Focus | Designing playful museums - Museums Association
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Focus | Designing playful museums

Holly Black shares some different approaches to play-based interventions and exhibitions
Exhibitions Play
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Dionne with her son Kayron aged 8 at Lost and Found Yokai, the Young V&A’s first major creative installation David Parry/PA Media Assignments

The subject of play is difficult to unpick because the term itself can be hard to define.

It is used as both a verb and a noun, and while it is usually associated with children, it is, in fact, an essential part of adult life. In a recent article for the British Psychological Society, David Neale, a researcher at the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning at the University of Cambridge, defines play as “enjoyable, voluntary and done for its own sake”.

He says: “Adults frequently engage in playful interactions, rather than discrete episodes of play. Children, by contrast, frequently engage in episodes of play – perhaps even daily.”

Play by children is now recognised as deeply connected not only to their emotional wellbeing but also their intellectual capacity.

Recent examples of playful interventions

As museums take on a greater role in supporting diverse communities and nurturing new audiences, play-based installations and specialised exhibitions have gained traction.

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One need only look at the high attendance – particularly of families – at Oscar Murillo’s Flooded Garden at London’s Tate Modern this summer, part of the gallery’s free Uniqlo-sponsored programme. The interactive artwork encouraged individuals to paint on a gigantic canvas installed in the Turbine Hall, with special provisions for children, one-off musical performances and relaxed hours with staff support designed for neurodivergent individuals.

Across the UK, museums are offering opportunities for visitors to take part in traditional play activities – as well as experimenting with more-expansive and creative approaches towards a playful sensibility.

Also in London, the Barbican’s Curve Gallery hosted Our Street during August. This imaginary pop-up avenue designed by West Port Architects featured hopscotch, hula-hooping, board games and crafting. The Barbican described the street as “a joyful and welcoming space where children and families play, make and dance, and communities come together through performance, gaming and conversation”.

To accompany its Japan: Myths to Manga temporary exhibition, the Young V&A invited contemporary artists and designers to “joyously transform umbrellas previously forgotten on London’s transport networks” into “yokai” (Japanese supernatural beings), and in particular the “kasa-obake”, or “umbrella monster”. These playful spirits are a type of “tsukumogami” – everyday objects that receive a spirit and find new life as yokai on their 100th birthday.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums partnered with the Tyne and Wear Metro to run Ways to Play in various venues over the May half-term holiday. Activities included giant train tracks, Lego challenges and teddy bear picnics.

And visitors to Stonehenge during the May half-term were invited to use the tools and materials provided to collectively create “Playhenge”, a temporary adventure playground. The 50-minute experience was developed in partnership with constructive play specialist Woodland Tribe.

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Play for all

Historically, play has been considered a juvenile activity that people eventually grow out of, but recent research and the successes of the gaming industry – including digital, board and group activities such as escape rooms – appear to debunk that theory.

“There has been a perspective in the past that being playful in the way we work is somehow lightweight or fluffy,” says Hilary Jennings, an associate at the Happy Museum Project, which was launched in 2011 to provide a leadership framework for museums to develop a holistic approach
to wellbeing and stability. “In fact, play can really open up your thinking.”

The Happy Museum has worked with Playful Places –an organisation that helps foster the potential for children’s play in cultural institutions – to create the Rules for a Playful Museum handbook, with staff at Manchester Museum.

“At its heart, play needs to be freely chosen and personally directed by the child, to truly be play,” says Charlotte Derry, the director of Playful Places. “And it is something that children innately do. It is a biological necessity.” 

Rather than containing didactic ways to introduce adult-led play, the book is filled with ideas for facilitating a playful, imaginative and independent environment, where one atmosphere is not favoured over another. It introduces ground rules such as a “playful outlook”, which consists of eye contact, smiles and positive body language.

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It also suggests small and simple ways to enrich a visit, such as adding a hopscotch grid to a gallery floor.

“If you don’t have much budget or time, it is best to try a small prototype and see what happens,” says Derry. “Watch how children play and take note. Spend some time understanding how they use and respond to a space.”

She recommends recycled and scrap materials as the perfect fodder for imaginative play, as opposed to more prescriptive interactive devices. Recent studies have shown that too many toys – particularly plastic ones – can inhibit imagination and child development.

Early learning and play

The Northern Ireland Museums Council launched the Playful Museums Festival in 2017, as a way of increasing engagement and support for young families – specifically with children under five. It comprises a range of play areas, workshops and activities taking place at various locations throughout February. In 2024, these included storytelling and craft sessions at Mid Antrim Museum, sensory sessions at HMS Caroline, Belfast, and “messy Mondays” at Enniskillen Castle.

Speaking on the origins of the festival (which first received lottery funding in 2016 and is now supported by Art Fund grants) Catherine Doran, the development officer at Northern Ireland Museums Council, says: “The public weren’t really aligning early-years activities with their local museums. We wanted to help bridge that gap, in terms of the public and making the museum fit for purpose, but also in making the staff feel prepared, trained and confident in what was needed.”

Part of its success has been down to bringing on board independent facilitators to run activities and help embed skills within organisations and support in-house staff and volunteers.

“There needs to be in-house activity, so that when a family returns after the festival is finished, it is still an environment they feel comfortable in,” says Doran.

The festival has helped museums that might not normally appeal to families with pre-school children to bring in new audiences. Inspired by the idea of second world war rationing and farming, the Northern Ireland War Memorial in Belfast, for example, created a mascot called Jeannie the Hen. This playful narrative has proved so popular that it has been developed into a book for local nurseries, as well as an activity pack and online resources.

Promoting creativity and community

Initiating play in unexpected places is also the cornerstone of Fun Palaces, a nationwide project that encourages individuals from all walks of life to put on their own cultural events during the first weekend of October. The key objective is to promote creativity and community in all its forms, inviting participants of all ages, demographics and skill levels. Intergenerational play is particularly celebrated.

Fun Palaces director Amie Taylor says: “We encourage makers to hand over to children and young people to teach the adults something.

"I think there’s something quite exciting about the older generations learning something from the younger ones. I led shadow puppet making at a Fun Palace at Brockwell Lido in south London, and my experience was that the kids would come and have a quick go, but it was the adults that got really involved, perfecting their designs and getting to grips with the craft and science.”

Such creative enrichment can be a rare thing for adults, but even brief engagement can have immediate positive outcomes. According to Taylor, in 2023, 90% of Fun Palace Makers said that their Fun Palace had helped to make people feel happier, with 92% saying that their Fun Palace created a stronger sense of community spirit.

Similarly, the Happy Museum incorporates hands-on activities for museum practitioners, including Say it in Clay, which invites more open-ended forms of discussion and problem solving among peers, while moulding their own objects.

“We’ve become very logical and process-driven in our approach to tackling issues,” says Jennings. “A bit more play is not only essential to our wellbeing. It’s essential for our future.”

Holly Black is a freelance journalist. Charlotte Derry and Hilary Jennings will lead a session on play at the Museums Association Conference at Leeds’ Royal Armouries on 12-14 November

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