This is the final blog about our Climate Co-Curation Project, where we invited twelve 16-17 year olds to spend a week in the museum and put together a framework for a temporary exhibition on climate change. The first two blogs talk about what co-curation projects are, how we chose our team of teenagers and what they got up to while they were with us at SPRI. Keep reading to find out what happened next.
The group were incredibly diligent, settling down to all the tasks set for them with the same enthusiasm and interest that they had displayed on the first day. Together, they were able to produce the framework for the exhibition which we need to make their ideas a reality. This included details of the sections to be included and the key points to be made, as well as object lists, information about the style and visual look of the display, and even ideas on how to market the exhibition to teenagers. As if that wasn’t enough, we also set them the challenge of presenting their decisions and pitching their exhibition to a group of new and familiar faces at the end of the week, with representatives from the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, University Admissions offices and SPRI researchers all in attendance.

It’s not often that you get to sit in a room full of academics, researchers, and university staff left almost speechless by a presentation made by twelve 16-17 year olds. But that’s exactly what happened. Everyone who saw the presentation was blown away by their professionalism, nuanced understanding of complex ideas and well-thought through concepts. The atmosphere at SPRI was electric with pride and a lot of respect for all they had achieved.

To celebrate their successes, at the end of the week we were lucky enough to have a formal dinner at Downing college, as well as a tour of the grounds and the opportunity to speak with senior academics (a once daunting idea which by the end of the week our confident team was handling with ease). It was a kind gesture from the college and a fitting end to a week full of hard work, well done.

So what happens now? Our team have gone back to their homes all over the country but the hard work continues – for them, writing their personal statements full of new knowledge and skills learned over their week in Cambridge, and for us, the process of making their plans for a new temporary exhibition at SPRI a reality. The nitty-gritty of working out the floor plan, writing and printing the labels and making sure that all the objects are ready for display. This is work that couldn’t be done in a week, but which is only possible thanks to the dedication of the teenagers on the summer school. The opening of the exhibition is scheduled to be in late November and we can’t wait to have them all back to see it. Watch this space, and when it’s ready, please do come and have a look at what will be a testament to the hard work of a very talented group of young people.

If you’ve read our last blog about our recent Climate Co-Curation Project, you’ll know how we went about choosing our team, and why co-curation projects are so important. We invited twelve 16-17 year olds to join us for a week at SPRI to work out a framework for a temporary exhibition on climate change which will go on display in late November. Read on below to find out exactly what they got up to!

With only a week to get everyone up to speed on current climate research, as well as the ins and outs of producing a museum exhibition (not to mention the work of preparing our team for their university applications), each day was split into a number of sessions. Particular highlights were a whole morning of talks from current researchers at SPRI who outlined their work and suggested objects that might be put on display in the exhibition. The team loved finding out about the scientific research going on in the Polar Regions and also had their assumptions challenged about the use of polar bears as a ‘metaphor’ for climate change and the role of women in polar research. Further emphasising the importance of women in our understanding of the Polar Regions, they even had a video message from Dr. Chandrika Nath, the Executive Director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

Later in the week, we spent a morning at the British Antarctic Survey in west Cambridge, having a similar series of talks from their researchers as well as a tour of different parts of the building. Something that no one will forget was being given 40,000 year old ice to hold and listening as it melted to the sound of 40,000 year old air bubbles escaping back into the atmosphere.

The museum team at SPRI also welcomed the co-curation team into their domain, running object handling sessions and leading tours of the museum and stores. Our group were challenged to link objects together to tell a story (even ones which didn’t seem to go together at all!) and to think about what makes an object good or bad for display. This was a whole new way of thinking for our team and they handled it very capably, listening and taking on board all that they heard, and putting it into practice in their decisions later in the week.

The nature of doing so much work in a week meant that there were a few late nights scheduled in. One of these was spent in Selwyn College, where we chose the key words which would go on to inform the themes and information displayed in the exhibition. The group had written a list of 9 possible key words together and we were all amazed when, during a task to narrow down their top three in small groups, they all came up with the same 4 words. Empowerment, research, cooperation and change were the names of the game, and what a nuanced selection they were.

As well as the work for the exhibition itself, we made sure to find time every day to reflect on the work we had done, what had been achieved and what new skills had been learned or honed along the way. This information was written down by the team into a ready-made skill-set, perfect for their personal statements. It was amazing to watch not only how the skills changed with each new day on the project, but also how the way the group thought about their learning changed along the way as well.
This is the second of three blogs about this project and we still have so much more to tell you! Make sure to read the final instalment where we’ll be talking presentations, celebrations and what happens next…

The plan was this: invite twelve young people into the museum, fill their brains with information about the Polar Regions and museum displays and then ask them to produce the framework for a temporary exhibition about climate change. In a week.
There is a lot of buzz around ‘co-curation’ projects at the moment. The idea is, by bringing in an outside group of people to work alongside curators and other museum professionals, both sides gain new expertise and the resulting exhibition represents voices which might not otherwise be heard in the museum. It’s an effective way for both the staff and the public to learn more about collections, and it welcomes people who might not usually feel at home in museums. In this case, that underrepresented group was teenagers.

By delivering our co-curation project as part of a week-long residential summer school for 16-17 year olds just about to apply for university, we hoped that we could also show our team what life is like as a student at the University of Cambridge. Living and working in Selwyn College, they were able to spend their evenings in the college social spaces, eating in the dining hall, sleeping in student rooms (and even playing sardines in the college gardens). Dr. Matt Wise, Schools Liaison Officer at Selwyn and former PhD student at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), took a leading role in the running of the course and ensured that student ambassadors were on hand all week to help settle the students into college life. All in all, we wanted to put our team in the best possible position to apply to study at Cambridge when applications open at the beginning of October – providing them with knowledge of the academic courses available and what they would entail, as well as an idea of the social lives of Cambridge students.

We had a staggering number of applicants for what was a very small summer school. Students submitted written applications and those who were shortlisted had skype interviews where we asked them difficult questions like, “Tell us about an object or image that you feel represents your personality” and “Can you talk to us about an exhibition or performance that has had an impact on you, whether positive or negative?” Eventually, we managed to narrow down applications from 130 at the start of the process, to just 12. This final group had representatives from all over the UK, from Birmingham to small Devonshire towns and London to the North East. We had 11 students from state schools and one from an independent school and they represented a whole host of different interests and perspectives on the climate crisis. There were geographers, an aspiring journalist and an economist, to name just a few. What they all had in common, though, was a thirst for knowledge and a dedication to reporting climate science and research to the public.

With the plan for the project all worked out and the team chosen, it wasn’t long before they began to arrive for the start of what was always destined to be a very busy week. From the very first moments of bringing them together, we knew something special was happening – strangers talked like old friends and the excitement to get started was palpable. Fortunately, we had lots to be getting on with…

Be sure to read the next in our series of blogs about our Climate Co-Curation Project to find out what our group did over their week in SPRI.