Wakefield Museum's Young Curators' Club

The Young Curators Club (YCC) is for children aged 8-13 years old, meeting in the Learning Zone at Wakefield One on the third Saturday of each month - and it's free!

Trying the hats and wigs in the museum gallery!

This club gives young people a chance to learn about the collections we hold and display - and to get involved in how they are interpreted and used! 

The YCC gives young people the opportunity to get involved in the museum, handle real museum objects, discover interesting historical facts and try new craft activities - as well as help us develop new trails and activities for use in the museum - and make new friends!

Last year, Young Curators worked with an artist to create a display of paper costumes, influenced by our fashion exhibition last year - and this September they will be working with another artist - Fabric Lenny - to help create some new designs for the outside of the museum!

Future plans also include curating their own museum case - from selecting objects to researching and interpreting them for display.

Young Curators have tried all sorts of things - even made butter!

Young Curators have been busy creating some new trails and summer activities for Wakefield Museum.  Pop in, and have a go at one of the activities created by the team!

Researching new museum activities

Creating a new digital trail for the museum

Places are available for new members to join us! 

• Are you aged between 8 and 13?

• Do you enjoy discovering interesting historical facts?

• Can you help to develop activities for other children your age to use in the museum?

• Would you like to join the Young Curators’ Club?

Email for an information pack.

We meet on the third Saturday of each month from 10 – 11:30am in the Learning Zone in Wakefield Library.

Future sessions* are to be held on;
August 15th
September 19th
October 17th
November 21st
December 19th

*Please note that you will need to join the YCC in advance - these dates are not drop in workshops.

Half Term Fun

This week has seen Wakefield Museums deliver quite a variety of family workshops!

From booked sessions to drop-in crafts, families have created, participated and been hands-on. There has been mosaic coaster making, digital drawing, puppet shows and even live owls!

Castleford Museum held a drop-in session for visitors to make their own mosaic coaster with ceramic tesserae – staff worked hard to keep up with demand for the grout to stick designs together!

Mosaic coasters

  

27 May was the 150th anniversary of the death of Wakefield explorer and pioneer conservationist Charles Waterton, to mark this event we delivered our Barmy Birds workshop. We had some amazing creations made and participants even got to look at owl pellets and what they contained - thanks to Jo from the RSPB Yorkshire (Old Moor) for supporting this session.  Feedback from the sessions included “A fun and educational workshop for children and adults alike”

Barmy birds!

There were also some owl related crafts as part of the Wakefield Artwalk and Nightingale Festival (#Waterton150), along with a display of real owls from the Yorkshire Owl Experience. One youngster told us “That was cool, glad we went!”  

Owl Crafts

Charles Waterton and Ruby the Owl!

Some Brilliant Boats were designed over at Castleford Museum.  From origami sail boats to sparkly canoes youngsters (and parents alike) produced some wonderful paper boats.  One design will be taken into school as we were told the child’s new topic will be ships and boats this term – good timing for all!

Brilliant Boats

Cusan Theatre delivered The Princess of the Rainforest - An enchanting visual story with life size puppets, masks and visual treats. “I liked the monkey and snakes, but they had to find somewhere new to live! I liked it” said one of our younger visitors.

The Princess of the Rainforest

The digital drawing session saw the use of object from the collections and museum displays being given a bit of a makeover. Using a free app on iPads participants created their own amazing digital artwork and images. Feedback included “Very informal session. Kids loved every bit of it – working with museum objects, exploring the museum space, learning new app – everything was fun (and yet educational!) Very relaxing as well Thank you.”

Digital Drawing

Taking inspiration from the artist and sculptor Henry Moore, there were drop-in activities at Castleford Museum, with tiles being decorated in our own take on Henry Moore's artistic style.

And still to come:

Henry Moore Sculptures
Saturday 30 May
11am – 2pm
Castleford Forum Museum
Be inspired by the community case created by St Joseph's School and create your own Henry Moore sculpture from clay.
Suitable for all!
Free, no need to book

At Wakefield Museum there are NEW activity sheets that have been developed by Wakefield Museum Young Curators Club (YCC) out for families to use on a daily basis too. The YCC in their last meeting looked around the museum and developed some word puzzle activities for others to take part in. These are out in the museum ‘front room’ for you to have a go.

Keep updated on all our activities by joining our mailing list!

Wakefield Museum Young Curators Club - in their own words

On Saturday 17 ^th January Wakefield Museums Young Curators Club met for their first session of 2015.

The group were asked to create a blog post on what they do at the club and why other children their age should visit the museum. Here is what they said:

Hello we are Oliver and Jack and we belong to the young curators based in Wakefield. We attend every third Saturday of each month.

We attend because it gives us something to do and a reason to get out of the house. At the young curators we do activities such as handling ancient objects and creating our own versions, as well as a lot more things that you could find out if you attend.

Above is an image in which we were looking around into the museum for ideas for this blog. We enjoyed dressing up and drawing the objects being displayed

Sessions are on the third Saturday of each month from 10:00 to 11:30 at Wakefield museum

SO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND DO SOMETHING CURATIVE  !!!!!

If you are from 8-13 then you are free to join our club!

We are all creative in some way and we like arts and crafts.

It’ s about history and art

So get out of the house and get creative

Where do I start?

We come to Wakefield Museum every third Saturday. We look at old objects and make things about them. In the museum I like the wireless and the polecat.

At Young Curators Club we help children age 8-13 understand our history. I love this club because you have lots of fun and have even got to make food!

We make things and paint things, hold real artefacts and have fun!

Click here for more details about joining the Young Curators Club

Young Curators' Club - this Saturday

The second of our two drop-in sessions for the new Young Curators' Club takes place in the Learning Zone at Wakefield Museum this Saturday (31st August).

No need to book, just drop in between 10am and 12 to meet the Club Leader, pick up an information pack and have a go at making a fabulous butterfly feeder - inspired by our own Eco-warrior, Charles Waterton.

If you are aged between 8 and 13 with an interest in history - this is the place to be!

Click on image above to enlarge

If you can't make it on Saturday, email with your address for an application pack - or pop into the museum to pick one up!



New Young Curators' Club

We are excited to be launching a new Young Curators’ Club in September.

This free club will give young people the opportunity to get involved in the museum, handle real museum objects, discover interesting historical facts and try new craft activities.

Over the summer, young people are also invited to two drop-in activities to meet the session leader, find out more about the club, pick-up a members’ pack, and try a new craft activity to take home.

No need to book, just drop-in!

Free drop-in activities for 8-13 year olds
Learning Zone within Wakefield Library
17^th August and 31^st August

Saturday 17 August – Monster Pebbles – 10am to 12noon

Using the Sandal Castle stone gargoyle as inspiration, have a go at creating your own painted stone monsters!

Saturday 31 August – Butterfly Bonanza – 10am to 12noon
Taking a look at the butterflies in the Waterton Collection, and drawing inspiration from Waterton’s Nature Reserve, create your own butterfly feeder to take home.

Young Curators’ Club

• Are you aged between 8 and 13?

• Do you enjoy discovering interesting historical facts and trying new crafts?

Why not join the Young Curators’ Club?

The Young Curators’ Club will start on 21 September and will take place on the third Saturday of each month, from 10 am to 11.30 am.

Email for an information pack.