Impact case study database

Impacts on understanding, learning and participation

Prior to the COLOUR exhibition [E8], illuminated manuscripts were widely considered a marginal, medieval art form, produced by monks, very distant from the celebrated Renaissance panels and frescoes created by professional artists. The exhibition had a major effect in challenging this conventional public wisdom, and press articles describe the impact of these messages: ‘ It blows apart cliches about illuminated books and the medieval world that created them’ (Jonathan Jones, Review, The Guardian 28 July 2016) [E2].

Fig. 1. Pigments on display alongside manuscripts in COLOUR exhibition

COLOUR stimulated interest in the MINIARE research project, with 100,246 visitors to the exhibition and over 3,420 people taking part in the public engagement programme [E9]. Feedback from participants in these events demonstrated that the exhibition had provoked public interest in the research and enhanced their understanding of MINIARE’s key research themes: materials, processes and techniques. Visitors also noted how the exhibition encouraged them to look closely at manuscripts and think about them differently: ‘ First of all congratulations on a fantastic exhibition! I have been to see it several times now and am continually excited by each new thing I see and revelation I glean. As a craftsman with a special interest in re-making 15th C artefacts I am continually amazed at the craftsmanship of the artists shown in the exhibition’ (comment in visitor book) [E1].

In Autumn 2019, over 68 teachers, and 3,800 children from forty schools studied and made art in response to Sellaio’s painting of Cupid and Psyche as part of the Inspire project, training teachers to support children to look at and make art [E3]. Many schools spent weeks looking at and talking about the painting: ‘ *The Cupid and Psyche painting was something most of our children would have never seen or heard of but now, if you ask any of the children in Year 1 and Year 2 at my school, they can tell you the entire story from start to finish!*’ [E3]. The project encouraged participating schools to explore interdisciplinary links between art and science. One school studied the writings of Renaissance artist Cennino Cennini to find out about how egg tempera paint was made; another invited a local scientist to help them to carry out experiments on the effects of colour and light on plants. The resulting exhibition (December 2019-March 2020) had 33,410 visitors and further impacted on teacher, student and public knowledge and understanding of Renaissance techniques and materials, as members of the public, University staff and visiting academics reported how seeing the children’s responses and ideas within the exhibition also made them see the painting differently. A university professor told the project team, ‘as an Italian Renaissance person who must have seen that painting hundreds of times, I looked at it through entirely new eyes’ [E3].

The specially commissioned technical and art historical analysis on Cupid and Psyche by Cooper, Ricciardi and conservators from HKI was used for a display within the exhibition and for a new AR App (see fig. 2 below) designed in partnership with app developer Maggioli Musei and the University of Florence. As visitors discovered, the ‘Ways of Seeing’ app locks on to the picture when held in front of it and a navigation bar at the bottom of the screen offers IR, X-Ray and pigment analysis overlay modes to allow the viewer to uncover hidden layers of meaning. User testing was cut short after the closure of the exhibition due to COVID-19, but initial feedback was very positive with one enthusiastic visitor remarking on how the app enabled the secrets of the painting to be uncovered, ‘ What would he [del Sellaio] think? All those secrets! He spent so long hiding all his mistakes and now we can see them all!’ [E3].

For older students and their teachers, the University of Cambridge Museums’ Looking at collections resource once again combines Ricciardi’s research on Cupid and Psyche and Noble’s on visual literacy to explore different ways of researching objects [E4]. Feedback reveals that the resource now supports the development of student research skills as part of the ‘A’ level curriculum, ‘a great way to get students looking as well as layering more information that's not too heavy! The resources worked really well, so many thanks! More please??’ [E10]. The resource also raises awareness of potential career routes for those with an interest in both art and science. The site has had over 3,000 unique views to date and we are still developing and launching new content [E4].

Fig. 2. ‘Ways of Seeing’ app in use * * Fig. 3. Young artists and teacher giving a public talk

in Inspire exhibition in Inspire exhibition

Impacts on creativity, culture and society

Our research on the making and meaning of medieval and Renaissance cultural heritage has inspired a range of different audiences to create their own artwork through the public programmes attached to the Fitzwilliam exhibitions. These audiences included children, young people and adults who might not have otherwise visited the museum, such as people with a dementia diagnosis and their care partners, people accessing support for mental ill-health, blind and partially sighted visitors (who made use of a rich audio guide), adults with learning disabilities, and people who are homeless or vulnerably housed. A young person who participated in one of our COLOUR workshops commented that they ‘loved learning about how to paint (with and how) pigments were created. [...] This was a fantastic opportunity [...] and would be interested in doing a Gold Arts Award,’ evidencing how their creativity has been stimulated by research that bridges art and science [E9].

Inspire built on the success of these colour- and pigment-related workshops and shared some of the art activities developed for the COLOUR exhibition with teachers. The project had a significant impact on children’s creativity with over 3,800 children studying the painting and making their own artwork in response to the focus painting [E3]. Drawing on Noble’s research, the project gave children the time and space to be creative, to make their own decisions and to follow their ideas, generating new ways of thinking and inspiring new forms of expression. One child (age five) commented, ‘I felt just like a real artist!’; a second child (age nine) described how ‘working with the clay was really fun and we felt very proud that we had thought of this idea and followed it through from beginning to end’ [E3].

Impacts on practitioners and delivery of professional services

The Inspire project worked on-the-ground to support teachers to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence in teaching art and design and working with museum collections. Artist partner AccessArt’s Inspire blog posts about the project have been shared widely with their creative community of over 14,000 artists, teachers and facilitators [E7]. In a follow-up survey at the end of the project in Spring 2020, this impact was still being reported: ‘ I am now able to use paintings as a stimulus … I feel more inspired to do creative things in schools after seeing the huge impact it made’ [E3]. Feedback from children also demonstrates that the project changed art teaching in participating schools: ‘Normally in art we all have to do the same thing. I really enjoyed having the chance to experiment and choose what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it’ [E3]. Thirty-three teachers also took part in additional training sessions linked to the exhibition, and visiting teachers and students took photos and made notes to take ideas back with them to the classroom and studio, further extending the impact of the project [E3].

Building on the clear need for additional resources for teachers, during Summer 2020 Bucklow, Noble and Ricciardi developed a prototype ‘Ways of Seeing’ teaching resource for primary schools, designed to support the development of transdisciplinary analytical skills essential to both artistic and scientific investigation. Teachers who took part in the pilot session were excited by the teaching potential of the AR app: ‘ Fantastic resource as it tells the story within the story and makes the artist and his decisions appear more real’ [E3].They also said that they had found the training day very beneficial, boosting their confidence and motivation and inspiring them to improve their art and science teaching and to make links with other areas of the curriculum [E3].

Impact on public policy

Inspire aimed to raise the profile of art and design locally and nationally at a time when the subject is under threat, due to a reduction in subject specialist training opportunities for both trainee and in-service teachers. A feature on BBC Look East described how Inspire made art accessible to schools and children across the county and an interview with a head teacher from a Fenland school described how the project had ‘ opened up an amazing opportunity for the children’ in her school where they had not been teaching much art [E5]. In February 2020 Inspire was presented as evidence to the national All-Party Parliamentary Group for Art, Craft and Design in Education, demonstrating the potential of artist, museum and university partnerships to support teacher development [E6]. As a result, Noble has been asked to join the NSEAD (National Society for Art and Design Education) council and is part of a steering group writing a white paper on art and design education, demonstrating how museum based research can inform policy debate in this area.