Things of the least: lively exhibition-making through the material encounters of under-3s

该项目总部设在曼彻斯特，将通过3岁以下儿童的空间、材料和具体知识来开发新的实验性展览实践。该项目颠覆了关于幼儿的传统假设，将他们塑造为博物馆公共空间的积极贡献者，该项目是曼彻斯特都市大学、曼彻斯特美术馆(MAG)和Sure Start中心之间的长期合作伙伴关系。它是由我们研究的两个关键方面支撑的：幼儿在创作藏品和画廊建筑时的语言能力；以及艺术过程，需要不同类型的调谐到具体的感觉和情感接触，两者都与他们对跨学科和联合制作的探究的承诺密切相关。这项工作认识到幼儿在遇到藏品时表达活力的潜力，弥补了关于参与联合制作和为3岁以下儿童举办展览的知识、理解和实践的匮乏。它通过在三年的时间里与年轻家庭一起发展策展实践和参与性展览制作，为英国博物馆和美术馆朝着更具创造性和实验性的展览文化迈进做出了贡献。该项目将与三个艺术家团队合作，研究幼儿的认知方式如何对博物馆收藏品做出贡献并产生积极影响。该项目结合了博物馆研究、早期教育和艺术，作为创造非殖民化博物馆实践的新形式的重要组成部分，该项目将开放4000多件储存的藏品，这些藏品来自19世纪初至20世纪初的家庭生活和童年，供通常与迷人行业联系在一起的观众创造性地使用-这些藏品可能看起来微不足道、不起眼，但却深深地植根于我们的归属感(玛丽·格雷格收藏)。同时，它将促进与已经参与MAG的家庭和早期社区的更深层次的接触。艺术家们将把收藏中选定物品的关键感官和叙事品质转化为10-15个原型(Mary Greg Play Kit)--基于声音或运动的作品、实物或数字文物，专门设计用于吸引3岁以下儿童及其家人的参与。原型将作为文物、游戏物品和研究对象，深入了解Under 3S的游戏。在家庭的共同研究下，我们将创造一个手势、声音和动作的词汇，让孩子们参与到原型中，将他们的遭遇形式融入到重新制作的物品和装置想法中。在通过使知识生产民主化来中断规范做法的过程中，该项目将一系列公共参与活动与展览制作过程交织在一起。这些错综复杂的活动将发生在多个地点，包括为年轻母亲提供支持的住宅区；为寻求庇护和难民家庭提供的临时庇护所；托儿所和Sure Start儿童中心；以及Platt Hall(一个关闭的前服装博物馆，未来不确定，正在成为当地社区一个充满活力的文化空间)。该项目将为Platt Hall和Mary Greg收藏品带来一系列短期和长期的成果和影响，作为相关的和重新焕发活力的文化资产。

Based in Manchester, this project will develop new and experimental exhibitionary practices through the spatial, material and embodied knowledges of children who are under 3. Overturning conventional assumptions about very young children by framing them as active contributors to the public space of the museum, the project emerges from a longstandingpartnership between Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Art Gallery (MAG) and a Sure Start centre. It is underpinned by two key strands of our research: young children's more-than-verbal capacities to animate collections and gallery architecture; and artistic processes that call on different kinds of attunement to embodied sensations and affectiveencounters, both deeply related by their commitment to interdisciplinarity and co-produced inquiry.Recognising the potential of young children's expressions of vitality in their encounters with collections, this work redresses the paucity of knowledge, understanding and practice around co-produced engagement with, and exhibitions for under 3s. It contributes to moves in UK museums and galleries towards more inventive and experimental exhibition cultures bydeveloping curatorial practices and participatory exhibition-making with young families across a three-year period. Working with three teams of artists, the project will examine how young children's ways of knowing can contribute and have a positive impact on museum collections.Combining museum studies, early years education and art as vital components in the creation of new forms of decolonising museological praxis, the project will open up a stored collection of over 4,000 objects of domestic life and childhood from the early 1800s-1900s for creative use by audiences who do not usually connect with the GLAM sector - objects that might seem insignificant and humble, yet anchor us deeply in a sense of belonging (The Mary Greg Collection). At the same time, it will facilitate deeper engagement with families and early years communities already engaged with MAG. Artists will translate key sensory and narrative qualities of selected objects from the collection into 10-15 prototypes (Mary Greg Play Kit) - sound or movement-based pieces, physical objects or digital artefacts specifically designed to engage children under 3 and their families. Prototypes will function as artefacts, play things and research objects giving insight into under 3s' play. With families as co-researchers, we will create a vocabulary of gestures, sounds and movements as the children engage with the prototypes to incorporate their forms of encounters into reworked objects and installation ideas. In the process of interrupting normative practices by democratising knowledge production, the project interweaves a range of public engagement activities with exhibition-making processes. These entangled events will occur across a number of sites, including a supported housing complex for young mothers; a temporary shelter for asylum seeking & refugee families; a nursery school & Sure Start children's centre; and Platt Hall (a closed former costume museum with an uncertain future, in the process of becoming a dynamic cultural space for local communities).The project will produce a range of shorter- and longer-term outcomes and impacts for Platt Hall and the Mary Greg collection as relevant and revitalised cultural assets.