Working with local schools can be a fruitful relationship but many museums struggle to engage teachers. Often all that is needed to spark the interest of teachers is a good idea, and the Take One...model might be just the idea museums need.

Based on the National Gallery’s hugely successful Take One Picture... project, it aims to help local teachers explore the cross-curricular uses of collections, by choosing one object as a focus.

In 2009-10, two museums in Somerset were chosen by MLA to run pilot projects to find out if the model could be applied to smaller, volunteer-run museums. The Blake Museum in Bridgwater and the Axbridge and District Museum developed projects based on paintings in their collections.

The main activity as part of this project was hosting a CPD day for local teachers that were used to inspire them. Both museums had plenty of teachers attending, nearly all of which went away and have done, or are planning, projects based on the museums’ collections.

Click on the paintings below to find out more about their projects:

     'The Irene' - Blake Museum                'The Hiring Fair' - Axbridge & District Museum 

How does it work?

The five-step Take One...model is simple yet effective and can be run with minimal expense. To run a Take One...project, the museum needs to:

1. Chose an object
2. Create an information pack & resources
3. Hold a teachers CPD day
4. Support school activity
5. Host an exhibition

Click here to download the one-page model for Take One...projects. You don’t need to choose a painting as your inspiration for the Take One...project: other museums have used objects such as concertinas and documents such as a prisoner list.

What were the aims?

• To demonstrate to local school teachers the possibilities of using museum collections in different ways and to make them more familiar with their local heritage resource.
• To show how this type of work can be done in a sustainable way by community museums with small budgets and mainly volunteer labour.
• To create a usable model and spread the learning through skills sharing sessions
• To inspire more community museums to take up the initiative themselves, creating annual projects

What was the funding used for?

This project provided the funding to scan and print high-resolution reproductions of the two paintings and create information packs for schools to use. The Heritage Service Learning Team guided the museums through the process of putting together information for the schools packs by offering one-to-one practical workshops.

Once the information packs and scans of the pictures were created, local schoolteachers were invited to a CPD day event at the museum. Here the museums volunteers, assited by the Learning Team, showed teachers how museum objects can be used in a wider learning context, as well as how the specific paintings can be used.

At the end of the CPD event, information packs were given to the attending schools to encourage them to explore cross-curricular themes. The schools then created original artwork and responses to the paintings that formed the basis of a small exhibition in the museum at the end of the project.

Interested?

Such was the success of the pilot projects that Somerset has been chosen to become Champion for the southwest region for the roll out of this project in 2010-11.

As Take One... Champion for the southwest, Somerset will be setting up a regional network for practitioners and offering training and advice. So if you’re interested in Take One... and want to find out more, why not attend the first training day?

This is being held in the Somerset Heritage Centre in Taunton, Somerset on 27th September 2010. The day will tell you more about what the Take One... model is, how to use objects, pictures, documents, and sites in cross-curricular ways as well as how to engage local schools. Case studies of pilot projects from museums and archives in the southwest will support this day. There will be a follow up practical session in February 2011 for those wanting to run their own Take One... project. To book onto this training visit the SW Fed training pages.

Resources

• Simple 5-step model
• National Gallery case study short film
• National Gallery Take One website
• MLA Website
• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it