The past ten years has seen a revolution in museum education. Museums have placed learning at the core of their service to the public and have developed extensive programmes, establishing their role as vital centres of knowledge in the community.
Learning to Live: Museums, Young People and Education, commissioned by the National Museum Directors' Conference with the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), explores what more museums can and should be doing.
Why have we seen such a rapid growth in interest in museum learning and a significant increase in museum visits by young people? One important reason is the growth in the importance of culture within society generally.
Rather than being solely a leisure activity, culture, in its broadest sense, is now recognised as a means through which people can understand the world, and museum collections help us all to understand each other's individual and collective identities.
Another factor is related to the creative economy. As a nation in which knowledge and adaptability determine economic wellbeing, we need to develop the capacity of all young people to generate original ideas and to act on them. Museums have a vital role to play in the creative aspects of learning.
Young people are spending more of their time on the internet, and technology has provided new ways for museums to interact with audiences. In 1998-99 the websites of the 18 national museums received 5 million hits. By 2007-08 that number had risen to 128 million.
Most of our great museums now offer online courses, virtual tours, resources for teachers, videos and podcasts. Young people are increasingly abandoning traditional broadcast media and museums will be obliged to invest heavily in their online presence, and will need greater sophistication in their use of technology.
Museums lie outside the formal education sector: for most visitors and learners they offer a "third space". They are neither school nor home, and there is greater opportunity for self-directed study, where more personal approaches can be explored.
This matters because throughout history some of the most creative people have failed to thrive in traditional educational institutions: Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali were both expelled from school; David Bowie gained only one O-level and the creativity of Richard Rogers and many other artists and architects was unrecognised at school because of their dyslexia. Creative people like these either need a different attitude to learning within school, or places away from school where they can grow.
In recent years, thanks to the National Lottery and substantial contributions from private donors, notably the Clore Duffield Foundation and the Sackler Foundation, the infrastructure that supports learning in museums has improved in quantity and quality.
In 2008, 77 per cent of museums have dedicated educational facilities, and 55 per cent have a specific education room, compared with only 34 per cent in 1994.
Young people visiting museums have been assessed, measured and scrutinised, but what do they actually think?. Culture, after all, is not something that is done to people; it is something that people discover within and for themselves. Only if young people are engaging willingly in what museums are offering, can we legitimately claim to have been successful.
During the last decade there has been a surge of interest in museum learning from teachers and families. Undoubtedly free entry encouraged this change, but alone it is not enough. Parents have to be persuaded that museums are effective places in which their children can learn new skills and discover new dimensions.
Statistics show that 80 per cent of parents agree that "museums and galleries are among the most important resources for educating our children", but this approval masks class differences, and ABC1 parents are more likely to agree strongly with the proposition.
Museum audiences reflect the divisions that exist within society. Introducing young people to museums challenges those divisions. There is also good evidence that museum learning can be successful in reaching young people who suffer the most severe social deprivation.
The University of Leicester's review of the Strategic Commissioning Programme found that 30 per cent of all visits were from schools in wards where child poverty is highest.
We have come a long way but there remains much more that we can contribute. The UK is a signatory to the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that every child "has the right… to participate freely in cultural life and the arts".
A visit to a museum should be a normal, familiar and everyday experience for all young people in this country. We are committed to making this a reality.
Nicholas Serota is the director of Tate
Learning to Live: Museums, Young People and Education, commissioned by the National Museum Directors' Conference with the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), explores what more museums can and should be doing.
Why have we seen such a rapid growth in interest in museum learning and a significant increase in museum visits by young people? One important reason is the growth in the importance of culture within society generally.
Rather than being solely a leisure activity, culture, in its broadest sense, is now recognised as a means through which people can understand the world, and museum collections help us all to understand each other's individual and collective identities.
Another factor is related to the creative economy. As a nation in which knowledge and adaptability determine economic wellbeing, we need to develop the capacity of all young people to generate original ideas and to act on them. Museums have a vital role to play in the creative aspects of learning.
Young people are spending more of their time on the internet, and technology has provided new ways for museums to interact with audiences. In 1998-99 the websites of the 18 national museums received 5 million hits. By 2007-08 that number had risen to 128 million.
Most of our great museums now offer online courses, virtual tours, resources for teachers, videos and podcasts. Young people are increasingly abandoning traditional broadcast media and museums will be obliged to invest heavily in their online presence, and will need greater sophistication in their use of technology.
Museums lie outside the formal education sector: for most visitors and learners they offer a "third space". They are neither school nor home, and there is greater opportunity for self-directed study, where more personal approaches can be explored.
This matters because throughout history some of the most creative people have failed to thrive in traditional educational institutions: Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali were both expelled from school; David Bowie gained only one O-level and the creativity of Richard Rogers and many other artists and architects was unrecognised at school because of their dyslexia. Creative people like these either need a different attitude to learning within school, or places away from school where they can grow.
In recent years, thanks to the National Lottery and substantial contributions from private donors, notably the Clore Duffield Foundation and the Sackler Foundation, the infrastructure that supports learning in museums has improved in quantity and quality.
In 2008, 77 per cent of museums have dedicated educational facilities, and 55 per cent have a specific education room, compared with only 34 per cent in 1994.
Young people visiting museums have been assessed, measured and scrutinised, but what do they actually think?. Culture, after all, is not something that is done to people; it is something that people discover within and for themselves. Only if young people are engaging willingly in what museums are offering, can we legitimately claim to have been successful.
During the last decade there has been a surge of interest in museum learning from teachers and families. Undoubtedly free entry encouraged this change, but alone it is not enough. Parents have to be persuaded that museums are effective places in which their children can learn new skills and discover new dimensions.
Statistics show that 80 per cent of parents agree that "museums and galleries are among the most important resources for educating our children", but this approval masks class differences, and ABC1 parents are more likely to agree strongly with the proposition.
Museum audiences reflect the divisions that exist within society. Introducing young people to museums challenges those divisions. There is also good evidence that museum learning can be successful in reaching young people who suffer the most severe social deprivation.
The University of Leicester's review of the Strategic Commissioning Programme found that 30 per cent of all visits were from schools in wards where child poverty is highest.
We have come a long way but there remains much more that we can contribute. The UK is a signatory to the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that every child "has the right… to participate freely in cultural life and the arts".
A visit to a museum should be a normal, familiar and everyday experience for all young people in this country. We are committed to making this a reality.
Nicholas Serota is the director of Tate
