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Museum spaces should be a source of joy, debate, learning and fun
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 02 Mar 2021
The new Museum of London is expected to open in West Smithfield in 2024 Credit: Museum of London
Sharon Ament, director of the Museum of London, has urged museums and cultural institutions to place children and young people at the heart of their post-pandemic plans.
Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and young people have lost valuable cultural experiences. In order to re-engage these audiences, Ament believes that these institutions should centre their offerings around young people and children.
“Museum spaces are, or should be, a source of joy, debate, learning - and fun; all things that will be sorely needed when this pandemic finally ends,” Ament wrote in The Guardian.
“The pandemic has been challenging on so many fronts for the UK’s culture sector, but what has been at the front of my mind is the impact museum and gallery closures are having on young people.
They’ve lost the afternoons spent wandering the halls of vast galleries, whispering with mates, peering into glass display cases, encountering stories they would otherwise never come across and understanding their place in history and the world around them.
These young people have to be at the heart of our efforts to rebuild our cultural institutions.”
Ament also revealed her hopes for the new Museum of London, which is scheduled to open at its new location in West Smithfield in 2024.
“We’ll be opening a new Museum of London in the coming years, and I want to put young people at the heart of our work. I want every single school in the city to have the opportunity to experience the awe of travelling back in time as they follow the life of a Roman child their own age,” she said. “I also want them to see their own lives reflected in our collection, as we display the contemporary as well as the ancient.”
The new museum will be part of a much larger site, encompassing the famous Smithfield market, and will be a 24-hour cultural hub.
Items on display will include a Black Lives Matter tribute football kit worn by Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the infamous Trump baby balloon and a digital collection of tweets highlighting the attitudes of the British public throughout the pandemic.
Museums and galleries
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