'Accumulating the splashes and smears of those who use it, the studio
sink records the activity happening in the space around it.'
Michael Prior
Access and Education Programmer
Arnolfini, Bristol
Designing creative spaces
Getting the process right
One of the major problems in getting the right creative spaces is often the lack of involvement of teachers and gallery and museum education staff in the final design and equipping of those spaces. This is usually due to:
- an organisation's prevailing culture and its decision-making structures
- lack of time or confidence to communicate and build working relationships with those doing other jobs in the same organisation
- inadequate knowledge of the language, procedures and expertise of other professions
The consequences are that, in galleries and museums, education staff tend not to be encouraged to work and plan closely enough with curating staff on spaces and their uses.
At the end of one of the Project's focus groups, a gallery curator commented: 'This is the first time I have had the chance to discuss these issues with my education colleagues.' In schools, teachers report that they have too little input into Local Authority plans for modernising, or building new, schools.
Both groups feel isolated from the architects and designers who produce the spaces in which they have to work.
Collaboration is not easy, but it is crucial. It helps to ensure that buildings and the spaces within them are fit for the purposes of those who manage and use them. Too often, mistakes are made because those taking final decisions on creative spaces do not realise the significance to users and managers of getting seemingly minor details right. One teacher commented: 'Architects need to observe the way children move and behave.' We heard reports from teachers and gallery and museum staff of too few and badly sited sinks or electric points; of poorly sited doors and windows; of creative spaces located around a main corridor; of tables too heavy to move and cupboards too narrow to store work in. For example:
- 'We argued like mad with the architect about having big sinks and big cupboards. He said: ÒWell, they'll stick out and you'll lose space.Ó They say things and give reasons for it and then you realise they only said that because they wanted smaller sinks.'
- 'The shelves were only designed to take tiny lunchboxes when actually children tend to come with big rucksacks.'
- 'We specified a door from the corridor and big sinks; we got neither.'
- 'There are carpets in areas for wet work.'
- 'When it came to procuring fixtures and fittings, we felt we couldn't keep on asking about each tiny detail because the whole building was so big and complicated. We couldn't have focus groups for every detail such as having the most suitable pegs. Yet for us these things are so important.'
The success that can come from properly consulting and collaborating with people ought to turn these minority activities into the general rule. Suggestions for improving collaboration during the planning process for creative spaces include:
- incorporate into every building or modernisation project sufficient time and funding to consult all those affected by it
- ensure that people are familiar with the technical jargon of other professions, know what questions to ask, and are aware of the decision-making timetable
- have good internal communications between staff across all levels
- establish a consultation process that requires different departments and disciplines to exchange views and information, and to work together in planning a creative space
- ensure that architects talk directly to education staff
- encourage everyone to ask for what they want
- define the function of the space rather than the 'product' as you see it (otherwise you may get what you asked for rather than what works!)
- be detailed, specific and practical
- work out your priorities
- don't think about the problems (including the cost) - let the architect/ designer tell you what can and cannot be done within the budget/timeframe
- ask for as much as possible up front - the specifications can be reduced to save costs, but no one is going to be happy if you start adding requirements later on in the process!
- define clear lines of communication - they are key to the success of the project
- ensure that the head of education or education curator is included, and named, in any list of decision-makers, for a creative spaces project (to assert 'ownership' and significance)
- involve an external, or independent, mentor or facilitator in the consultation and development process (to bring people together from different disciplines and to allow for 'out of the ordinary' perspectives and exchanges of view)
Finally, this is a two-way process with the onus on all decision-makers to know what they are making decisions about. One museum head of education commented:
'As well as involving artists and designers in developing the brief, it is important that senior managers and fundraisers are involved at an early stage and understand what the space
is going to be used for. They should be fully aware of the practical requirements of the space, and where possible should see other museum education centres or spaces in action.'
'functional sinks can be an important focal point of any space where workshops
and education take place.'
Oliver Buckley
Interpretation Curator
The New Art Gallery, Walsall
Consulting children
Do children know what they want from a creative space?
According to the pupils at the Caol Primary School in Fort William, the answer is a resounding yes. This large primary school has set up 'Room 13', an independent art organisation, with a resident artist, that occupies an average-sized classroom in the school. The room serves as a studio, office, exhibition and storage space. The organisation is run by children elected from years 6 and 7 (the equivalent of years 5 and 6 in England). They take full responsibility for the room as well as managing the accounts and cash-flow, making funding applications and writing cheques.
Room 13 is a great success both within the school and with the local community. The children identify the ingredients of that success as being the freedom and choice that it offers, their sense of ownership and responsibility, and the fact that they can use 'real' materials rather than children's materials.
It's not ideal; they would like more, and better use of, space to work and more storage. A separate office area would, they say, ease the pressure on space and reduce noise.
On arranging space effectively, one pupil commented: 'I think it would be good if we could keep things separate; all the business in one room and all the painting in the other.' Another added:
'I'd like a large area for desk work and a lot of space for working in the middle.'
They are perceptive about practicalities. For example:
- 'When we open the windows the blinds all blow in and get in the way.'
- 'Our sinks are too packed into the corner, and you can't get people round them.'
- 'We need a separate sink to put all the stuff in and to wash paintbrushes and things in, and one to wash your hands.'
- 'We want a place to keep the canvases to work on while they are wet, so you don't get other paint on them.'
- 'We need a room off the studio that's just a messy room with plenty of ventilation and protective clothing for people doing work with spray paint or plastering so you don't get dust on other people's work.'
- 'Well, we could do with a whole room for storing junk in, another for storing paintings, another for plaster work, one for painting, a proper photography studio with artificial light and a big darkroom too.'
- 'I think we should have a lot more working tables because usually we end up working on the floor ... and then the wee ones end up standing on them [the art works].'
- 'We should have a first-aid cupboard.'
- 'I think we should have more computers. We've only got one really good one ... and we need about three - one for letters, one for Photoshop, and one spare.'
- 'We should have a touch-and-feel room where the art we make is displayed for disabled or blind people.'
It is clear that children and young people need to be brought into the consultation and decision-making processes when creative spaces are being planned, designed and equipped. The question, of course, is how can this be done in relevant and effective ways?
