Using Learning Theory as an Approach to Creating

Using Learning Theory as an Approach to Creating New Galleries- A Case Study of the British Galleries 1500 -1900 Christopher Wilk Victoria and Albert Museum c. wilk@vam. ac. uk

What is it? activity, Hanoverian Discovery Area

British Galleries 1500 -1900 -opened to public November 2001 -3400 square metres of gallery space, 3000 objects -From the reign of Henry VIII to Queen Victoria, including work by Hans Holbein, Thomas Chippendale, Josiah Wedgwood and William Morris

What is it? activity, Hanoverian Discovery Area

What is it? activity, Hanoverian Discovery Area

Looking skills

BRITISH GALLERIES TARGET AUDIENCES (overlapping) Independent learners (no formal curriculum) – 62% Overseas visitors- 44% Families - 31% Specialists (amateur and professional) – 23% School Groups Further (16+, vocational) and higher education (18+, academic) Ethnic minority groups Local audience

Source: Beverley Serrell, 1991 Experiential: seek hidden possibilities, act and test experience Imaginative: seek meaning, need social interaction Common sense: seek usability, draw from sensory experience Analytical: seek facts, adapt to experts

Right: Francis Williams, (The Jamaican Scholar), artist unknown; oil on canvas; c. 1745 Below: Engraving of Job Ben Solomon and William Ansah Sessarakoo, 1750

Top: Panelling from Haynes Grange room, 1575 Top right: room from Henrietta Street, London, 1732 Right: Norfolk House Music Room, London, 1752

Below: Are you a collector? activity Above: Colonel Smith Grasping the Hind Legs of a Stag (oil on panel), 1640 -60 Write a mini-sage activity

Top left: Shawl for British market; pashmina; made Kashmir, India, 1852 Top right: Shawl with Paisley design; wool; Scotland, 1851 -55 Right: Bow porcelain figure, London, c. 1754 Far right: Meissen figure, 1750

Hans Holbein (German/Swiss), German Merchant in London, 1532 Astronomical Clock made in London by Francis Nowe (Neth. ), 1588 Anthony van Dyck (Flemish), Charles I, 1636 Standing cup, made in London by Thierry Luchemans (Flemish or German), 1611 -12

Source: Beverley Serrell, 1991 Experiential: seek hidden possibilities, act and test experience Imaginative: seek meaning, need social interaction Common sense: seek usability, draw from sensory experience Analytical: seek facts, adapt to experts

Government School of Design, Somerset House, London, 1843 Top right: Henry Selous, Opening of the Great Exhibition, oil on canvas, 1851 Right: South Kensington Museum Entrance facade, designed by Captain Fowke, 1865