I can’t believe I am writing about the last few weeks of our Team CASPA project. Tomorrow is our final day, when we will be leaving the Museum of London archive behind to visit the museums’ Docklands site and carry out a little public engagement. We will be sharing what we have learnt about Fulham Pottery over the last few …
Week 7 – Give us a job – Team CASPA
Volunteer Inclusion Projects (VIPs) are run regularly at the Museum of London Archive, but part of the challenge of working with Team CASPA, who are young autistic adults, is providing more of a work experience environment. Only 16% of autistic adults are in work, research from the National Autistic Society (NAS) has revealed this figure has remained the same for …
Week 6 – A digital 17th century – Team CASPA
Having arrived a little early for Week 6 of our Team CASPA project at the Museum of London, I decided to begin the day having a little root around in the documentation that accompanied the dig at Fulham Pottery. Excavations began in 1971 and there are some wonderful black and white photos that give a sense of the pottery in …
Week 5 – Sharing London’s History – Team CASPA
I have written a lot in the last few weeks about thoughts and feelings. This is all well and good but sometimes you need to focus on the work too! As I have mentioned at the start of these blogs (and no doubt will do again) this volunteer inclusion project is carrying out ‘real work’. We are making material in …
Week 4 – Recalling the first time – Team CASPA
It is a big commitment blogging each week of a project and sometimes I wonder why I do it. The first time I blogged a project was right at the start of my volunteering at the Museum of London. For 9 weeks I wrote about a volunteering inclusion project that saw me repacking archaeology from a Roman villa just down …
Week 3 – Can you be too supportive? – Team CASPA
One of the disadvantages of volunteering in different roles at different museums is you sometimes get a clash of dates. Week 3 of Team CASPA finds me heading off to South London for an Access Advisory Group meeting at the Horniman Museum rather than heading to the Museum of London archive. I am anxious about how Team CASPA are getting …
Week 2 – Taking words for granted – Team CASPA, our first full day
As I walk out of Old Street Tube and up past Shoreditch Park it comes flooding back to me, the excitement of my own Volunteering Inclusion Project back in 2013. I loved every minute of it and I wonder about the young people on our project, whether they feel the same excitement. But I am very aware of how easily …
Week 1 – Unicorns and Mermaids – Team CASPA – the pre-visit, volunteering at the Museum of London
Here we go, Week 1. I can’t believe we are ready to get this project off the ground. I am volunteering on a new project at the Museum of London archive working with Adam Corsini, Collections Manager, and a group of young people from CASPA, a charity that supports children, young people and families affected by autism. I have already …
Why and How? 2017 – Engaging children with special educational needs in creative experiences and making art, Royal Academy, March
I can’t believe it is my third time returning to the Why and How seminar at the Royal Academy. Always a highlight in my year, it is a day dedicated to sharing best practice and ideas on engaging children with special educational needs in creative experiences and making art. Molly Bretton, the Access and Communities Manager, always puts together a …
Here’s to the future what ever that may hold…
I can’t keep up with the number of autism events happening in museums. I keep a list, and it grows bigger every day. I have spoken about autism in museums at Museums Showoff and a Kids in Museums Carnival. I have been to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum and the Jewish Museum to visit their autism openings with my …