Snapshots of Museum Experience Now Published.

 Posted on July 18, 2018  |  1 minutes  |  136 words  |  Will Buckingham

I’m delighted to announce that Elee’s Snapshots of Museum Experience: Understanding Child Visitors Through Photography has now been published by Routledge. I’ve not yet received the author copies, but I’m looking forward to seeing the book in real life. Elee’s book is available initially in (prohibitively costly) hardback and ebook formats, so if you want a copy, it might be better to get in touch with your local library. There will also be a cheaper paperback edition coming out next year. [Read More]
children  museum  natural history  publications 

Notice Visitors, Create Joyful Gallery

 Posted on June 8, 2015  |  4 minutes  |  770 words  |  eleekirk

A while back, I discovered that Derby Museum and Art Gallery was about to open a new natural history gallery. This was exciting to me for three reasons: firstly, because I ‘collect’ natural history galleries by visiting as many as I can; secondly, because Derby is very easy for me to get to; and thirdly, because the new gallery had the incredible name of ‘Notice Nature Feel Joy’. This I had to see. [Read More]
children  Derby  emotions  exhibitions  museum  natural history  visitors 

Finding the Familiar in the Unfamiliar, Or, Reece in Space

 Posted on April 26, 2015  |  6 minutes  |  1185 words  |  eleekirk

Last weekend I visited Leicester’s National Space Centre with my seven year old nephew, Reece. As a researcher, I have an annoying tendency of carrying out experiments on my poor nephews. I decided a little while ago that I’d like to start visiting museums with families that I know, and, just as I did during my doctoral research, giving the children cameras to record their visits. The main difference from my PhD research would be that this time I would actually get to join in with the visit. [Read More]
children  interactives  meaning  museum  photography  science centres  trails  visitors 

On How Museums Got Under My Skin

 Posted on February 4, 2015  |  4 minutes  |  773 words  |  eleekirk

Gosh, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. Last year was a busy one, to say the least: I spent the first half of the year finishing off my thesis, and then almost immediately began working full time. There’s also been a big and slightly disconcerting change in my life — for the first time in 14 years, I am neither studying, nor working in, museums. I’ve also had very little time to visit museums, so at the moment I’m feeling a bit like there’s a gaping, museum-shaped hole in my life. [Read More]
children  meaning  memory  museum  visitors 

Welcome to the gallery of the real

 Posted on July 22, 2012  |  3 minutes  |  620 words  |  eleekirk

Some time last year I was in a natural history gallery with a Natural History Museum educator from the USA. I asked her, “What question do children most commonly ask in your museum?”, already anticipating that the answer would be, “Is it real?”. I was right, of course, with children’s favoured question number two, on both sides of the pond, being, “Did you kill it?”.

The world over, young children seem to be totally baffled by taxidermy. A couple of months ago I visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History with my two nephews, aged seven and four. They spent most of the visit trying to get their heads around the relationship between ‘real', ‘alive' and ‘dead'. “But when are we going to see the real ones?”, they kept asking. And they weren’t convinced by my patient, rational response that these were real, they were just the skins of dead animals that someone had stuffed to make them look alive. To the boys, ‘real' meant ‘alive'

[Read More]
children  death  museum  natural history  taxidermy  visitors 

Biophobophilia, or, why children (sort of) love big, pointy teeth

 Posted on July 6, 2012  |  3 minutes  |  591 words  |  eleekirk

During the course of my research at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon. This may not come as a surprise to those of you with children, or who actually remember being a child, but it seems that children really love animals with scary teeth. In this particular museum, the favourites seem to be a large stuffed crocodile, and a model T. rex head. My PhD research involves getting 4- and 5-year-old children to photograph things they like in the museum, and then talk to me about the pictures. [Read More]
children  dinosaur  museum  natural history  observation  OUMNH  research methods  visitors 

Observation Notes: Not All Bones are Dinosaurs

 Posted on July 1, 2012  |  2 minutes  |  397 words  |  eleekirk

Over the past couple of years I’ve spent a lot of time at the wonderful Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where I’m carrying out my PhD research. Although the bulk of my research has involved getting four- and five-year-olds to take photographs for me, I have spent almost as much time wandering around and around the museum, observing visitors more generally. I really love doing observations. I think it’s easy to imagine that most museum visits are quite mundane — we see the other visitors milling around, or we mill around ourselves, and everything blends into the hubbub of the crowds. [Read More]
children  dinosaur  museum  natural history  observation  research methods