Sophie Sage, Will Newton and Chinami Sakai from Young V&A shared how they rose to the challenge of creating the most joyful museum in the world in the Young V&A. We heard about the challenging context they faced in Tower Hamlets, and how they co-designed the museum with their target audiences.
Will and Sophie gave us a rundown of their interpretative principles. The team chose interpretation principles that would help the museum work hard for its target audience. Their ambition was to make all interpretation active, social, relevant, joyful and iterative. They wrote in the first-person, and used child-appropriate, playful text peppered with calls to action, while illustrations and infographics helped convey meaning without words. Crucially, the team also made sure that young people were as visible as possible throughout the interpretation, centering them as collaborators as well as visitors.
Chinami talked about how the project stayed true to its joyful audience-focused ambition by using co-design, co-creation, conversation and co-curation. We heard about how Young V&A worked in partnership with their audience and Play Build Play to co-design object displays, interpretation and interactives. The team focused on setting clear expectations, cross-departmental collaboration and developing flexible, robust systems to make sure their co-designed approach worked for their permanent galleries.
Although Young V&A’s interpretative ambition was to appeal to their young visitors, their active and audience-led approach reminds us of the importance of designing experiences with generosity, depth and relevance. I’m very much looking forward to visiting next time I’m in London.
-Miranda Garrett