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Blog: New ways of seeing: Printmaking as an intro to university
5 May 2020
Emma Bryant, Schools Engagement Manager: Museums (UCL Culture), writes about their Printmaking project. A key part of the UCL East Museums and Schools Programme, to engage school students from east London on a range of topics and broaden their understanding of a university.
“The workshop was so inspirational, I have always been interested in Art and learning the process and seeing people creating Art made me want to carry out my dream.”
Hello, I’m Emma, I work in UCL Culture and the quote above is from one of the school students in our Printmaking Project. That is part of the UCL East Museums and Schools Programme that I created and manage. This blog post is the first in a series we are publishing to give a taste of some of UCL Culture’s work that takes place outside the public eye, specifically with schools.
The programme’s main aims are to raise the profile of the university amongst east London schools in advance of the opening of the new UCL East campus; to increase school students’ skills and knowledge; and to give insight into opportunities for study and work available to young people between the ages of 11 – 18.
All children visit a museum during their time at school so I use the familiarity of this environment as a starting point to engage young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Object based learning (OBL) is key to our offer and all school students attend workshops in one of the museums on the Bloomsbury campus: UCL Art Museum, the Grant Museum of Zoology, or the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.
Key to the success of our projects is the input of UCL students and alumni. Visiting school students, many of whom will not have been to a university before, really enjoy meeting our students. Interesting conversations take place in a relaxed and informal way and the school students’ gain insight into studying at UCL. Over the coming weeks you’ll be hearing form some of the UCL students and alumni who have worked on and have enriched the schools programme. They write about both what happens during their workshops and how they feel about their involvement.
My programme introduces school students to subjects and topics which many of them are not aware of but will be part of the academic programmes planned for the UCL East campus, located in the heart of where they live. The Printmaking Project raises awareness of the opportunities to study art and design at the Culture Lab and the Bio-Robotics Project about the Robotics and Autonomous Systems hub. By broadening their knowledge about what can be studied at university these young people will be better equipped to make informed choices about their next steps on their educational journey.