The National Portrait Gallery in London works with eight museums in the Tees Valley, as part of the Arts Council funded Museum and Schools programme. The key aim of this partnership is to connect local children and students with their heritage, helping them to develop a sense of place and identity and in so doing, raise their aspirations.
The partners wished to create an online resource for teachers to support school visits to the local museums and help bring local heritage to life in the classroom. I conducted a research study to assess the feasibility of achieving this against a short timeline and limited budget.
Through a combination of desk research and interviews with local teachers and partners, the study assessed audience need and curriculum links, and matched these with partner museum collections. Work was also undertaken to assess the extent of currently digitised collection images and the practicalities of building and maintaining a web resource.
Using the findings from the research, I worked with the partners to create Making a Mark in the Tees Valley – an online resource for teachers.
Take a look: Making a Mark in the Tees Valley
Find out more about creating the resource in my GEM Case Study: Making a Mark in the Tees Valley
Anna Husband 