News
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Consortium of Oxford museums scoop new £10,000 Clore Award for Museum Learning
A consortium of Oxford museums – the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History – has jointly won an exciting new award celebrating learning in museums, it was announced last night.
The Oxford museums received the accolade for their programme Making Museums, in which school children design and make their own museums, from acquisition to exhibition, on the theme of celebrating their identities.
The judges of the 2011 inaugural Clore Award for Museum Learning were so impressed by the outstanding quality of the finalists that they have awarded – for the first year only – double the prize money to joint winners. The South London Gallery has won the accolade alongside a consortium of the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. This is an extraordinary outcome that reflects the incredibly high standard of the short listed entries and the Clore Duffield Foundation’s intention to celebrate diverse, high-quality, and high-impact learning initiatives, particularly for children and young people.
The Oxford consortium and the South London Gallery have each have won £10,000 – bringing the total of the prize money to £20,000, instead of the planned £10,000 single award. The Award recognises and celebrates quality, impact and innovation in using museums and galleries for learning activities and initiatives.
The South London Gallery applied for Making Play – adventures in creative play through contemporary art, which involved the children living on a housing estate adjacent to the Gallery.
Mike O’Hanlon, Director, Pitt Rivers Museum and Sue Iversen, Acting Director, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, said: “The winning project is called 'Making Museums'. Many things 'make museums' but one of them is inspirational staff and we would like to pay tribute to the education officers and their colleagues in both museums for their energy and creativity that made this the winning entry.”
Andrew McLellan, Head of Education, Pitt Rivers Museum, said: “Britain has an incredible array of museums, from local history, to science and world cultures. The quality of the collections in this country has, in recent years, been matched by the quality of teaching that goes on there. At Oxford’s Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers we have delivered a wonderful and exciting project in partnership with local schools, but we are also aware of the many other programmes across the country offering outstanding quality.
“Our project, Making Museums, has been picked out as an example of good practice for a number of reasons. Three and a half thousand children from Oxford’s estates, such as Blackbird Leys, Wood Farm and Barton, can testify to the excitement of learning through handling real historic objects, archaeological digs, behind the scenes visits, and making their own museum about themselves and their communities. It’s also an example of Education Officers working with Collections and Conservation staff to show what a modern, professional museum actually does, each delivering their area of expertise. No one quite knows what the future holds for museum funding, but hopefully today’s events will make everyone more aware of the amazing things happening in our museums.”
Introduced for the first time this year, the Clore Award sits under the umbrella of the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries – which recognises and stimulates originality and excellence in museums and galleries in the UK. The winner of the Art Fund Prize is the British Museum for its A History of the World project.
The winners of both accolades were announced last night at a ceremony hosted by Michael Portillo, Chair of the Judges of the Art Fund Prize. Award judge Cerrie Burnell announced the winners of the Clore Award.
The Clore Award judging panel was co-chaired by Dame Vivien Duffield DBE, Chairman of the Clore Duffield Foundation and Sally Bacon, the Foundation’s Director. They were joined by Cerrie Burnell, presenter on CBeebies, the BBC’s TV channel for under 6s; Gerard Kelly, Editor of The Times Educational Supplement; and Mark Taylor, Director of the Museums Association and Art Fund Prize Trustee.
Dame Vivien Duffield said: “This was an extremely tough decision, reflecting the outstanding quality of the short-listed applications. In the end we could not choose between two projects operating in very different contexts: one with primary schools; and the other on a London housing estate. We therefore decided – for this year, as an exception – to award two prizes for museum learning. There is excellent learning work happening in many museums across the UK and we want to highlight some of the brilliant things that go on in order to push all museums and galleries to continue to raise their game.”
The two museums were part of a short list of five. The other three short listed institutions are: Museums Sheffield: Weston Park, Sheffield for With Sheba and Arwa (Belonging); National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth for Face to Face: Documenting experiences of conflict; Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Newcastle upon Tyne for Culture Shock.
For more information on the Clore Award for Museum Learning and the Art Fund Prize, visit http://www.artfundprize.org.uk.
