Brighton Toy And Model Museum is Well MET

Brighton Toy and Model Museum isn’t just a repository for old toys. The idea that museums are just a place for old stuff to collect dust should be consigned to the museum! Today museums all around the world are thinking of new ways in which to connect with the communities which they represent. Museums aren’t just a collection of other people’s antiques, they contain objects of our history; relics that are part of the culture to which we all belong.

I always loved museums, that’s why I work in one now. But there are other people who felt that going to a museum was almost a form of punishment when they were at school and consequently they wouldn’t willingly set foot inside one now. And that’s an attitude which is up to all of us as museum workers to try and change. A trip to the museum should be not only educational, but fun, entertaining and informative; a treat that everyone can look forward to. Museums used to be like libraries, you had to hush, look hard at exhibits which were often poorly displayed in badly lit cabinets, and NO TOUCHING!

Brighton Toy and Model Museum has always striven to dispel this image of reliquary. Toys are made to be fun, and while we can’t let everybody play with all the models we have, we do have interactive toys and machines, and during school visits children can play with some of the toys we keep as resources. We use that play to teach about several key stage subjects, such as the science and technology involved in construction, motion and propulsion. We don’t just exhibit old toys to conjure up memories. We also get involved in educational programmes such as Brighton Science Fest, where all kinds of learning is cleverly disguised as play! During SciFest kids thought they were playing making balloon powered race cars out of recyclable odds and ends and moving images from zoetropes. In fact they were learning about planning, strategy, construction, friction and drag, stored energy, optics and the persistence of vision.

It’s not just the young learners who we want to get more out of our museum. We want older children and young adults to think of the Toy Museum as something that they can get involved with too. This year we’re taking on work experience staff members so they can get a feel of the way a tourist attraction is run as a business, and exhibiting work by Brighton MET College art students. We are looking forward to providing space for artists from Brighton MET to exhibit their work as we feel this is a brilliant opportunity for artists to display their work in front of an audience made up not only of their peers, but of the general public who might not usually make it to exhibitions held on the college premises.

And we’re very excited about the Community Rail Partnership we’ve signed with Govia Thameslink as it will enable us to promote the exhibitions, such as those we’re working on with Brighton MET, to commuters, visitors, and all those who pass through Brighton Station. The Community Rail Partnership will mean that we can put up posters promoting the events which we are hosting, on the station concourse. We will also be able to provide two display cabinets in the booking office so people will have the chance to have a taste of our locally themed exhibits while they wait to buy their train tickets.

Brighton Science Festival Was Incredibly Moving!

This week was Brighton Science Festival, an event intended to get children and young people interested in all fields of the sciences. There were different things going on throughout Brighton and Hove and beyond where kids could get involved in making a range of different toys and devices using scientific principles, and maybe developing new skills and areas of personal interest too.

There were events not only in museums and libraries, but in theatres, bars, arches and meeting spaces all over town. There were workshops making Rube Goldberg machines, studying astronomy, STEM masterclasses, coding, and robotics to name but a tiny few. We at Brighton Toy and Model Museum decided to make and race balloon cars made of odds and ends that would otherwise be destined for the recycling bin on Monday and to make moving pictures on Friday.

The Race Is On!

The balloon cars were made to demonstrate the storage of energy; blowing up the balloons turns chemical energy made in the body from our food, into potential energy stored in the rubber of the balloon which, when released, produces forward motion thanks to Newton’s Third law.

Our engineers tried several different designs. They tried different chassis alignments, one, two, even three balloons attached to the same car, different sizes of balloons and raced against one another in several heats to determine which was the best. As you can see from the pictures, we had quite a full house and many races had to be run. In fact, we had so many enquiries we could have had three times as many competitors if we’d only had the room, so next year we plan on running events in the morning AND afternoon so that everyone gets to have a go.

Who Wants To Be In The Movies?

Every bit as much fun was the moving pictures project. We made a variety of different devices which created the optical illusion of motion. Firstly, and most simply we made thaumatropes. These are disks of card with picture on either side. Spin the disk and the two images appear as one. Once we’d cracked that, it was on to making phenakistascopes. Several pictures are drawn in sequence on a circle of card, and when you look at the spinning disk through pre-cut slots in a mirror the pictures appear to be moving.

Taking this a step further, and again using the persistence of vision we made zoetropes. These are cylinders with slits cut in the outside which spin. Looking through the slits at a sequence of pictures which have been mounted inside makes a moving image which can be viewed by several people at once.

The first of each of these we made using templates and pre-drawn designs, but once we’d all got the idea behind how they worked we all got on with drawing our own movies! We based them on the things we see around us, some were inspired by the trains we have running around the museum, others were sparked by the weather and my favourite was typically Brighton, a burger being stolen by some seagulls!

We’ll be holding similar events at the museum all through the year. We’re a venue for Brighton Festival Fringe, we invite people along after dark during Museums at Night and have guest entertainers on a regular basis. If you’re interested in any of these kinds of diversions or you’re looking for things to do in Brighton then just like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter where you can get all the latest news straight from the bear’s mouth.

Click "Read More" to see further photos of the Balloon Car Race and Moving Pictures: