Young V&A uses making to fuel children's exploratory spirit

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Play, we know, is fundamental to children’s development. It’s how young people learn about themselves and the world, work through difficult emotions, discover interests and grow curious. It’s also how they master skills that are essential in building self-esteem and shaping their worlds. From this concept a whole spectrum of much-loved toys has sprung. Mr Frosty, cress heads, spirographs, Fimo clay, badgemakers, Meccano, mini sewing machines, plaster of Paris moulds, Knitting Nancy, kits of rainbow-coloured jewellery beads, the Hasbro Easy-Bake oven (inexplicably powered by only the heat of an incandescent bulb) – all these encourage the development of little masters, no matter how questionable the results of their crafting efforts.

Though the trends and packaging may change, toys that let kids make things for themselves crop up in every era, proof that creativity and play are inseparable. To make through play is to experiment freely and learn intuitively, without the self-consciousness that can creep in for adults.

The national receptacle for childhood treasures like this and more has recently undergone a £13 million revamp to become the Young V&A. Previously the Museum of Childhood, a display about the social and material history of childhood, it has been transformed into a ‘doing’ museum by its own description. The renovated building opened to feverish excitement in July 2023, with queues of visitors forming around its red-bricked flanks in east London’s Bethnal Green. Once inside, the feat of making children wait longer than a few minutes for anything is rewarded by the Imagine and Play galleries, a constellation of brilliant spaces designed with the very young in mind. There’s a roped-off sensory zone exclusively for babies, a tiered stage for impromptu dress-up and drama, a construction area of blue foam shapes and magnetic tiles, an interactive arcade for playing Minecraft, and a showcase of dolls’ houses with a distorted room to shrink yourself down through cunning optical illusion.

Throughout these spaces are 2,000 objects from the V&A’s collection, found at all levels and gathered in accessible displays under broad titles. Squash and Squeeze groups the actions needed to enjoy a rubber duck or playdough with those to operate a cafetière or perfume atomiser. The Thread and Sew cabinet puts the deft movements of plaiting, weaving and sewing together in a display that includes a hairstyling head from 1977 by the toy brand Girl’s World, a 19th-century cross-stitch sampler and a small loom from the 1960s. The Factory, a space within the quieter first-floor Design gallery, shows how those actions become refined into more sophisticated processes such as inlay, collage, felting, laser cutting, macramé, glass blowing, engraving, turning and enamelling. Eclecticism reigns here: an injection-moulded doll of Zayn from the band One Direction, a Czech lace skirt from the 1920s, and a pair of intricately couch-stitched baby boots from 1800 all share the limelight.

There’s also a mesmerising dual-screen display of films showing related techniques: 3D-printing next to the piping of imarti, an Indian sweet made by squeezing batter into patterns; nail painting next to powder coating; tile making and soap making, flipbook making and digital animation; mixing cement and making a cake.

The everyday, relatable nature of the activities showcased in these films gives you the feeling that the effor t to demystify, and make the statement that we are all creators, is directly targeted at the generation for whom take-up of art and design at GCSE and A-level is in free fall. For all the obvious fun to be had by under-5s at the Young V&A, it’s really an older age bracket who need to be engaged. These children are studying a curriculum that de-prioritises creativity the older they get, and are overcoming years of opportunity for play lost to the pandemic. A few moments in the museum give hope that inspiration might set seed. The Shed, for example, lets us peer in on a resident designer at work and discover career possibilities. The first resident is Clara Chu, who reworks old textiles and everyday objects into playful handbag designs with a pop aesthetic.

The invitation for children to run riot in this huge building was enthusiastically taken up when I visited with my three-year-old in the opening weeks, although there are frictions that were hard to ignore. A child (not mine) had to be yanked out of the giant roto mould die she had clambered into, necessitating a warning sign to be placed. Another (mine) had a meltdown in front of a giant glass cabinet of shiny toy cars, unable to understand why he couldn’t get inside and play with them. Blurring play space and object display to such a degree is new territory for museum-makers, who are all on some level rearranging collections to be more accessible. A good model for this is Derby’s excellent Museum of Making (reopened in 2021), which manages to be functional and engaging by providing a good ratio of objects to touch and objects to look at, and by being less prescriptive in how its spaces are used.

There are lessons to learn, but it’s the exploratory spirit of the Young V&A that leaves the biggest impression. Most importantly, it has raised the bar for all public institutions to ensure children have a sense of agency in public space and keep making firmly on the agenda. The message of this stunning temple to young world builders is clear: the future is yours, not ours.