integrating new learning programmes that cater to a wide audience – particularly in historic buildings. 

This was an issue that the Garden Museum, which is housed in the Victorian former church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, successfully navigated by incorporating large windows and a proximity to the adjoining wall of Lambeth Palace. The RA’s new centre also looks out over the courtyard between its two buildings.

Torre Abbey Museum in Torquay underwent a restoration in 2013 that included new learning rooms. The redevelopment has ensured that its LearningLab space is connected to the abbey’s cloisters, but also has a separate entrance for groups to use outside normal opening hours.

This use of the space has paid off, drawing interest from local community and performance groups. This in turn expands the museum’s creative scope.

While there has been an increase in designated educational spaces in museums, there are other options, such as the new Wonderlab gallery at Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum.

“Wonderlab was designed not only to be a key space, catering for the KS1 and KS2 curriculum, but also to be a prominent public gallery in its own right,” says Vicky Clifton, the head of learning and participation at National Science and Media Museum.

“It’s worked in both senses – school group visits are up, and general visits have also increased since it opened, with many visitors naming it as their favourite part of the museum.”

Wonderlab is just one of many examples of how museums are rethinking their education and learning spaces and making them work for schools, adult learners, visitors and other groups.