At the Wolfsonian

Having an amazing time at the Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach which is a design museum and part of Florida International University (FIU). Been invited to give a talk on learning spaces, together with Anne Taylor, who is director of the Institute for Environmental Education at the University of New Mexico.

The collection here is that extraordinary combination you get with a private collector - important everyday artefacts from America and across Europe (mainly from the 1880s - 1940s), together with much which can only be called 'miscellaneous'. We have been talking a lot about how collections like this can support both conventional scholarly study and other kinds of creative activities, through the unexpected juxtapositions they enable. This, of course, raises tensions around accessibility, curation and conservation - similar to the ones that CETLD researchers found on projects like Behind the Scenes at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Wolfsonian is planning some new educational spaces and already discussing just what kinds of access and what kinds of learning can be best supported here.