Classroom Activity

This activity links directly to the National Curriculum History topics 'The Victorians' and 'Britain since 1930' and specifically addresses the interpretation, investigation and communication strands of knowledge, skills and understanding. It links directly to an exhibition at MoDA about the construction of stories that museums tell, called 'Telling Tales', to run from September 2004 - March 2005.

Children will understand that what you see in a museum is only one possible version of the past. The stories that are told are governed by the decisions that museum workers make.

Aspects of Decorating and Design History 1900 - 1960

They will be able to:

• Research a chosen period or theme with appropriate independence

• Decide on a particular message to be displayed

• Make editorial decisions as a group

• Pursue different roles parallel to those adopted by museum workers

• Communicate clearly and effectively in a museum context and genre.

Activity

You are asked to design a museum display to convey some aspect of interior decorating/design from 1900 - 1960.

Preparation

As a class, brainstorm what goes into decorating a home. Through this you should extract the following themes

• Decorating different rooms in different ways - e.g. Bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens.

• Different materials used - e.g. Paint, wallpaper, floor coverings, curtains and furniture.

• Budget - the style depends on what you can afford.

• Where can you get your materials..?

• Your display can either focus on a theme drawn from above or a period.

Next brainstorm the types of jobs that you might find in a museum. Through this you should extract the following different roles

• Curator - has overall control of the selection of information for the display

• Designer - advising on a layout of the display

• Researcher or investigator (could be likened in discussion to an archaeologist)

• Conservator - mounting the pictures carefully to preserve them for display.

The children should be divided into groups. At least two groups should pursue the same display independently. This allows for comparison later - i.e. We tell different stories in a museum depending on our interests, our selections and the material we choose to display from our collection.

In each group decide on different roles, Curator, Designer, Researcher and Conservator.

Now get the children to collect the evidence for their their display. MoDA's online teaching resource will help with this.

It is important that children have a lot of material to choose from so that they have to make choices. They need more than can easily be displayed on a sheet of A3 paper.

Children can now construct their displays on sheets of A3 paper (if you wish your children's displays to be included in the 'Telling Tales' exhibition or another size of display material that requires yet further editing of the information collected by the children.

In constructing the display you will need to decide

• What is your main message - What do you want us to know?

• What is the most important and must be included?

• The overall design of the display

• The images you are going to use to tell your story

• The text you are going to use to get your message across.

Once the displays are completed they can be mounted into a class exhibition. Displays on similar themes can then be compared, pointing out the similarities and differences between the displays showing that the message and information conveyed depends on the choices made by the group.

Access MoDA's Telling Tales: Online Teaching Resources including designs for wallpapers and curtains, floor coverings, images of interiors, extracts from furniture catalogues and prices.

Of course these resources may be supplemented by images and information gathered from your own research.

If you wish your children's displays to be included in 'Telling Tales', then please send them to:

Richard Lumb
Museum Education Officer
MoDA, Middlesex University
Cat Hill
Barnet
Herts, EN4 8HT

These will then be displayed on a rotating basis as part of the exhibition and, of course, the displays will be returned following the end of the exhibition.