2. What are they?
Backpacks of activities designed around a museum or
an exhibit
Intended to engage children with collections
Types of Activities
Hands on
Observatory
Memory
Visual/art
V&A Magic Glasses Backpack
Photo from V&A Website
3. Benefits
Engaging
Children with museum exhibits
Families
“Museums can be very one dimensional - … it can be
quite difficult for a child to be absorbed….. if you've
found ways like in these activity bags to make the
actual artefacts [..] come to life, then [children] will
remember them.” - mother at the V&A
4. Objectives
Promote an active learning experience for children &
their parents
Designed to engage the museum displays
Bring Families into the museum
Contents will ignite children’s creativity and
inquisitiveness
Increase time spent in the exhibits
Provide positive museum experience that will
encourage future visits – a relationship with the
museum
5.
6. United States
Original idea started in the late 1990s in the U.S.
Colorado and Massachusettes
Baltimore, Maryland
“The idea behind the packs is to promote active
learning, involving children and parents with art,”
“… they stayed at many of the exhibits longer than they
had at any of our previous museum [visits]”
7. United Kingdom
First used at the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London, in early 2000s.
A staff member had seen the backpacks in a visit to
the U.S.
After the success of the Backpack programme at the
V&A, many more institutions throughout the UK have
begun to implement their own Backpacks.
8. Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A Museum of Decorative
Arts
Award winning backpack
programme
Focus on museum exhibits
which are not immediately
interesting to children
Using a Backpack at the V&A
Photo from V&A Website
9. V&A - 6 different Backpack themes
Fancy Furnishings – 18th
century British
furniture
Emperor’s Party – 16th
century India
Chinese Treasures – Chinese Decorative Art
Metal Detector – Decorative Ironwork
Antique Detective – Victorian Decorative Arts
Magic Glasses – Decorative Glass
10. Fancy Furnishings Instructions
Activities include
Period Music and period Manners
“personality pots” (personification)
Finding animals in period furniture
Finding things in period patterns
Design your own 18th
century room
11. Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
“Cabinet of Curiosities” style museum is an artefact
in and of itself.
Backpack programme was winner of the 2005
Guardian Newspaper Family Friendly Museum Award
Judged by children
12. Fashion Museum, Bath
Backpack programme implemented in September of
2007
Handbags exhibit backpack
Silhouette matching game
Fabric pattern matching game
Handbag fabric dominoes
Children’s story book on theme
Describe the bag activity
Handbag on display at
Fashion Museum of Bath
Photo Fashion Museum website
13. Fashion Museum Results
Children’s and parents’ Comments
One child liked finding the patterns, “It was like
solving a mystery”
“…like[s] things to look up and investigate.
Appreciated, “Anything that focuses them on the
detail.”
14. Fort Frances Museum
Discover History Backpacks
Fort Frances Museum
Small town museum
Small budget
Backpacks are an attempt to generate more community
engagement with the museum
Entice more visitors and increase time spent in
exhibitions.
22. Fort Frances Test Launch
Responses:
“Enables us to go at our own pace and learn more
than on a quick tour”
“Lots of chances for involvement.”
“Handling cards…[show] you items you may not
notice otherwise”
“Good way to examine the display closely”
23. Engaging families on a budget
Activity Backpacks do not require a large budget
Do not necessarily require backpacks, activity ‘kits’
can be held in various holders
Budget determines the presentation, but not
necessarily the content or the efficacy
24. Trial & Error
Instructional guides are key component
Instruction should be a clear and concise as possible
Labeling very necessary and should be very clear
25. Key points
Should be free of additional charge
Many large museums require a deposit or another form of security
Does not directly generate revenue, but intended to
entice repeat visits by local visitors
Activities should designed to reach different age groups
