The Museum of the Year award is the most widely awarded in the sector, making it one of the most coveted by cultural institutions since 1973. In July 2024, it was awarded to the Young V&A (which received a nice check for 140,000 euros), barely a year after its reopening. Twelve months were enough for the first museum in history to have been developed in collaboration with children to establish itself as an example to follow.
It all started a handful of years ago with a question: “What do you think of museums?” British consultancy agency Beano Brain collected the views of a large number of children born after 2015, at the request of the Victoria and Albert Museuman essential institution founded in 1852 by Queen Victoria. The verdict is in: 44% of them considered them boring. And the venerable V&A Museum of Childhood, a offspring born in 1872, did not escape the severe sentence.
Museums take children for balls
This childhood museum, ultimately, fell into the same pitfall as many others: that of“approaching children from a deficit perspective”according to Professor Monica Eileen Patterson, director of the department of curatorial studies at Carleton University, in Ottawa (Canada). In other words, we have already talked about it, children are taken for idiots that they are not. “They are treated as burdens that need to be controlled, learners that need to be educated, beings full of energy, with short attention spans, who need to be distracted.”
Exhibitions imagined by children, for children. | David Parry, PA Media Assignments / V&A Press Office
Not to mention that the activities offered to children are rarely developed from their point of view, but from that of the adults who “set the rules and the framework, (…) ask children to imitate the work of adult artists, or talk to them (…) about works created by adults”. In short, it is clear that until the birth of the Young V&A, museums had it all wrong.
“The happiest museum in the world”
The time was serious. What to do with the museum’s 5,000 square meters of exhibition space, its 2,000 works illustrating the world of childhood over seven millennia? The architectural firms chosen to carry out the mission therefore took up residence within the walls of the V&A Museum of Childhood. Then they imagined a large participatory laboratory in which, for ten months, 22,000 children came to brainstorm with them in turns.
IMAGINE, a gallery… imagined by children? The Mona Lisa remains thoughtful. | Luke Hayes / V&A Press Office
All proposals from budding museographers were considered seriously. The “Children’s Forum” imposed the need to create an inclusive venue (free entry, workshops and exhibitions arranged for wheelchair access), full of optimism and positivity, “while taking into account the complexities of young lives today”summarizes the director of the Young V&A, Helen Charman.
Sine qua non of survival
Co-creation and co-design practices have made it possible to “unlock and express creative potential” of young audiences, while offering a recalibration “the role of the museum at a time of enormous global challenges”.
The Design gallery, to understand, learn and invent. | Luke Hayes / V&A Press Office
The museum had to be fun (“the happiest in the world”concluded the young consultants), but also informative and responsible. For Helen Charman, it is the role of institutions to answer the questions that these changes raise: “Dynamic is the sine qua non of survival – or the insignificance of risk.”
The Young V&A proudly displays the results of its zero waste policy: rubble from the construction site, yogurt pots or worn-out furniture have been recycled and then transformed into workshop tables or work surfaces. Around 17 million euros were spent on the reinvention of the museum, which took three years.
At baby height
The museum in its original form was rather austere: children and architects therefore worked on ways to bring light and color into the historic building. Three new exhibition galleries, called Play, Imagine and Design, overlook the central atrium, now bathed in natural light, which serves as a huge play space. A large spiral staircase punctuates its end, topped by an enormous reflective globe inspired by the optical illusion games in the V&A collection.
The Mini Museum, at baby height: historical objects, tactile furniture and visitors under the spell. | Luke Hayes (courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London) / V&A Press Office
The name of each gallery is displayed in huge, brightly colored capital letters (chosen by the children), each aimed at an age group. Even toddlers have the right to their space. In the Play gallery, the Mini Museum presents all kinds of objects from the collections, but displayed in a way to stimulate young people. Tactile display cases, reflective objects at eye level for visitors not yet old enough to walk, frames and structures covered in soft textiles, etc.
Is the Young V&A the coolest museum in the world? | David Parry (courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London) / V&A Press Office
“If there is a sparkling object inside the display case, it will be displayed in a sparkling frame”explains Helen Charman. “If it is made of marble, then children will be able to feel the texture of the marble. There is also a sound tree that brings objects to life.for example broadcasting the sound of rain to animate the reproduction of a work by David Hockney.
At the Young V&A, we come across cars that fly and trees that talk. | Jamie Stoker (courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London) / V&A Press Office
Children, designers of objects in the store
Rather than a static scenography, each space opts for an immersive and interactive approach, detailing not only the history of the objects but also showing how they were made. There are also three spaces dedicated to workshops, a reading room, a shop in the lobby and a café.
Upstairs, the Design gallery highlights innovative objects and case studies. A workshop cabin welcomes designers or artists in residence, while the Open Studio offers the challenges of conceptionn for 11-14 year olds: they develop objects which are then made and sold in the museum shop.
Teenagers are invited to imagine and create souvenir objects that are then sold in the museum shop. | Luke Hayes / V&A Press Office
The “the happiest museum in the world” does not just bring joy to its visitors: it invents new ways to involve them and perpetuate their relationship with the place and its mission. No more boring exposition or poorly chosen theme: children share their ideas, decide on angles, express their wishes and fears.
Finally listened to and heard, they approve of the result of this undertaking like no other: since the Museum of Childhood’s trappings were put away, visitors to the Young V&A have tripled.
Source: www.slate.fr
