Encouraging play – practical ideas

Everyone can take small steps towards making museums and visitor attractions more play-friendly. ‘Focus on play: Museums and the cultural sector’ is a useful tool for advocating for strategic and policy change in museums. The following ideas are based on national and international examples and provide easy, achievable ways to start making your setting playful, or to build on what you already do.

Key principles

When developing opportunities to play at their places, including the 50 things to do before you’re 11 and 3/4 programme, the National Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland found four key principles invaluable:

  • Sociable spaces for people to relax or be playful
  • The journey – a network of places to go, things to play with on the way and planned interventions to travel through and on
  • Giving invitations – children will find their own stories if you let them
  • Loose parts, which can be changed and controlled with multiple outcomes.

These principles can equally be applied whether planning for play indoors or out. Inviting children to find their own stories and determine their own way through museum content promotes engagement and soft learning outcomes. This enhances rather than detracts from the outcomes museums may set through playful, or other, learning opportunities.

A starting point – the value of observation

Settings working well with the key principles above first take time to notice and discuss what play is happening, and where it happens. Observations help determine existing points of attraction and from this point onwards, invitations can be enhanced and new interventions created. Importantly, taking time to notice and share observations of play affords all staff the opportunity to discuss their values and feelings about play, as well as agree ways of supporting play and ways to message playful permission.

Wayfaring and journeys

“We observed play on board the ship and had some interesting discussions about play and realised that so much was already happening! We worked out that for us, designing playful prompts for families to follow was needed to encourage more play in some of our really big spaces where we didn’t have gallery staff or enough resources or exhibits to play with. It’s worked really well and we’ve had some great feedback from families. One day I hope we won’t need prompts. People will just know they can play here.”

Claire Hargreaves, National Museum of the Royal Navy

Finding different methods to enhance opportunities for the way children might move between one space and another creates additional novelty and interest within the visit. Numerous venues, including Chester Zoo, Tŷ Pawb, The V&A, Rugby Museum & Art Gallery and Manchester Museum have tried and tested different methods. Examples include the introduction of a skipping lane and a puddle jumping trail in the expansive spaces between the enclosures at Chester Zoo.

At Manchester Museum and the V&A in London, drawn out hopscotch, wiggly lines and footprints on the floor have provided invitations to hop, jump and follow. Lines and markings were made according to the context and specifications of the site or gallery, including using masking tape, chalk, floor paint or floor vinyl. At Whitby Abbey, English Heritage staff took this approach outside, strimming grass pathways around the site, and hiding boxed resources and clues to find, creating low-cost new playable spaces that could be changed.

At Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, a playful trail incorporated the whole museum and used existing interactive exhibitions and displays. The museum also added new temporary playful activities and interventions. Rachel Coldicott from Rugby Art Gallery and Museum said: “We set up a toy car race on the gallery landing, held a rock paper scissor challenge with children and our museum staff, invited children to make shadow drawings and do window painting in our galleries, all as part of our playful trail. We were fully booked and now plan to do more, and bigger and better each time.”

At Tŷ Pawb – Stryd Pawb (Everyone’s Street) – a temporary roadway network marked on the floor throughout the centre allowed for both social distancing and play. With lanes, roundabouts, child-size road signage and more, the intervention promoted permission for visitors to play in the entire arts and community centre.

Introducing playable stuff

Museums and galleries have also embraced using playable stuff or loose parts within their on-gallery provision, adding a layer to the experience and journey. Manageable during the COVID-19 pandemic, where resources can be quarantined or recycled, venues have found them an asset that has helped add play alongside the exhibits. At Manchester Museum, plastic hoops and carpet tiles invigorate long gallery spaces enabling children to move and shape the routes in and around the fossils and skeletons, safely tucked behind their glass cases. At Coventry Transport Museum, Trunki ride-on luggage containers filled with creative materials and den-making opportunities with child-size road signs and cardboard boxes are often set out.

Creating a sociable, playful feel

“We just keep spreading out to more and more galleries now, we started small and now we are confident we can use the resources alongside the displays and families are having an amazing time.”

Anja Keitel-Campsall, Coventry Transport Museum

In addition to loose parts, the general feel and atmosphere of the social museum environment creates the conditions for relaxation from which play can emerge. From the point of arrival and welcome, playful use of the space outside, promotional signage or relaxed light-hearted conversation directly with children, all helps to enliven the atmosphere and create the frame for play. Pointing out playable spaces, resources or unique stories or objects before the visit gets going creates a sense of anticipation that play can be both discovered and realised.

In the Reading Room at The Wellcome Collection, a relaxed feel has been created that truly caters for difference and promotes space and time for engagement. A range of small and large gathering spaces are set out, with tables, chairs, varied lighting and comfortable seating, including beanbags. Books, stories, objects to touch and board games for all ages are provided relating to different themes in the collection subject areas. Messaging in the space (and online) clearly indicates that people wanting to study should use the library instead.

 

For full references and a bibliography, please refer to the Play Wales information sheet.

 

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