Learning at the Stradling Collection
Ken Stradling’s vision was that the collection should inspire future generations of designers, makers, and collectors. Our learning programme is how we carry that forward. We open the collection to schools, colleges and curious visitors connecting people with the projects, makers behind them, and their ideas that design can carry.
WHAT WE DO?
Learning through Making
Every session starts with an object in the room. That might be a curator walking a group through the galleries, a class handling pieces from our study collection, or a student showcasing a handmade piece of their own in a student-led exhibition. Whatever the format, we teach through looking and making rather than lecturing. Our Learning and Engagement team designs each visit around what a specific group needs, partnering with schools across the Southwest to build sessions that fit into the student's curriculum.
Beyond visits and workshops, we also offer work experience placements for students wanting a closer look at how a gallery runs day to day. Past placements have included designing merchandise for the shop, shadowing our curator or centre manager, and simply being a friendly, knowledgeable face in the gallery for visitors. It's often where students get their first real sense of what a career in the arts or heritage sector could look like.
Curator's Tour
Our Curator leads small groups through the space, drawing out the stories behind the pieces on display and the decisions made into the curation. Available privately for schools, universities and societies.
Length: 90 min
Group size: up to 14
Cost: £15 per person
School Visits
Curriculum linked visits combining a gallery tour with a practical activity in our study room. We can build a visit around a project your students are already working on.
Length: 90 min
Group size: up to 14
Cost: Please Enquire
Work Experience
Short placements for college and university students that want to see how a collection runs, from handling and cataloguing objects to helping shape content for the gallery.
Apply via your school or college, references required
“I came away thinking it was one of the best activities I have experienced with students in terms of impact. It was great to see the realisations they were making about objects in general by being able to pick things up, examine the detail and feel the weight and texture. They really enjoyed it. Thank you very much for a great session – I will hope to do it again next year.”
Kevin Jenkins, Senior Lecturer, Product Design, University of the West of England
Our Past Projects
Browse our previous exhibitions of work produced as part of our learning programme.
My Family and Other Objects
10 September - 8 October 2022
My Family and Other Objects is a project by our Learning Programme inspired by A Lifelong Passion for Design: Ken Stradling at 100, which tells the story of Ken Stradling’s life and times through 100 objects selected from the Stradling Collection.
Picturing Lockdown
2 October - 13 November 2021
The diaries, dioramas, poems, photographs, posters, and ceramics reflected the makers’ thoughts, feelings and observations of this often distressing, period in their lives. Frustration, boredom, anxiety, and stress are common themes but there was also resilience, warmth, humour, insight, and the talent of almost 100 people who contributed to this exhibition.
