Scientific endeavour
Museums and galleries are making great strides in bringing art and science closer together, breaking boundaries with engaging exhibitions and learning programmes
Museums have been at the forefront of the movement to bridge the divide between science and the arts for decades. And, on the face of it, the signs that the gap is narrowing look good.
Science museums, science centres and museums with science-themed collections are popular with families. They can exploit children’s fascination with the natural world, chemical reactions and moving parts, whether with the latest technology or traditional engineering. Children can play and explore more in science environments than in art galleries, for example, while adults can learn about and discuss the ways in which science has an impact on society and our cultural lives.
Science museums’ ability to inspire and inform attracts a lot of public and private funding. The recent popularisation of science by physicists such as Brian Cox and Jim Al-Khalili, who present complex scientific concepts in accessible ways on television and online, has proved mutually beneficial for science museums and the education and science sectors.
Demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) degrees has never been higher, according to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Industry needs science graduates and this seems to be filtering down through the education system, with a record take-up at universities and colleges.
Educational needs
Enrolment in Stem subjects at A-level is also at a high. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has boosted funding for Stem subject teaching at universities and colleges by £200m, and the Joint Council for Qualifications states that 78,000 more pupils studied Stem subjects in 2014 than in the previous academic year.
But research by the ESRC also found that only a quarter of students take three separate sciences at GCSE despite a government push, and that girls and students from disadvantaged backgrounds or ethnic minorities are less likely to take science. And a 2014 report by the Institute for Public Policy Research showed that while girls generally outperform boys in science GCSEs, when it comes to A-levels, they tend to drop physics and also maths.
Moreover, the two distinct cultures of the arts and sciences seem to be entrenched in the education system, and the achievements of museums have to be set in that context.
“We continue to make it hard for people to mix art and science beyond the age of 16,” says Justin Dillon, a professor of science and environmental education at the University of Bristol. “In an ideal world, students would feel confident enough to choose stud- ies post-16 that reflected a broad range of interests, but what they often perceive is that universities want a narrow range of A-level subjects.”
Dillon has worked on the Aspires project, a longitudinal study on what shapes the science and career choices of 10- to 14-year-olds.
“Aspires does suggest that people see studying science as restrictive, committing them solely to becoming a scientist,” he says. “The data also suggests that many people don’t see science as a discipline for them. It is also hard to switch from the arts and humanities to the sciences, so if more routes were available perhaps more people would change. There’s not enough evidence to say that would happen, so for the moment universities can do their bit by offering courses that require a mix of A-levels, but it will take some time for the educational climate to change.”
Museums, however, are well placed to encourage schools and families to see how science can open doors. “It’s important that parents and other family members who come from a scientific background or career help broaden children’s visions of careers,” says Dillon.
“We are beginning to see more museums and science centres engage with scientific research – I have been impressed with my level of engagement with many museums recently, including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the International Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, At-Bristol and, overseas, at Science Center Nemo and Naturalis, both in the Netherlands, and the Experimentarium in Copenhagen. All these institutions are taking science engagement to the next level.”
Women make up half the UK’s workforce, but only 16% work in science professions (excluding medicine). According to the campaign group Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, this figure drops to 8% in engineering. Maths in particular has a poor take-up among girls.
“The creative side of science is often more appealing to women and girls,” says Janet Stott, the head of public engagement at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH). “But schools are not picking up on the cross-disciplinary potential, partly due to the time pressures on teachers,” Stott says. “This is where museums can step in and motivate students to think bigger. To be a good scientist you have to be creative and think outside the box. Our main advantage is access to the experts who can act as role models. While we are supplementary to what schools are doing, classroom learning can put off many children.”
Authentic learning
Museums also have an edge over more formal learning methods because they can house many activities that schools can’t. For example, at OUMNH, A-level workshops offer a chance for students to extract and analyse DNA from mouth swabs.
“We are able to relate this to human evolution stories in the gallery,” says Stott. “So students can see the point of the experiments they have done, which drives them to think about studying science at degree level. Authenticity is limited in a classroom, but it’s what we have plenty of.”
Education initiatives such as Enterprising Science, a partnership between King’s College and the Science Museum, are promoting the idea of “science capital” – science literacy in the form of qualifications, attitudes, skills, experience and knowledge – to build a picture of how much young people understand and how their comprehension can be developed. Another education initiative is Science Learning+, led by a partnership that includes the Wellcome Trust, the ESRC and the US government agency the National Science Foundation.
“Museums are the ideal space to have discussions about science in society,” says Rebekah Higgitt, a science historian and history lecturer at the University of Kent. “The outcomes of science can be hard to dis- play and it’s difficult to satisfy the sophisticated audiences out there. But science is relevant to everyone and part of the democratic world we all want to have a say in.”
Higgitt cites Collider, the exhibition about Cern’s (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) Large Hadron Collider at the Science Museum in 2014, as an example of science being made exciting and accessible in a museum context.
“They made it into a theatrical experience,” she says. “Actors played Cern researchers and the audience walked through the re-created underground corridors, so there was a feeling of actually being at Cern. It was a cross between an exhibition and a play, which worked well because the audience experienced both the drama and the mundaneness of the work.”
Higgitt believes that if museums move away from their own authoritative voice by bringing a multiplicity of stories to their objects, they would be on the right track.
Art galleries can also bring science and art together in stimulating ways. The refurbished Whitworth gallery in Manchester opened with an exhibition by the artist Cornelia Parker, who used graphene in her artworks, the world’s thinnest and strongest material that was discovered at the University of Manchester. Alongside the artworks, there were several science-related public events. The fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, for example, spoke at a well- attended event about the toxic impact of the textile industry, and how the chemicals used in textile production have a negative effect on the environment.
Asking the audience
Incorporating the museum space itself as part of the experience can also entice audiences. Architect Zaha Hadid designed the undulating Mathematics Gallery at the Science Museum, while the Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre near Cambridge embodies scientific enquiry within its architecture. The centre displays visual collaborations between artists and scientists in its interiors. For instance, the new cultural zone, which hosts public events on biomedical research and ethics, has been designed with phylogenetic patterns (a branching tree design that shows evolutionary relation- ships between species) by Glasgow-based art practice Timorous Beasties. There will also be a residency programme, where artists will be invited to work alongside cam- pus scientists to help interpret their genetics and genomics research.
At King’s College London, the interface between science and art will be explored at the Science Gallery, a space opening later this year aimed at 15- to 25-year-olds in its catchment area near London Bridge. There are no collections, but artists and scientists are working together on a changing programme of exhibitions and projects, such as Fed Up: the Future of Food, a project on the culture of food preservation. Crucially, the ideas and content are being developed, co- curated and documented by the young audiences themselves.
“Too often the agenda is determined by experts in introverted, privileged spaces,” says Daniel Glaser, a neuroscientist and the director of science at the Science Gallery. “We should be listening to potential audiences at the start of the process and not just revealing what’s been hidden behind hoardings when it comes to the grand opening.
“We want under-represented groups to tell us what science means to them. Science is part of culture, so rather than being peripheral to the process, the audience – the young people of south London – are central to us at the Science Gallery. Unless young people are setting the scientific agenda, why would they choose science as a career?”
Glaser believes museums must ask their audiences what they want and be willing to tolerate behaviour that they may not be comfortable with. “Yes, it’s a risk, but it’s the only way to engage people who wouldn’t normally engage with science, or indeed with museums,” he adds. “Science is far too important to be left to the scientists.”
And it is our museums that offer the platform for science and art to meet, inspiring the next generation of artists and scientists, but also furthering the ideas of specialists in those fields.
Deborah Mulhearn is a freelance journalist
Space encounters
From Aberdeen Science Centre to Techniquest Cardiff, 20 UK museums and science centres have been hosting events and educational activities about life in space. British astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) gave inspiration, and the project took in live coverage of Peake’s launch.
Destination Space, an initiative to raise awareness about space and its conditions, asks vital questions such as, “How do you go to the toilet in space?” A collaboration between the association of Science and Discovery Centres and the UK Space Agency, the scheme has been running since October 2015.
Peake, now living on the ISS, has been supporting the education programme in the lead up to the rocket launch, as well as during his time in space.
“It’s a different approach for us and a major step forward,” says Jon Marrow, a senior education manager at National Museums Liverpool (NML), which has been selected to deliver the Destination Space programme at World Museum.
“We put on science events to the public routinely, but this is on a different level. We have had unique access to experts, resources and training, which has enabled us to build on our existing knowledge base.”
NML staff had a week’s training at the National Space Centre in Leicester and Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, where they learned to do experiments demonstrating how space shuttles gain safe entry into the earth’s atmosphere on their return from outer space.
Developing expertise
“The modules have to withstand incredibly high temperatures on re-entry, and to illustrate this we’ve been able to present controlled experiments using explosive gases such as oxygen and hydrogen to help audiences understand the protective and thermal qualities used in space shuttle engineering,” Marrow says.
NML has also worked with local astronomical societies and higher education institutions such as Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), in departments ranging from sports science to astrophysics.
“You have to be super-fit to be an astronaut, so we are looking at how they train and keep their bodies in shape while in space,” says Marrow.
“LJMU is a leader in its field and often works with Olympic athletes, so this is a valuable collaboration. We’ve also had unique access to space-related resources including a space suit, robotic equipment and, yes, space nappies.”
He adds: “It’s about making people aware of the international space community’s achievements on one level, but about having age- appropriate experiments in the museum space on another.
“It’s been a challenge, but it’s been fantastic and we have now got the confidence and expertise among our delivery staff to take our science programme forward in new and exciting ways.”
Taking the temperature on climate change
Research shows that simply informing people of facts over and over again doesn’t lead them to change their minds about complex issues such as climate change. Indeed, you wouldn’t kick off an exhibition by telling visitors, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times.” It’s an approach that tends to reinforce existing beliefs.
The deficit model of science communication risks being condescending and, when presented by museums and galleries in particular, disengages teenagers and young adults. Individually-targeted campaigns over the past couple decades – recycle more, turn off the lights, eat less meat – have often focused on consumers rather than systemic reform. In his book, Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, George Marshall writes that we should emphasise the emotional and cultural consequences of climate change rather than the evidence, and that we shouldn’t focus on individuals, but rather on reforming policies and industries.
For museums, this approach doesn’t mean ditching the science, but it does mean emphasising the facts, while activist campaigns are likely to come across as worthy, preachy and repetitive.
So what do you do when your audience is sick of being preached to? One tactic is to change the premise of the debate. In the lead up to the 2014 exhibition Strange Weather, at the Science Gallery in Dublin, our focus group of young adults said they were environmentally conscious but sick to death of being told how they should be fixing problems they didn’t create.
In response, we emphasised the social consequences of inevitable climate change and explored how culture, economies and migration may change in the near-future through different scenarios. Armed with this knowledge, visitors were invited to explore future career options, such as relocating to emerging economies, and even to assess the value of green investments.
Changing the discourse
Instead of presenting evidence about climate change or encouraging altruistic behaviour, we essentially laid out how to profit from climate change. Cynical as this may seem, it immediately engaged and intrigued that hard-to-reach 15-25 age group. This angle sparked a nuanced dialogue about competing national, corporate and individual interests in a crisis that would naturally have winners and losers.
Visitors could partake in a mock interview with a career adviser, who coached them on how to prepare for a job in the wetter, warmer weather two decades away. Some pieces exhibited relics from festivals that have died out (Dutch ice skates from a 1930s canal-skating race), while imagining future festivals that may emerge from severe weather changes (toboggan shorts for the Polar Vortex Festival in New York).
Admitting ambivalence and trusting the audience to understand the severe consequences of climate change, while also recognising some possible benefits, refreshed the discourse, re-engaging our audience without them feeling like they were being lectured on a topic they’ve heard plenty about.
The climate change debate is no longer a debate about science, but our social response to imminent crises. Museums and galleries are uniquely placed to playfully and provocatively explore the cultural story of our changing climate. There is little use in preaching facts and figures to an audience that is well aware of the clouds on the horizon.
Ian Brunswick is the programme manager at Dublin’s Science Gallery
Science museums, science centres and museums with science-themed collections are popular with families. They can exploit children’s fascination with the natural world, chemical reactions and moving parts, whether with the latest technology or traditional engineering. Children can play and explore more in science environments than in art galleries, for example, while adults can learn about and discuss the ways in which science has an impact on society and our cultural lives.
Science museums’ ability to inspire and inform attracts a lot of public and private funding. The recent popularisation of science by physicists such as Brian Cox and Jim Al-Khalili, who present complex scientific concepts in accessible ways on television and online, has proved mutually beneficial for science museums and the education and science sectors.
Demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) degrees has never been higher, according to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Industry needs science graduates and this seems to be filtering down through the education system, with a record take-up at universities and colleges.
Educational needs
Enrolment in Stem subjects at A-level is also at a high. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has boosted funding for Stem subject teaching at universities and colleges by £200m, and the Joint Council for Qualifications states that 78,000 more pupils studied Stem subjects in 2014 than in the previous academic year.
But research by the ESRC also found that only a quarter of students take three separate sciences at GCSE despite a government push, and that girls and students from disadvantaged backgrounds or ethnic minorities are less likely to take science. And a 2014 report by the Institute for Public Policy Research showed that while girls generally outperform boys in science GCSEs, when it comes to A-levels, they tend to drop physics and also maths.
Moreover, the two distinct cultures of the arts and sciences seem to be entrenched in the education system, and the achievements of museums have to be set in that context.
“We continue to make it hard for people to mix art and science beyond the age of 16,” says Justin Dillon, a professor of science and environmental education at the University of Bristol. “In an ideal world, students would feel confident enough to choose stud- ies post-16 that reflected a broad range of interests, but what they often perceive is that universities want a narrow range of A-level subjects.”
Dillon has worked on the Aspires project, a longitudinal study on what shapes the science and career choices of 10- to 14-year-olds.
“Aspires does suggest that people see studying science as restrictive, committing them solely to becoming a scientist,” he says. “The data also suggests that many people don’t see science as a discipline for them. It is also hard to switch from the arts and humanities to the sciences, so if more routes were available perhaps more people would change. There’s not enough evidence to say that would happen, so for the moment universities can do their bit by offering courses that require a mix of A-levels, but it will take some time for the educational climate to change.”
Museums, however, are well placed to encourage schools and families to see how science can open doors. “It’s important that parents and other family members who come from a scientific background or career help broaden children’s visions of careers,” says Dillon.
“We are beginning to see more museums and science centres engage with scientific research – I have been impressed with my level of engagement with many museums recently, including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the International Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, At-Bristol and, overseas, at Science Center Nemo and Naturalis, both in the Netherlands, and the Experimentarium in Copenhagen. All these institutions are taking science engagement to the next level.”
Women make up half the UK’s workforce, but only 16% work in science professions (excluding medicine). According to the campaign group Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, this figure drops to 8% in engineering. Maths in particular has a poor take-up among girls.
“The creative side of science is often more appealing to women and girls,” says Janet Stott, the head of public engagement at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH). “But schools are not picking up on the cross-disciplinary potential, partly due to the time pressures on teachers,” Stott says. “This is where museums can step in and motivate students to think bigger. To be a good scientist you have to be creative and think outside the box. Our main advantage is access to the experts who can act as role models. While we are supplementary to what schools are doing, classroom learning can put off many children.”
Authentic learning
Museums also have an edge over more formal learning methods because they can house many activities that schools can’t. For example, at OUMNH, A-level workshops offer a chance for students to extract and analyse DNA from mouth swabs.
“We are able to relate this to human evolution stories in the gallery,” says Stott. “So students can see the point of the experiments they have done, which drives them to think about studying science at degree level. Authenticity is limited in a classroom, but it’s what we have plenty of.”
Education initiatives such as Enterprising Science, a partnership between King’s College and the Science Museum, are promoting the idea of “science capital” – science literacy in the form of qualifications, attitudes, skills, experience and knowledge – to build a picture of how much young people understand and how their comprehension can be developed. Another education initiative is Science Learning+, led by a partnership that includes the Wellcome Trust, the ESRC and the US government agency the National Science Foundation.
“Museums are the ideal space to have discussions about science in society,” says Rebekah Higgitt, a science historian and history lecturer at the University of Kent. “The outcomes of science can be hard to dis- play and it’s difficult to satisfy the sophisticated audiences out there. But science is relevant to everyone and part of the democratic world we all want to have a say in.”
Higgitt cites Collider, the exhibition about Cern’s (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) Large Hadron Collider at the Science Museum in 2014, as an example of science being made exciting and accessible in a museum context.
“They made it into a theatrical experience,” she says. “Actors played Cern researchers and the audience walked through the re-created underground corridors, so there was a feeling of actually being at Cern. It was a cross between an exhibition and a play, which worked well because the audience experienced both the drama and the mundaneness of the work.”
Higgitt believes that if museums move away from their own authoritative voice by bringing a multiplicity of stories to their objects, they would be on the right track.
Art galleries can also bring science and art together in stimulating ways. The refurbished Whitworth gallery in Manchester opened with an exhibition by the artist Cornelia Parker, who used graphene in her artworks, the world’s thinnest and strongest material that was discovered at the University of Manchester. Alongside the artworks, there were several science-related public events. The fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, for example, spoke at a well- attended event about the toxic impact of the textile industry, and how the chemicals used in textile production have a negative effect on the environment.
Asking the audience
Incorporating the museum space itself as part of the experience can also entice audiences. Architect Zaha Hadid designed the undulating Mathematics Gallery at the Science Museum, while the Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre near Cambridge embodies scientific enquiry within its architecture. The centre displays visual collaborations between artists and scientists in its interiors. For instance, the new cultural zone, which hosts public events on biomedical research and ethics, has been designed with phylogenetic patterns (a branching tree design that shows evolutionary relation- ships between species) by Glasgow-based art practice Timorous Beasties. There will also be a residency programme, where artists will be invited to work alongside cam- pus scientists to help interpret their genetics and genomics research.
Unless young people are setting the scientific agenda, why would they choose science as a career?"
At King’s College London, the interface between science and art will be explored at the Science Gallery, a space opening later this year aimed at 15- to 25-year-olds in its catchment area near London Bridge. There are no collections, but artists and scientists are working together on a changing programme of exhibitions and projects, such as Fed Up: the Future of Food, a project on the culture of food preservation. Crucially, the ideas and content are being developed, co- curated and documented by the young audiences themselves.
“Too often the agenda is determined by experts in introverted, privileged spaces,” says Daniel Glaser, a neuroscientist and the director of science at the Science Gallery. “We should be listening to potential audiences at the start of the process and not just revealing what’s been hidden behind hoardings when it comes to the grand opening.
“We want under-represented groups to tell us what science means to them. Science is part of culture, so rather than being peripheral to the process, the audience – the young people of south London – are central to us at the Science Gallery. Unless young people are setting the scientific agenda, why would they choose science as a career?”
Glaser believes museums must ask their audiences what they want and be willing to tolerate behaviour that they may not be comfortable with. “Yes, it’s a risk, but it’s the only way to engage people who wouldn’t normally engage with science, or indeed with museums,” he adds. “Science is far too important to be left to the scientists.”
And it is our museums that offer the platform for science and art to meet, inspiring the next generation of artists and scientists, but also furthering the ideas of specialists in those fields.
Deborah Mulhearn is a freelance journalist
Space encounters
From Aberdeen Science Centre to Techniquest Cardiff, 20 UK museums and science centres have been hosting events and educational activities about life in space. British astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) gave inspiration, and the project took in live coverage of Peake’s launch.
Destination Space, an initiative to raise awareness about space and its conditions, asks vital questions such as, “How do you go to the toilet in space?” A collaboration between the association of Science and Discovery Centres and the UK Space Agency, the scheme has been running since October 2015.
Peake, now living on the ISS, has been supporting the education programme in the lead up to the rocket launch, as well as during his time in space.
“It’s a different approach for us and a major step forward,” says Jon Marrow, a senior education manager at National Museums Liverpool (NML), which has been selected to deliver the Destination Space programme at World Museum.
“We put on science events to the public routinely, but this is on a different level. We have had unique access to experts, resources and training, which has enabled us to build on our existing knowledge base.”
NML staff had a week’s training at the National Space Centre in Leicester and Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, where they learned to do experiments demonstrating how space shuttles gain safe entry into the earth’s atmosphere on their return from outer space.
Developing expertise
“The modules have to withstand incredibly high temperatures on re-entry, and to illustrate this we’ve been able to present controlled experiments using explosive gases such as oxygen and hydrogen to help audiences understand the protective and thermal qualities used in space shuttle engineering,” Marrow says.
NML has also worked with local astronomical societies and higher education institutions such as Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), in departments ranging from sports science to astrophysics.
“You have to be super-fit to be an astronaut, so we are looking at how they train and keep their bodies in shape while in space,” says Marrow.
“LJMU is a leader in its field and often works with Olympic athletes, so this is a valuable collaboration. We’ve also had unique access to space-related resources including a space suit, robotic equipment and, yes, space nappies.”
He adds: “It’s about making people aware of the international space community’s achievements on one level, but about having age- appropriate experiments in the museum space on another.
“It’s been a challenge, but it’s been fantastic and we have now got the confidence and expertise among our delivery staff to take our science programme forward in new and exciting ways.”
Taking the temperature on climate change
Research shows that simply informing people of facts over and over again doesn’t lead them to change their minds about complex issues such as climate change. Indeed, you wouldn’t kick off an exhibition by telling visitors, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times.” It’s an approach that tends to reinforce existing beliefs.
The deficit model of science communication risks being condescending and, when presented by museums and galleries in particular, disengages teenagers and young adults. Individually-targeted campaigns over the past couple decades – recycle more, turn off the lights, eat less meat – have often focused on consumers rather than systemic reform. In his book, Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, George Marshall writes that we should emphasise the emotional and cultural consequences of climate change rather than the evidence, and that we shouldn’t focus on individuals, but rather on reforming policies and industries.
For museums, this approach doesn’t mean ditching the science, but it does mean emphasising the facts, while activist campaigns are likely to come across as worthy, preachy and repetitive.
So what do you do when your audience is sick of being preached to? One tactic is to change the premise of the debate. In the lead up to the 2014 exhibition Strange Weather, at the Science Gallery in Dublin, our focus group of young adults said they were environmentally conscious but sick to death of being told how they should be fixing problems they didn’t create.
In response, we emphasised the social consequences of inevitable climate change and explored how culture, economies and migration may change in the near-future through different scenarios. Armed with this knowledge, visitors were invited to explore future career options, such as relocating to emerging economies, and even to assess the value of green investments.
Changing the discourse
Instead of presenting evidence about climate change or encouraging altruistic behaviour, we essentially laid out how to profit from climate change. Cynical as this may seem, it immediately engaged and intrigued that hard-to-reach 15-25 age group. This angle sparked a nuanced dialogue about competing national, corporate and individual interests in a crisis that would naturally have winners and losers.
Visitors could partake in a mock interview with a career adviser, who coached them on how to prepare for a job in the wetter, warmer weather two decades away. Some pieces exhibited relics from festivals that have died out (Dutch ice skates from a 1930s canal-skating race), while imagining future festivals that may emerge from severe weather changes (toboggan shorts for the Polar Vortex Festival in New York).
Admitting ambivalence and trusting the audience to understand the severe consequences of climate change, while also recognising some possible benefits, refreshed the discourse, re-engaging our audience without them feeling like they were being lectured on a topic they’ve heard plenty about.
The climate change debate is no longer a debate about science, but our social response to imminent crises. Museums and galleries are uniquely placed to playfully and provocatively explore the cultural story of our changing climate. There is little use in preaching facts and figures to an audience that is well aware of the clouds on the horizon.
Ian Brunswick is the programme manager at Dublin’s Science Gallery