Starting Museum Tonic – A Programme For Young Participants

Museum Tonic is a programme conceived by Ipswich Museum to get young people talking about objects in our collections. During our recent first session, seven young people from Ipswich, Hadleigh, Colchester and Norwich were introduced to a range of objects.

Among several taxidermy natural history objects, they saw the pale-throated three-toed sloth, a duck-billed platypus, a giant anteater (baby) and a red giant flying squirrel, learning interesting facts about how each animal would have lived in the wild, their habitat, diet, behaviour, distribution and conservation status. They learned, for example, that the sloth is home to the sloth moth, which lives only in its fur; that giant anteaters have incredibly long tongues; and that the egg-laying duck-billed platypus is born with teeth but sheds them before leaving the nest. Platypus mothers have no nipples but instead secrete milk for their young through a patch on the chest allowing the babies to lick it off the fur.

Looking at a Windrush quilt generated discussion about how one might choose to represent a culture. They learned a little of the mythology of the Hindu god Krishna, through a popular poster, and a brass swing showing an infant Krishna figurine. They admired the remarkable construction of a Maratha hat, the intricate beading in a Chinese theatrical hat, as well as in a beaded sheath of an Ere Ibeji figure created within the Yoruba community of Nigeria to honour a dead twin.

The response was enthusiastic, with one participant saying, “I have learned more today than I could have imagined. I am so excited about museums now that I am going to start watching videos about museums and in fact, on my way home, I want to start listening to podcasts about museums too!” Other participants echoed that they had “learned a lot”, had “a fantastic time” and couldn’t “wait to come back and see more objects!”

Sketches of several museum objects introduced in the first round of sessions, by a Museum Tonic participant. © Finn Archer, reproduced by kind permission of the illustrator.