The Pink Wall at the Victoria and Albert Museum is part of an 'awareness-raising' month designed to encourage people to visit museums and galleries. Although the education officer showed us where to find the wall, there was little evidence of its existence at the front entrance (we eventually found a small sign alerting us to the activity).
The wall gives visitors the opportunity to say what they think of the museum. The idea is that you look around the museum and then fill in postcards by either writing, making a collage or drawing.
After looking at the postcards already up, we went round the galleries for inspiration. Maija pointed out that the lighting was dark and Cindy felt there were so many galleries but not enough time to get around them. Bryony was not inspired by the 'bunch of old artefacts under glass', but did find a dress she'd like to wear to school. Daniel spotted the resemblance between a Nepalese mask and a Pokmon character which he felt should be included in the museum.
Fuelled with ideas we went back to the wall. Unfortunately there was no space to sit and create the postcards: 'You had to kneel down and then try to rummage through stuff,' said Bryony. 'When we went to hang the cards on the wall there were no spare pegs and so we had to place them on top of other people's ideas.'
Loretta said the activity did encourage her to 'think about the exhibitions more clearly' because you had to interact with them. In general, the wall highlighted the need for more hands-on activities.
We were interested in what happened to the ideas - would they be put into action? Education officer, Celia Franklin, put one of our ideas into action straightaway by providing more tables for the workshop.
It would be good to come back in five years to see if the museum has taken on people's ideas. As they say, watch this space!
About the team
This review was produced by Loretta Omari-Asor, 12, Bryony Hope, 11, Daniel Dawes, 11, Cindy Crome, ten, and Maija Marsh, ten. It was published in the Museums Journal.
