May Half Term

Young V&A held a fulsome programme of half term activity centred around the theme of ‘This Is Me!’, one of the co-curated galleries in the Bloomfield Gallery, Imagine – which explores self-expression and creativity. Play Saturday: Acoustic Pavilion welcomed young visitors to build playful structures and explore sound and space in an installation created by artist Yuri Suzuki, while upstairs in The Shed, Meet the Designer saw set and costume designer Saskia Martindale give young visitors the opportunity to explore her many props and costumes designed and made for advertising and retail projects, as well as her personal project of 50 costumes made from discarded materials.

In The Stage, a special puppet show for age 5+, by artists Ash Appadu and Katya Bobina, explored themes of identity via a timid monster named Moss interacting with their environment. Originally created by Ash Appadu as part of the Little Angel Theatre programme, the tale was re-worked specifically for Young V&A by visual artists Ash Appadu and Katya Bobina supported by Little Angel Theatre.

In the Clore Learning Studios, comic artist Ahmed Raffat ran a Superhero Costume workshop, working with visitors to design a character with their own superpower, and turn it into a wearable costume and a Tempera paining workshop, inspired by our current exhibition ‘Making Egypt’ taught 7-14 year olds how to make paint with the ancient technique of tempera.

Interpretation projects

Meanwhile, two beautifully conceived projects led by the Young V&A Interpretation team have gone live.

Costume Project

This project brought together our back of house interpretation colleagues with our Young V&A Front of House Assistants to create a set of new costumes for The Stage.  

The Stage is Young V&A’s magical space for up to 60 visitors to both perform and enjoy a rich display of artefacts from the V&A Collections via storytelling; spoken word, acting, singing, dancing; shadow puppets; and most importantly on this occasion – dress up!

The project aimed to provide FoH participants with a better understanding of the Young V&A commissioning process and give training on how to write a brief and practical experience of wider Interpretation practices such as responding to visitor needs. FoH Assistants worked in groups to respond to a brief, each one designing a new costume for visitors. Each group was given feedback to further respond to, including comments from the Curators who originally created the gallery spaces. After two rounds of feedback the teams then worked with Interpretation colleagues to create a production brief. Two of the groups had their costumes made by an external costume maker, whilst the other three groups created their costumes themselves (through individuals who had impressive sewing experience!). The costumes are now on display for public use in the Imagine Gallery, being used and loved by visitors of all ages – as you can see below!

Max Lamb Tactile Stools

In 2024 the Interpretation Team received funding by the Wolfson Foundation to deliver an accessible project for the Young V&A galleries. The aim was to improve the offer for visitors with visual impairments by commissioning a set of tactile stools for the Design Gallery.

Working with our chosen designer, Max Lamb, we ran workshops in partnership with the Together Space, testing materials and textures with SEND families.

The outcome is 4 fabulous stools each made from a different core material (wood, plastic, metal and fabric),  reflecting the different processes on display in The Factory. They feature a wealth of tactile surfaces, moving parts to discover and unexpected elements, often using found, reused or thrifted pieces.

The Interpretation Team are now developing audio descriptions of the stools in collaboration with audiences. The stools will go on display in September 2025 as part of London Design Festival.

The Importance of Play

Alongside our site-based programmes, Young V&A continues to engage advocacy partnerships driving forward the vital importance of play in childhood.  Two recent examples include the ‘Power of Play’ project led by The LEGO Group, with project partners Young V&A, Easy Peasy, Save the Children and the Institute of Imagination.  This award winning programme created and convened by the LEGO Group, supported by the LEGO Foundation,  aims to bring quality learning through play(LtP) to children in Tower Hamlets.​  The consortium consists of expert organisations that focus on children’s education, rights and wellbeing to promote long-term locally led change. Launched in 2024, the Power of Play is focused on improving children’s holistic skills and wellbeing by increasing access to learning through play opportunities and on embedding playful learning practices through strengthening the confidence of caregivers and educators to facilitate these.  Young V&A’s project brings Play Champions into our gallery spaces to facilitate creative learning through play and to build creative confidence through playful engagement with our collections.​ We offer a safe space and friendly role models to support children’s learning. The Young V&A project delivers a mix of regular, drop-in activity for families and targeted workshops delivered to schools and community organisations, to ensure there are multiple points of access for participants. ​Regular activity includes sensory and sound-based play for children under 5’s, collaborative and large-scale building activities for children aged 3+, and performance and story-based play for children from 5-11.  Ideation and designerly play in the Open Studio of our Design Gallery will support children aged 5-11 to find new creative ways to learn and play.​

On 11 June, Catherine Ritman-Smith, Head of Learning and Engagement at Young V&A and project lead,  joined the launch of the Play Commission’s report, State of Play – Raising the Nation.  The launch marks a significant milestone in the journey towards securing a brighter, more playful future for children across England.   From its inception in June 2024 and chaired by Paul Lindley OBE in partnership with Baroness Anne Longfield CBE and the Centre for Young Lives, the Raising the Nation Play Commission has brought together 19 expert commissioners to conduct an extensive year-long inquiry into why play is critical to children’s wellbeing, and how it can be restored to every childhood in England. The full report can be found here.

Reading Rights

Continuing the work of advocacy for early years‘ creativity and development, in early June, I was in conversation with Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust for a What Next? roundtable. What Next? is the only UK-wide free-to-access movement that brings together both freelancers, and small and large organisations, to debate and shape the future of the arts and culture, working to  democratise power and policy making in our sector.

At the end of May, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and the BookTrustpublished a report that proves that, for children and families, reading together builds an apparatus of happiness and gives young people the best possible start in life. Building on cutting-edge scientific research into child development, the report brings together evidence and practice as to the impact that books and reading have on wellbeing, development and life-chances. The report lays out a vision where education, early years, libraries, arts and culture, and health all work together, and sets out some ways to make this happen. The full Reading Rights report can be found here.

The roundtable was a great opportunity for Diana, Frank and myself to talk through the findings of the report and for us all to engage in conversation about the value and place of early years within the arts and cultural sector, what it means to be an advocate for this in the current climate, and what is needed in the short, medium and long term.

And finally – goodbye to Young V&A Committee!

Last month we held our last Young V&A Committee. Over the past seven years members of the Young V&A Committee have provided governance oversight of the core vision of Young V&A to promote creative confidence and creative skills aligned with the three V&A collection domains of art, design and performance. Their specific duties have been concerned with policies and practices relating to Young V&A’s learning programme; the management of Young V&A’s collections; the presentation of Young V&A’s displays, galleries and exhibitions; as well as advocating for Young V&A in its local. national and international contexts. Young V&A committee members have represented areas from local schools, early years and play, family policy and education to finance and funding.

Now fully up and running, Young V&A doesn’t require specific governance oversight. Instead, we will be setting up a new Learning and Audiences committee which provides high-level strategic oversight of the multisite V&A Learning and Audiences strategies.  Our thanks go to all Young V&A committee members, past and present, who have given up their time, experience and expertise to make Young V&A the most joyful museum in the world. An update on the new Learning and Audiences Committee will follow in a later blog post.