Educatory workplace

"There are two impacts that determine the people's character – their childhood and mother country." Karel Čapek
"There is no other way to amend the evil than educatory influence on the young." Jan Amos Komenský

The Educatory workplace in RMaG Jičín is closely connected to the workplace connected to public. It has been working since 2001 – at first with the time grant 2 hours a week together with the workplace of guides, later taken as an individual department. The educatory workplace is divided into 3 main programme streams: "Museum and school", "Museum on touch", "Museum of play".

This programme ensures the cooperation of RMaG in Jičín with the schools of all levels and other educatory organizations.
It works on the development of the museum pedagogy in the Czech Republic through following activities:
- It implements the year-long plan for kindergartens called Walks into the past
- We arrange subscriptions for primary and secondary schools
- We also create some supplementary and educative programmes to selected exhibitions e.g. "On behalf of working people" (2003), "For young agents and detectives" (2010, together with the exhibition Photographic studios in Jičín until 1945), we are also preparing other commented tour to selected exhibitions e.g. Exhibition of crèches "There sleeps a child in crèche" (2009) etc.
- We cooperate on various projects with schools and the National district archive in Jičín e.g. Way to school (2004), No way back! (2009), Catch the disappeared (2010), we are always one of the initiators of those projects.
- We also continue with the production of programme of structures visits of school classes in the museum; there we follow the programme for kindergartens "Walks into the past" and we are trying to create a connected system for all school levels; we are trying to make a museum programme in cooperation with all teachers from each class and to work in close cooperation with RVP.
- We also promote single workshops to our exhibitions and we coordinate their attendance; we ensure all single community actions (e.g. Throwing Morana out)
- We regularly present the used methods and the results of our work in professional branches especially through conferences and publications.

           

2. Programme "Museum on touch"

This programme resulted on the basis of good experience from the praxis – the interactive exposition of Museum of play which contains items that are allowed to be touched and that are favourite by blind people or people with poor sight. This exposition offers a sufficient number of information and inputs for those visitors as well. We also cooperate with the local typhlocentre, we ensure special guide services for blind and poor sighted people in our temporary and short-termed exhibitions. According to our possibilities we are trying to integrate those tactile items into our standard exhibitions.

We have decided to move this assumption a bit further and work step by step on the pointed accessibility of RMaG in Jičín for blind or poor sighted people. At the same time we want to show the blind world to the 'healthy' population and attempt – at least in our museum – to integrate both groups of visitors. We want to represent ourselves as "blind friendly" museum.

This means:

- So called Haptic case was offered to the visitors in spring 2010. There are 12 museum items behind the 12 doors that are possible to explore using our sense of touch. This room will be soon equipped by other components for blind people (guidance line, marking exponents by Braille system, and a book for blind people in Braille as well as in black print).
- We started cooperation with "Association of parents and friends of blind and poor sighted children" where we help with realization of their recreational stay in Czech Paradise in March 2011.
- We search for tips about exhibitions with tactile items while creating the exhibition plan.
- We are planning to enrich the eighth hall of homeland study exposition that represents the nature around Jičín and of tactile map of the landscape.
- We are also planning to organize short-termed tactile exhibitions and workshops with the help of students from educational, health etc. schools.
- We are open to other activities that will fulfil our "blind friendly" programme.

              

3. Programme "Museum of play"

This programme deals with a play as a cultural and communicative phenomenon. It uses the play as a presentation tool in the museum.

The following belongs to its actual activities:

- Processing of research papers from the project Way to school and No way back
- Cooperation with an ethnographer on the collection of games

RMaG in Jičín is also the member of a committee dealing with museum pedagogy and with cooperation with the Association of museums and galleries in the Czech Republic.