Places for Recovery? Museums, Children's Wellbeing and Covid-19

GEM Northern Ireland

A workshop exploring  how museums can support children and young people's wellbeing against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic

‘Our Voices Matter’: the Impact of Covid-19 on Children and Young People’s Lives: Our first speaker is Alan Herron. Over the summer of 2020 PlayBoard NI undertook research focused on the impact of Covid-19 on the lives of children and young people. The research explored the effects of lockdown on play, social relations and education with an underpinning assessment of the impact on emotional wellbeing. Alan will present an overview of the key findings, provide an insight into other child-focused research on a broader UK basis and consider how best to support children as we emerge from Covid.Museums as Spaces for Children and Young People&#x27;s Wellbeing: Our second speaker is Laura Bedford from Kids in Museums who will be talking about the work museums do in supporting children and young people’s wellbeing. Laura will be drawing from her knowledge of best practice in the museum sector across the UK, bringing insights from her many years&#x27; experience of working in the sector and as a long-standing champion for the place of wellbeing in museums. A Case Study from the Irish Linen Centre &amp; Lisburn Museum: Reflecting on the Pandemic as a Unique Opportunity to Adapt and Evolve a Museum Education Service: Our third speaker is Gillian Lyttle who will be sharing her work at the Irish Linen Centre &amp; Lisburn Museum. The ethos of learning at Lisburn Museum is participant based practice, working with real people, interacting with real objects in real heritage settings. Gillian will be reflecting on how the museum education services were adapted to cope with the pandemic, with a focus on addressing wellbeing issues highlighted by the pandemic for children and young people. She will examine the balancing of the virtual museum, developed as a means of engaging with existing and potential participants, with maintaining sight of encouraging physical visiting experiences.This will be a panel event. Each speaker will deliver a presentation and there will be a facilitated Q+A at the end.Meet the SpeakersAlan Herron has been Director of Service Delivery and Development at PlayBoard NI since 2009 and has more than 20 years’ experience working in the community/voluntary sector. He oversees the delivery of a broad range of PlayBoard services including policy development, advocacy, play training, research and evaluation and school/community-based play programmes. At policy level, Alan was centrally involved in the development of Northern Ireland’s first ever Play and Leisure policy, the development and roll-out of the ‘Bright Start’ childcare programme and the NI Executive’s Play Matters programme. Alan leads on the development of play strategies at local council level, working to enhance access to quality play opportunities and experiences for all children and young people. Laura Bedford is Head of Programmes at Kids in Museums. Laura has worked in or with museums for over 15 years. All her roles have been learning focused and involved working with a variety of audiences. Whilst working at Geffrye Museum she rolled out a new early years programme, co-created exhibitions with family learning groups, consulted with families in order to pilot new digital provision, managed an after school club for young people with learning disabilities and co-produced events with the youth advisory panel. Laura previously managed the National Alliance for Museums, Health and Wellbeing and was the director for GEM’s health and wellbeing intermediate course. Gillian Lyttle has been the Assistant Education Officer in the Irish Linen Centre &amp; Lisburn Museum for over eight years and is currently acting Assistant Museum Services Manager. During the pandemic, she has also taken on the role of District Electoral Area (DEA) Coordinator. This role is part of Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s Community Planning Strategy. The DEA function serves as a point of contact for communities in identifying and mapping local needs in terms of council services. These education, management and community roles complement each other in terms of democratising the museum service. Coming from a Fine Arts background, Gillian practises pedagogy of the real at Lisburn Museum which is central to its learning ethos.

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Places for Recovery? Museums, Children's Wellbeing and Covid-19

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Places for Recovery? Museums, Children's Wellbeing and Covid-19

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