Chloe Osmond- Sharpe’s Pottery Museum
Final Report for Innovation in Museum Displays Project
1. Aims and Objectives
The aims and objectives of this pilot project, as funded by EMMS, Nottingham Trent
University and Arts Council England, were long term. The idea was to work with local school
pupils to display the inspiration that they gained from the collection at Sharpe’s Pottery
Museum. This was to be installed as an innovative temporary exhibition, and workshops
were to be carried out alongside the display to involve the public in the project. Whilst
shorter objectives involved increasing flow to the permanent exhibition rooms upstairs and
creating a positive dialogue with the audience, the long-term aims were also constantly in
mind throughout the project.
Perhaps the most important was to focus on sustainability and to ensure to public
viewing the exhibition was left with a positive impression of Sharpe’s. Whilst we wanted to
increase the visitor flow throughout the exhibition, we also wanted to increase this visitor
flow after the exhibition had been uninstalled. To do this, it was essential that the exhibition
was presented in an interactive, professional way so that the audience could see Sharpe’s in
a new light and be more likely to revisit.
2. Exhibition Development Process
2.1 Planning and Initial Stages
After an initial discussion with Sharpe’s Curator Ruth Buttery and Project Mentor
Andrea Hadley-Johnson, it was decided that the theme of ‘pattern’ would be a good subject
matter for the pupils to grasp. From here it was arranged to meet the twelve Year 4 pupils
from Belmont Primary School for an introductory visit to the museum on 22nd November
2013. They were given disposable cameras and magnifying glasses and invited to explore
the museum looking for pattern in the collection. They were also given several items from
the handling collection which gave them the opportunity to ‘feel’ different pattern textures.
The idea of this initial visit was to introduce them to the collection and encourage thoughts
about their display. It also gave me the opportunity to get to know the pupils as well as the
teachers to think about the future dynamic.
At this stage the project was in its early stages so we had to be prepared for any
display that the pupils may want to create to give them the freedom to be innovative. We
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had the usual limitations of space, time and budgetary restrictions; however we were keen
to encourage the pupils to be as imaginative as possible. The students were shown the
spatial limitations of the exhibition room on the first visit to ensure they knew what was
possible, but were urged to be as creative as possible. These initial stages were strongly
supported by Curator Ruth Buttery. Ruth went on maternity leave on 13th December 2013
and was replaced by Jennifer Drapans.
2.2 Pupil Workshops
There were six pupil workshops in total between the initial visit on 22 nd November
2013 and 29th January 2014. There were seven dates scheduled, however Belmont was
forced to cancel a date in January due to lack of teacher cover at the school. The twelve
pupils consisted of seven girls and five boys in Year 4 who the teachers chose due to their
interest in history. The pupils noticeably became more confident within themselves and
towards the museum with each workshop that passed, as they became more comfortable
around the staff and in the museum surroundings.
A variety of worksheets were created to promote thought from the students about
their display which can be seen in Appendix A in the order that they were used. Information
gained from these worksheets were used in the display booklet in the exhibition, however
their primary use was to help the pupils to choose their favourite patterned object as well as
their chosen display methods. The pupils were given a blank footprint and postcard so they
could design their own patterns. Examples of these can be seen in Appendix B. These
footprints were placed between the café and the exhibition space to encourage visitor flow,
and the postcards were placed on the café tables for the same reason.
The first worksheet in Appendix A was used to get to know the pupils in an attempt
to find out what objects they might like from Sharpe’s storage collection, as well as what
display methods they would be likely to lean towards. The second worksheet was given to
them on their second tour of the museum on 5th December 2013. Here they were asked to
note down their favourite patterned object in each area of the museum and at the end of
the session were asked to tick their favourite five items. This was to help them narrow down
their choice gradually to ensure they were happy with the decision. Ten items were brought
out of storage for the pupils to look at, as well as the usual items on display.
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The pupils’ third worksheet was double sided; please refer again to the ‘Your Display’
sheets in Appendix A. This was to help the children narrow down their chosen display
method in a gradual way and promote creative thinking. In order not to stifle innovative
thought they were encouraged to come up with their own ideas. In the example given the
student came up with the notion of touchy-feely boxes which was then put into process.
The fourth and final worksheet was double sided again and used on 19 th December.
The pupils were each given a customised sheet which was compiled according to their
answers on the previous worksheets to help them decide on their chosen object and display
method. None of the pupils had any trouble deciding on their object or their display method
however it should be noted that if this project were to be repeated this may be a possible
problem.
Three objects were chosen multiple times, however where the object choice
overlapped the students had chosen different display methods. For example, both Kayleigh
and Amelia chose the blue and white chamber pot which had been brought out of storage.
Kayleigh had opted to make a video whereas Amelia had chosen to make a clay
reproduction of the pot. This helped the diversity and the flow of the exhibition. This may
again be a potential problem for any future similar projects as Project Managers need to be
prepared for pupils to choose the same objects and the same display methods. To try and
prevent this problem I made sure to speak to each student away from their peers to ensure
they were not influenced by anyone else. It was only at this point that the exhibition space
could start to be designed as we had to be prepared for any display method that the pupils
wanted to use.
The Belmont pupils came into Sharpe’s Pottery Museum on 17th January 2014 for a
‘practice’ session. For those pupils wanting to create clay reproductions, they were given
air-drying clay to experiment with to ensure they were happy with their method choice. For
pupils painting or drawing they were given the tools to trial their ideas on paper, and for
those creating a video they began to research about their objects and write a script. All
students were happy with their object selection and display method choice, but again this
could be a potential problem in future projects if pupils want to change their minds at this
stage. One pupil who was to reproduce a leaf plate out of clay was unwell on this day and
did not attend. This is quite a likely predicament to face when working with school children.
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The second creation workshop took place on 22nd January. This involved the pupils
creating their display objects. Those creating reproductions were given clay to be fired
which was slightly harder for the pupils to handle but managed with adult help. The
students making a video were taken to a quiet area of the museum to rehearse their scripts
and decide what they wanted the video to look like on screen. The other pupils were given
high quality paper, paints and crayons to begin making their creations.
After this workshop the children’s clay creations were taken to the kiln at Burton and
South Derbyshire College to be fired. Unfortunately two of the pupils work exploded
through no fault of the pupils. The kiln workers admitted that they had not allowed the clay
to dry out sufficiently before being fired; meaning two of the larger works were shattered.
We were able to use the air-dried creations from the previous practice session to replace
these which were a useful back-up. Whilst this was not ideal the two pupils who had lost
their work did not seem to mind and were happy to continue.
The final workshop took place on 29th January 2014. The four students creating the
DVD were filmed individually in the kiln with their chosen object. Whilst two of them were
initially shy, they were encouraged when they could watch themselves back on the
camcorder and their performance improved. Those creating paper works finished these with
no issues. The seven students using clay were given their imitations back and they were
then painted. The pupils all had adult supervision, however were largely able to complete
their work with little help, giving them the freedom to be innovative with patterns, textures
and colours. Photographs of the pupil’s workshops can be seen in Appendix C.
2.3 Exhibition Planning and Installation
The exhibition could only be planned after the children had confirmed what display
types they wished to create. A range of methods were chosen including clay reproductions,
video, touchy-feely boxes, jigsaws, drawings and a painting. One pupil also asked for there
to be an area in the exhibition space for museum visitors to create their own patterns using
plasticene. Once each pupil had decided on their display type, they were given spatial limits
to ensure the displays would all fit in the room.
It was necessary to add extra details into the display space to explain the concept to
museum visitors and ensure the exhibition had a consistent theme. A logo was designed for
the ‘Inspired by Pattern!’ exhibition which was used throughout the exhibition as well as in
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marketing and it was decided that purple would be the main background colour. This is
because purple is Sharpe’s colour and promotes sustainability as we were keen to re-use
what we could in future displays. For example, the touchy-feely boxes were painted purple
and could be re-used in future displays.
Other details added included an introductory panel explaining the project to visitors,
and an end panel to complete the display. A booklet was created introducing the public to
the Belmont Primary pupils, a page of which can be seen in Appendix D. This includes a
photo of the pupil, some information about them and their display and photographs of their
chosen object alongside their display.
The temporary exhibition space at Sharpe’s Pottery Museum features a large display
case (dimensions- 57” tall, 47 ½” wide, 117 ½” long) in the centre of the room. It was
important as always to ensure the exhibition was totally reversible, causing no permanent
damage to the area. It was decided that the case should be filled with the pupil’s clay works,
paintings and drawing alongside a selection of their chosen objects. We did not want to
include all of the chosen objects as we wanted to encourage visitors to visit the galleries
upstairs to view these items. After deciding with Project Mentor Andrea Hadley-Johnson
that the best way was to use plinths, it was determined that in order to achieve a highly
professional finish we should hire a freelance exhibition artist to carry out this plinth work
on the case. At this point Andrea’s colleague Khyati Koria-Green was brought in and
introduced to the project. Khyati’s role was to source plinths and decide, together with
myself, the best way to display the pupil’s works and original objects. I designed a vinyl strip
to be featured along the top of the case in order to avoid having a large empty gap, as has
been a problem with previous exhibitions in this space.
After some experimentation on paper with possible designs of the room, the rest of
the exhibition room was planned. The booklet was placed on a brick tower next to the
introductory panel to give visitors a thorough introduction to the project and the children
involved. This was placed to the left of the entrance to the space as research shows a
majority of visitors view exhibitions from left to right.
The space then moved into an interactive area starting with three touchy-feely
boxes, each filled with a clay patterned square made by the pupils. This was followed by
three jigsaws. The pupils each painted a design which was then scanned and sent to artist
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Garry Cartlidge who created the jigsaws, as well as creating the touchy-feely boxes. In the
back left corner we placed ‘Plasticene Corner’, which was an idea of a student.
In the back left corner featured a digital photo frame showing images of the children
creating the display, placed on a brick tower. Ideally this would have been at the end of the
exhibition, however due to the limitations of the room (i.e. where the plug sockets are
found) it was decided it was best placed here. The brick towers were used for the frame and
the booklet, as well as some of the plinth as one of the Belmont students had chosen the
bricks in the kiln as their favourite pattern in the museum. We believed this added colour to
the room, and the excitement of a familiar texture to the space.
Next to the frame in the corner was the television screen with a DVD player showing
the pupils’ videos on repeat. This was edited by myself and featured title screens with the
same logo and colour scheme as used throughout the exhibition. Rather than have the
sound playing aloud, headphones were plugged in so that visitors could listen if they
wanted. This is because studies have shown repeating sound can in some cases deter
visitors from staying in the space for very long.
A whiteboard was hung on the right-hand wall encouraging visitors to draw their
own patterns on the wall and be as innovative as possible. This was followed by the end
panel and comments book. To encourage visitor flow, the pupils’ postcards were placed in
the café and 24 footprints (two of each design) were placed between the café and the
exhibition space. Photographs of the exhibition space, as well as the footprints, can be seen
in Appendix E.
The exhibition was installed on schedule over two days on 17th and 18th February
2014 with the help of Khyati and volunteers. The initial issue was regarding the tables
purchased as they took approximately four hours to build even with three people helping.
This was much longer than we had anticipated. The next issue was the vinyl installers were
three hours late delaying some of the work we needed to install in the case. This did not
turn out to be a major problem in our situation as we had allowed plenty of extra time for
such issues to arise. It is therefore important to ensure this is repeated with future projects.
The exhibition was opened on 19th February 2014 as timetabled, alongside a free workshop.
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3. Workshops
Five workshops took place between November 2013 and March 2014. These were all
free for the public to attend and had a positive turnout. The idea was that the public viewed
the exhibition and then chose their favourite object to create their own display about, in the
same way that the pupils had done. The first workshop was organised as part of the Kids
Take Over Museums weekend on 23rd November 2013 by Ruth Buttery. Unfortunately it was
not well advertised and there were no participants.
The following workshops were carried out on 15th February, 19th February, 22nd
February and 15th March 2014. After the lessons we learnt from the first workshop we
advertised these workshops much more prolifically. We included the dates on the marketing
posters and leaflets, as well as on Sharpe’s website and Facebook page. As a result these
workshops had a very high turnout resulting in people having to be turned away due to the
limited space Sharpe’s possesses to carry out such activities. This was another valuable
lesson learnt for the future. The workshops were open for three hours, however we now
believe this time could be extended in future in order to allow more people to attend. The
importance of having trained volunteers to help with these workshops was also highlighted
due to the high numbers of people attending and low numbers of museum staff at Sharpe’s.
As seen in similar workshops carried out at Sharpe’s, some members of the
participating public did not want to stick to the theme and wanted to create something
entirely different. We allowed this to continue as most people were happy to give a
donation and it was judged that they were still inspired by the exhibition in some way. It
was considered only fair to let them partake, and most were keen to stick to the theme.
It was highly important that the workshops were successful as we wanted to ensure
the public were left with a positive impression of Sharpe’s and with a desire to return to
future workshops. Sharpe’s has a strong history of successful workshops and these were
judged to be positive events, with the exception of the first one in November 2013.
4. Evaluation
4.1 School Workshop Evaluation
The pupils were given two evaluation sheets which can be seen in Appendix F. The
first was given to them at the workshop on 17th January. The main aim of this was to
discover what they like about working with Sharpe’s to see if there were any improvements
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we could make before the workshops ended. The second evaluation sheet aimed to
evaluate the whole process. The results showed that the children all enjoyed making their
display; most likely due to the freedom of choice they had surrounding the exhibition.
The second question asked the students which of the activities at Sharpe’s they
enjoyed the most. The aim of this was to see what worked well for them so if the project
were to be repeated, we know what activities the pupils value highest. The results showed
the highest rated activities were using the disposable cameras, the museum tour and
making their display. The least popular result was touching the objects; a surprising result.
Whilst the pupils did not enjoy this as much as the other activities, we believe the
educational value of this was highly beneficial and it gave the children the opportunity to
‘feel’ pattern and provided a solid introduction to the topic. There were no queries in the
final two questions regarding what they specifically did not enjoy.
A lesson we have learnt is regarding teacher evaluation. The lead Belmont teacher
was Mrs Lucy Charlton and she was accompanied by teaching assistants Sue Goldby and
Donna Duggan. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we did not complete teacher
evaluation at the time. Since the final workshop multiple attempts have been made to
contact the teachers to gain feedback from them, however we have been unsuccessful. We
would therefore highly recommend that adult feedback is gained during the workshops
when the teachers are present as it has proved very difficult to get a response after the
sessions were completed.
4.2 Exhibition Evaluation
Initially a comments book was placed in the exhibition room to gain public feedback.
A copy of this can be seen in Appendix G. This gathered demographic information and aimed
to discover whether we had gained a new audience by asking if they had previously visited
Sharpe’s Pottery Museum as well as how they heard about the exhibition to determine how
successful our marketing was. A vast majority of respondents had been to Sharpe’s before,
however there were some new visitors, largely who had heard about the exhibition via the
posters and leaflets we had given to Belmont Primary School. There was also a general
comments box. This showed people were happy with how the space had been used in a
different way which was one of our main objectives; to help existing visitors to see the
museum in a new light.
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It became clear that this comments book was not giving us all of the evaluative data
that we wanted. A visitor evaluation sheet was then created which can be seen in Appendix
H. This gave us specific data to find out if we had met our original goals. These evaluation
cards were placed in the exhibition room as well as in the café. The results showed that
approximately half of the respondents were encouraged to visit the permanent galleries
upstairs which is very positive as one of our aims was to increase visitor flow.
When asked what they liked about the exhibition we received a wide variety of
answers from ‘the use of colour’ and ‘the interactives’ to ‘seeing the pupils work’ and ‘how
professional the display looks’. This qualitative data will prove very useful to us when
planning future exhibitions. The second question asking respondents for any themes they
would like us to explore was largely responded with two answers. The first was for more on
the local history of Swadlincote and the surrounding area. The second was for similar
exhibitions to ‘Inspired by Pattern!’ using interactives, involving local people (not just
children) and a professional appearance.
5. Conclusion
This was an ambitious pilot project, however it was also highly important to Sharpe’s
to use the available funding for the best use. For this reason it was crucial to produce an
interactive exhibition with a professional appearance in order for existing Sharpe’s visitors
to view the museum in a new light. By highlighting objects already on display in the upstairs
galleries, it made visitors realise they often missed certain items and we can now look into
why this may be. We also wanted to increase our audience which emphasised the
importance of successful marketing. Perhaps our largest success in this capacity was our
Facebook post advertising the opening of the exhibition the night before it launched, as it
received the highest amount of views that a post has ever received on Sharpe’s page. This
proves the importance of advertising through social media.
Perhaps the largest problem we had as a museum was a lack of work hours. We
believe that the initial 312 hours given to the Project Manager to complete the project was
not enough to complete the project to a high standard. This may have been exacerbated by
the lack of volunteers available to Sharpe’s, as well as a change in staffing at the museum.
Ruth Buttery was very supportive towards the start of the project; however her maternity
cover replacement was unable to provide the same support. This was also noted by Project
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Mentor Andrea Hadley-Johnson, and lead to the Project Manager completing a high number
of voluntary hours to ensure the goals of the exhibition were accomplished. Despite a wide
ranging appeal for volunteers including local advertising and national on Leicester University
Museums Jobs Desk, we received no applicants. We therefore only had the use of our four
existing volunteers. At Andrea’s suggestion and with EMMS approval, the budget was
reworked to move some of the finances from the exhibition materials to a wage increase
which allowed for more paid hours.
Sustainability was also important to us, as we wanted to purchase items using the
funding that could be re-used in the future to benefit the museum. Examples of re-usable
purchases include the magnetic whiteboard, digital photo frame, DVD player, camcorder,
tables and touchy-feely boxes. As Sharpe’s is a free-to-enter museum it thrives on
donations, particularly those gained during workshops. This project highlighted the
importance of these workshops and showed us that the hours of them could be extended in
order to increase the visitors we reach and therefore increase the potential donations. This
project has provided us with a strong template for future exhibitions as the space was used
in an innovative way which was well received by the public.
It was decided not to include a large amount of textual information as we did not
want to detract from the innovative display, interactives and pupil’s workshops. If this
project was to be repeated however, we would recommend including more factual
information about the original objects. The best way to do this is probably in a booklet near
the end of the exhibition so that the information is there for those who want it whilst not
detracting from the colour and creativity of the display.
In conclusion, this funding has been put to great use which will have a positive
impact in the future, even after the exhibition is uninstalled. If we were to repeat the
project we would ensure enough hours were attached to the project, and also hand out
teacher evaluation forms whilst the teachers are present. It should be noted that a staff
change in the museum can have a large impact when it occurs part-way through a project.
Whilst this cannot always be predicted, the unavoidable interruption to the project should
not be underestimated. From looking at the evaluation results, as well as through talking to
visitors, we believe we have achieved all our original aims and objectives. In particular we
helped existing visitors to view the museum in a new light which is crucial in the current
environment, and created a positive visitor dialogue through the use of interactives.
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Appendix A- Pupil Worksheets
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Appendix B- Footprints and Postcards
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Appendix C- Photographs of Pupil Workshops
Ted on 05/12/13 choosing his
favourite patterned objects in
the museum using the
worksheet seen in Appendix A
George, Kayleigh, Molly and
Amelia on 05/12/13 designing
their postcards, as seen in
Appendix B
Joe, Ted, Holly and Molly on
22/01/14 working on their
displays
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Sam and Faith on 22/01/14
working on their clay replicas
The twelve Belmont Primary
School pupils involved in the
project
Pupil George with Sharpe’s
volunteer Pete Edwards filming
his video on 29/01/14
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Sam painting his clay creation
on 29/01/14
Hollie painting her clay
creation on 29/01/14
Faith and Isabel painting their
works on 29/01/14
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Appendix D- Booklet Sample
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Appendix E- Exhibition Photographs
The introductory panel next to the
booklet and a touchy-feely box
The booklet, touchy-feely boxes,
jigsaws and Plasticene Corner at the
back
The exhibition case containing the
pupils’ works and the objects they
were inspired by
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The digital photo frame (later
replaced with a larger frame) and TV
screen
The end panel with comments book
The display case showing the vinyl
installation at the top of the case
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The whiteboard
The footprints leading through the
kiln and the gift shop and into the
exhibition area
Close up of a finished footprint
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Appendix F- Pupil Evaluation Sheets
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Appendix G- Comments Book
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Appendix G- Exhibition Evaluation Sheet
Come and visit out ‘Inspired by Pattern’ exhibition in Sharpe’s Pottery Museum. Just follow the
footprints! Afterwards, please fill out the short questionnaire below and hand it into front desk
in the gift shop
1. What did you like about the exhibition?
2. What themes or ideas would you like us to explore
in future projects?
3. Has the exhibition encouraged you to visit the
permanent collection upstairs?
Yes
No
We hope to see you again at Sharpe’s soon!
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