Local Cultural Hub member schools will be exploring how plastics can keep us safe, able and even alive in conjunction with MoDiP’s current exhibition ‘Being me: plastics and the body’.
Originally planned prior to the COVID-19 lockdown as a school engagement project for children to touch and engage with objects forming a bespoke handling collection, the resource will now be moving online in order to ensure that valuable sessions are still offered to pupils as part of the Cultural Hub Schools Project.
The university-based MoDiP project team had planned to deliver artist-led workshops to more than 500 primary school children at five Cultural Hub schools, but by working with teachers to move the outreach project to a new online environment, the team have now been able to offer the sessions to all 15 Cultural Hub member schools.
The museum, which holds regular exhibitions and on-campus workshops, has worked on a number of local and national projects to help nurture, inspire and educate future generations about plastics and the important role they’ve played over the past century.
Last year, MoDiP worked with Horrible Histories' illustrator Martin Brown to launch their Eco-plastic Detective series of workshops and inspire the next generation of makers and designers. Once again, Martin has kindly provided yet another illustration for this year’s project, alongside fellow popular artist Jake Rowlinson.
Julia Pulman, Museum Digital Communications Officer, said: ‘We’re so fortunate to have an excellent working relationship with the Cultural Hub and member schools. Having worked collaboratively with them last year to create and deliver our Eco-plastic Detective project, I was delighted to have the opportunity to develop another one – especially in these extra challenging times for teachers.
She added: “We’re thankful to the Cultural Hub for supporting us again.”
The project team were also able to develop the resources to be used for children working in the classroom and at home, and to increase the project’s reach, resources have been rewritten to engage all primary key stage levels with a mixture of creative design activities.
While MoDiP and the university campus are currently closed to visitors, the museum’s collections, exhibitions and research resources all continue to be available online.
