Starting with play
February 2017
Paul Bowers
Head Exhibitions

‘Children’s Room’
National Museum of
Victoria, 1917
“Gone were the Latin
names and the high cases.
The displays were eye-
catching and changed
frequently”

The last Children’s Gallery

2013: Early Years Framework
• Multiple forums with Academics, Policy-
makers, Practitioners, Families
• Built our understanding
• Created our advocacy positions
• Discovered scale of interest and demand
• Built allies, momentum and credibility

2013: Early Years Framework
• National (2011) & State (2009) curriculum:
• importance of learning from birth,
• importance of play-based learning,
• role of educator and parent.
• Theory (Piaget, Vygotsky, etc)
• Children learn through play
• Constructivism: learning builds on pre-existing
knowledge
• Scaffolding: children learn well when assisted
• Neuroscience underpinning it all

Gallery redevelopment – kick off
• Appointed 2 internal stars
• Conversational brief development – about
5 months of coffee chats
• Set 0-5 as the target audience
• ‘parents as first teacher’ a guiding principle
• Arrived at the Vision
A wondrous museum place filled with multi-
sensory, child-led, play-based learning
adventures where children’s minds run free.

Types of Play
1. Symbolic Play – eg a piece of wood to symbolise an object
2. Rough and Tumble Play
3. Socio-dramatic Play – enactment of real experiences eg going to the shops
4. Social Play – play that has rules set between two or more people eg games
5. Creative Play – making things
6. Communication Play – play using words or gestures eg charades
7. Dramatic Play – enactment of stories eg a movie seen by the child
8. Locomotor Play – movement for its own sake eg chase, tree climbing
9. Deep Play – risky play to develop survival skills eg lighting a fire with
matches
10. Exploratory Play – ‘see what happens’ play eg banging, mouthing objects
11. Fantasy Play – creating a make believe world not limited by reality
12. Imaginative Play – pretend play eg patting a pretend dog
13. Mastery Play – constructing environments eg making a dam
14. Object Play – exploration of an object eg examination of a cup
15. Role Play – exploring ways of being eg sweeping
16. Recapitulative Play – exploration of ancestry, history, rituals
Hughes, B. (2002) A Playworker’s Taxonomy of Play Types, 2nd edition,
London: PlayLink.

Working with our audience
Developmental ages and stages
• ‘Sitting up’ ~6-12 month old babies
• ‘Cruisers’ ~12-18 months olds
• Toddlers from 18 months old to 3 years
• Young children from 3-4 years old
• Young children from 4-5 years old
Children are co-creators:
• Asking children to design their ‘dream museum’
• Observing children interacting with experiences
• Prototyping interactives and programming

Materials and
experience exploration
across all ages. Gowrie
Childcare & Polyglot
Theatre, 17 March
2015
Exploring the idea of
Camouflage Disco, across
all ages. Gowrie Childcare
and Polyglot Theatre, 27
March 2015

Children’s needs & expectations
• Young children: tactile
• Older: narrative, games and social
• Nature focus: rocks, bushes, forest, sea,
animals, parks
• Being scared (in a good way!), hiding places
• Balance between familiar and unfamiliar
• Construction activities, dancing / movement
• Pretend and narrative play
• Sound/music and light
• High energy spaces/experiences balanced with
calmer spaces/experiences to pull back into; and
take time out

Adult’s needs & expectations
• Child and carer playing
• The child wants to have fun, feel welcome, free, comfortable, safe,
confident that they can do things.
• The carer wants to be part of child’s learning, needs to know what to
do.
• Child playing, carer watching
• The carer expects to actively observe the child explore, learn and be
independent.
• They need to feel reassured that this is OK, that they are not being
judged and have a comfortable and appropriate space from which to
watch.
• Child playing, carer chilling
• The carer wants to escape, belong, indulge, take a break and
socialize while their children are safe.
• They need to feel reassured that this is OK and they are not judged
and there is a comfortable space to do this.

Tactile, magical, comfortable
Design Brief:
• Inclusive – additional needs, learning styles and
diversity
• Multi-modal
• Highly tactile – with the inclusion of natural materials
• The consideration of materials/mediums as adding to
the overall sensory experience of the gallery
• Comfortable – seating, acoustic improvements to the
environment. Seating. Sitting on floor. More seating.
• Clean - durable materials that are robust and
cleanable
• Safe – sightlines, pathways, access and egress
• Pace – high and low energy areas and activities

Scared. But not too scared! 1/2
Dream Museum workshop at
Gowrie
Maggie, 3: “I like butterflies. A lion,
a tiger, a tiger”.
Evan, 5: “Yes! These are the
children finding the monster in the
bushes. They are scared!”
Prototype 2
“Where are the dinosaurs? Are
they coming to get me?”
Genuinely scared, left area.
Spider projected onto floor,
children ran off as it moved
towards them and others stomped
on the image

Scared. But not too scared 2/2
Final delivery:
Tiger specimen in corner of
Camouflage Disco
Lower key sounds (not too
scary)
Slow projection movements
No spider!

Posting shapes 1/2
Based on developmental
information, children enjoy
putting things in and out of
containers from 18mths.
Also, that toddlers are
attracted to faces.
Idea of posting shapes into
faces, simple action
reaction, getting a sound
reward.
Did 2 rounds of testing
with 3-4 year olds.

Posting shapes 2/2
Only some holes have sounds
sounds are a short duration
holes lower down provide younger
children with chance to engage
We don’t worry about dropped
blocks!

Safe, welcome

Conclusions
• Actually listening
• Start with tiny team
• Result reflects the
making
• Let the audience tell
you how to be
museumy