Emmajane Avery [Director of Learning & Visitor Experience, V&A]: ‘Creating Innovative Learning Programmes’ at the V&A is about how we run museum learning activities for a whole range of audiences here at the V&A Museum. It’s designed for international museum delegates who are responsible for learning programmes within their own museums across the globe.
Anaïs Aguerre [Head of International Initiatives, V&A]: Learning programmes are becoming increasingly important for museums across the globe, so that’s true for the U.K. and it’s true for many countries. I think it’s linked to the fact that visitors now are looking for an experience. They want to engage and get knowledge in a very diverse manner, and I think museums are responding to that. So there is an increasing need for museums to develop enriching and engaging visitor experience.
Emmajane Avery: The lecture elements have included programming for a wide range of audiences, including schools, families, young people, digital learning, adults, students, people working in the creative industries, as well as looking at interpretation of our galleries and how we research our audiences so we know how to plan the best type of activities. Many of these lectures have included a workshop element.
Katerina Stephanides [A.G. Leventis Gallery (Nicosia, Cyprus)]: I think for me the best thing about this programme was to be able to get an insight into the programmes offered by the V&A. I come from Cyprus, it’s at a relatively new museum, the A.G. Leventis Gallery, and there hasn’t been this sort of heritage of a connection between museums and education, which is something that’s really important for us to build, so it was great to be able to have an insight and to have a model to look at from a museum that’s been doing this for so long.
Virginia Agote [Franklin Rawson Museum (San Juan, Argentina)]: Well, for me it was really surprising to see how all of the team, the staff of the V&A, was really opened and generous with all of their information they shared with us; it was really all the programmes’ information, inside information, that you don’t easily get access visiting the museum and the website. And actually it was quite surprising and very generous of the V&A staff.
Mathias Rude [Brandts (Odense, Denmark)]: The key thing for me has been to learn how you carry out your school programmes and how you inspire the public and primarily schoolchildren to see your exhibitions in a new way, and see the objects in new ways. That’s been very inspiring to me.
Beate Lex [MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts | Contemporary Art (Vienna, Austria)]: We also had sessions that was quite really practical, so giving us deep insights into the actual programmes, into organising these, into structuring these, so people shared really practical experience and information with us.
Hanna Forssell [The National Museum of Finland (Helsinki, Finland)]: I’m very motivated by the course in the V&A, got many new ideas and views, and when I’m going back to home I’m going to use them in my own museum.
Christie Chua [National Museum of Singapore]: The speakers who have come through to speak with us, they have been a very nice bunch, very energetic, and it’s so nice to see all of them so passionate about their work. So yeah, I did have fun.
Anaïs Aguerre: So the idea is to have this course on an annual basis, so we are currently developing plans to develop other similar intensive courses.
Emmajane Avery: The V&A is well-placed to provide this type of programme because it was established in the 19th century in order to promote good design. It was established as a design school and also as a collection where people could come and learn about good design as consumers but also as manufacturers and people working in the creative industries, and we’ve remained absolutely true to those roots to this very day. We have a very strong learning programme that tries to inspire creativity and inspire those consumers but also the next generation of designers, so the V&A has learning absolutely at its heart.