Learn how the ‘Time Odyssey’ initiative from Art Explora is helping children throughout the UK to access museums through immersive digital storytelling.
This post was written by Jemima Montagu, UK Director, Art Explora.
For many children, a school trip to a museum is their first encounter with history and art beyond the classroom. However, according to new research commissioned by Art Explora this spring, over 60% of primary school teachers in the UK say they haven’t taken their class to a museum in the past year. Despite 90% of teachers agreeing that every child should visit a museum on a school trip before leaving primary school, 14% have never taken their class.
Due to shrinking budgets, rising transport costs and growing administrative burdens a generation of children is losing out on access to culture and creativity.
School trips are a vital part of education. They enrich learning, build cultural capital and foster creativity. Students from lower-socio-economic backgrounds typically benefit the most from these experiences as they are less likely to have this opportunity outside a sponsored school trip. As many teachers have told us, exposure to the amazing world of museums can lead to greater appreciation of different cultures, help see the world from different perspectives and offer a tangible connection to the past.
At Art Explora, we believe that school trips to museums are a vital part of school life that can spark a lifetime’s passion for the arts. To see the past up close and to imagine the world beyond their classroom. It is for this reason that we partnered with the British Museum to co-create Time Odyssey.
Time Odyssey is a free, immersive, tablet-based learning experience, developed by creative agency 1UP Studios and co-created with over 500 primary school students, teachers, learning specialists and museum professionals. It takes pupils aged 7–11 on a quest through their local museum, both physically and virtually, guided by a cast of time-travelling characters from Shang dynasty China, Ancient Egypt, Roman Britain and the Viking era. Over the coming years, we’re working to ensure that over 100,000 children have access to museums via the Time Odyssey experience - many visiting museums for the very first time!
Each challenge enhances KS2 curriculum topics, improving pupils’ historical knowledge and fostering key skills like teamwork, communication, and visual literacy. Ultimately, Time Odyssey is fun. Pupils get to have an exciting new experience, and these visits can change perceptions of what museums are like, sparking a desire to return.
Critically, it also dramatically improves ‘dwell time’ in front of objects, helping children engage meaningfully with museum collections. Amy McDowall, Primary Learning Coordinator at Manchester Museum, has said, ‘In 15 years working in museums and education, I’ve never seen a piece of EdTech do anything like as good a job as this one: it is imaginative, open-ended, fun and accessible — but genuinely gets kids to really look at and engage with museum displays.’
Following a successful 18 month pilot, which engaged more than 5,000 children at museums including the Yorkshire Museum (York), Royal Albert Memorial Museum (Exeter), The Great North Museum: Hancock (Newcastle), Manchester Museum and South Shields Museum & Art Gallery, the programme is now looking to expand to more sites across the UK to reach an even greater amount of school children. National Museums Liverpool, Heritage Doncaster, and Tees Valley Museums are set to join at the beginning of the new school year.
Time Odyssey is designed to level the playing field. All costs are fully covered, from the transport to the experience itself, removing financial barriers that disproportionately affect schools outside London and those with high pupil premium. We work closely with partner museums to target children at schools with a high percentage of free school meals, as well as schools in rural areas – both identified as schools that typically do not take children on school trips. We have found that, once these economic barriers are removed, schools commit to travelling over an hour and a half each way to reach their local museum. The passion and interest in arts and culture is there – it just needs to be unleashed!
Art Explora is a European charity with a mission to make culture accessible to all. While Time Odyssey is currently expanding across the UK, we recognise that the challenges of educational inequality and lack of access to cultural experiences are not confined to Britain. Around the world, children face similar barriers due to geography and funding. That’s why Art Explora is actively seeking international partners and museums to join the movement, bringing Time Odyssey to communities across Europe to ensure children everywhere have equitable access to museums and heritage sites.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the project, or in getting involved with Time Odyssey, visit the website or email timeodyssey@artexplora.org.
You can also watch our recent presentation on Time Odyssey at Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival!