Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019
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The V&A was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2016. The prize money has been used to support DesignLab Nation. Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019 Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019 1 Contents The V&A was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2016. The prize money has been used to support DesignLab Nation. Overview 3 Programme Highlights and Examples of Key 21st Century Skills 6 Regional Summaries . Blackburn 10 . Coventry 12 . Sheffield 14 . Stoke-on-Trent 16 . Sunderland 18 Loans 20 Press Highlights 23 Evaluation . Methodology 24 . Impact on Students 27 . Impact on Teachers 29 . Impact on Partner Museums 31 . Strengths 33 . Areas of Improvement 35 . Executive Summary 36 Year 3 and DesignLab Nation Phase II 38 Programme Funding and Thanks 40 Cover: Collaborative vessel building challenge, DesignLab Nation Stoke-on-Trent, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London This page: Sirio vase, Ettore Sottsass, 1980-83 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Loan supporting DesignLab Nation Sunderland Right: Scarf Motion, Cristian Zuzunaga, 2009 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Purchase funded by the Dorrance Fund 2 Loan to support DesignLab Nation Coventry Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019 1 ‘ Having access to the arts in school is Overview good for attainment, good for job prospects, and good for the creative Creative education has the power to change and shape young people’s lives for the better. Today, the creative industries are worth talent pipeline.’ over £10 million per hour to the UK economy. However, art and design education across the UK is in crisis and a damaging skills gap is Tristram Hunt, V&A Director increasingly apparent. As the world’s greatest museum of art and design – a ‘schoolroom for everyone’, as described by our founding Director, Henry Cole – the V&A has an essential role to play in the nation’s creative education. The need to improve D&T provision is particularly acute in the Midlands and the north of England, where creative industries have historically thrived, but attainment in D&T GCSE is lower than in London and the South East. The V&A’s national secondary schools programme, DesignLab Nation, aims to: Inspire the next generation of professional designers, makers and innovators Equip young people with 21st century skills necessary for workplaces of the future Support the teaching of Design & Technology and the future of the creative industries Support regional museums and local design networks Expand the reach of the V&A’s collections In our current three-year programme (September 2017 – August 2020) the programme has been rolled out in five regions across the UK – Blackburn, Coventry, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland. We have now reached the end of the second year of the programme and have produced this report to share our achievements and learning to date (31.8.2019). In recent years, we have witnessed a dramatic decline in uptake of creative subjects by students at GCSE level, with D&T suffering a staggering drop of 67% since 2010. As creative education deteriorates among young people, who are being encouraged to narrow their focus on subjects included in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), so too does the provision of D&T teacher training, with the number of design- specialist teachers in the country down 32% since 2010. Combined, these issues are leading to a drastic skills shortage, which is already being felt by the UK’s creative industries. After carrying out in-depth research, we selected regions and our partner museums based on the below: • Low percentage of students selecting GCSE D&T • High number of students on free school meals • High number of students eligible for pupil premium • Rich design heritage to draw inspiration from 2 Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019 3 Partner Museums Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 ‘ …to have a project where we can work with secondary schools and start Blackburn: Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery building up those contacts again, that Coventry: Culture Coventry has been really valuable.’ Sheffield: Millennium Art Gallery Partner Museum Staff Stoke-on-Trent: Potteries Museum and Art Gallery Sunderland: National Glass Centre Deliverables In each participating region, we partner with a museum and a professional designer. Together, we deliver in-depth design projects to local secondary school groups (aged 11–16, approx. 25 students in each) and continuing professional development (CPD) sessions for regional networks of teachers. These activities are supported by the loan of inspiring and relevant objects from the V&A’s collections for public display in the regional museums. All participating students will visit both their local museum and the V&A during their project, as well as additional engagement with other local design industries, colleges and universities. This programme supports the teaching of the new Design and Technology (D&T) GCSE, which launched in September 2017. In each year of the programme, partner museums are asked to recruit three local schools that they have not recently engaged with, and which are based in areas with above average levels of income deprivation or/ and have low levels of cultural engagement. This programme is fully funded for all schools who take part, including travel to London and workshop materials. Participation Summary September 2017 – Autumn 2019 455 Students 2326 instances of participation 172 Teachers 338 instances of participation Participation targets across the whole programme (September 2017 – August 2020): 900 Students 3600 instances of participation 216 Teachers 324 instances of participation Right: Blow Away, Front Design, 2009 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London Loan supporting DesignLab Nation Stoke-on-Trent 4 Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019 5 Year 2 Programme Highlights ‘It has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had in my decade or DEVELOPED CULTURE CAPITAL so of teaching.’ Participating Teacher Support from % % ‘ It has made me see things 5first time1 visiting 9first time3 visiting local industries8 / further in a more original and local museum. the V&A. education institutions. imaginative way with my art.’ As a result 66.9% of students say they know more about design industries in their local area. Participating Student ‘ The best part of DesignLab SUPPORTED REGIONAL MUSEUMS Nation was…the experience V&A objects lent to partner museums of visiting the V&A Museum to inspire students in DesignLab Nation n London and seeing all projects - also seen by 609, 018 visitors. of the amazing art.’ Participating Student 5Growing9 Networks with local secondary schools. INSPIRED STUDENTS Engaged students from 17 regional schools - 1953 instances 377 of participation. After the project students describe themselves as… Imaginative, Designer, Artistic, Maker. EMPOWERED AND SUPPORTED TEACHERS Engaged teachers, 277 instances 143 of participation. 6 7 ‘The best part of DesignLab Nation was Developing Key 21st Century skills learning new things and seeing things from a different perspective.’ Evaluation findings show that students have developed these skills in the Participating Student following ways: Experimentation, choice, Focus on process freedom, possibility rather than outcome Creative Thinking Using familiar tools Permission to in unfamiliar ways make mistakes Working with peers in Tapping into local group challenges design industries Collaboration Working with local and Celebrating national experts achievements Object based Revisiting and learning repurposing work Critical Thinking Prototyping, adapting Questioning their and amending own decisions Highlights Page: Student exploring Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt exhibition, DesignLab Nation Coventry © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Left: Students creating prototypes, DesignLab Nation Coventry, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 8 Year 2 Report 2018 / 2019 9 Year 2 Architectural Ceramics with BREAD Art Collective and Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery DesignLab Nation Schools’ Projects Students experienced the design process of ceramics tiles through a factory tour of Darwen Terracotta and Faience. Blackburn The Year 2 DesignLab Nation schools projects based in Working with BREAD and museum professionals, students Blackburn focused on the area’s terracotta and architectural designed their own slip cast tiles through creating their ceramics heritage. own handcrafted moulds, which were then displayed at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery at the end of the year. As part of Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery’s temporary exhibition, Structures in Ceramics, the V&A lent Julie Tile for A House for Essex, by Turner prize-winning artist Grayson DesignLab Nation Teachers’ CPD Perry RA. This loan and exhibition celebrated the history and craft of architectural ceramic production in Darwen In November 2018, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery (neighbouring town to Blackburn), and asked students to hosted a DesignLab Nation CPD event for Lancashire based look at how the technology has been utilised by designers Secondary School teachers. This evening included talks from and artists today. designers and museum professionals, showcasing both Year 1 and Year 2 projects. To give a taste of a DesignLab To lead Year 2 students through the in-depth projects, the Nation schools’ projects, teachers took part in workshops museum recruited BREAD Art Collective, a participatory with designers Sarah Hardacre (Year 1) and David Boultbee art and design collective established in 2009 by David (Year 2). Activities included relief print making using Boultbee. BREAD challenged students to design and make the museum’s Columbia