From start to finish on the new Nursery play area

Part of my role here at Eureka! as the Exhibition Manager is to manage projects around the museum. Over the past few months I have been working on the new outdoor play area for the Eureka! Nursery. It replaces the old play area in front of the 1855 Building, on the grass of the Eureka! Park.

While my role calls for me to design exhibits inside the gallery, for this project, we have been fortunate enough to be able to employ the skills of a landscape designer, who was able to help bring our concept for the Nursery play area, as a natural play area to life.

As my background is in design, I was able to work closely with the designer to ensure we got a design that fulfilled all of our requirements. In order to get to the stage of issuing a brief, there were several stages we needed to go through first of all!

Before we were even able to hire our landscape designer, we had to apply for planning permission. This is because the proposed site was adjacent to our 1855 grade three listed building. As project manager, I was responsible for submitting this application. It can take several months for a decision to be reached, but thankfully our application was successful and we were able to proceed.

Once our application had been granted  I held internal meetings with the rest of the Eureka! team which included our Director of Play and Learning, and the Nursery Manager and communicated the project requirements to the designer. Before writing a brief for what we wanted to see in the play area, I went on research trips to visit other successful nursery play areas .

The brief had to include examples, to give the designer guidance on what we wanted to see. I produced some design sheets based on my findings, and other research I had done. It was also important that the brief recognised the practical considerations, such as fencing, entrance and exit gates to the play area and making sure it was sizeable enough to hold an entire group from the Nursery.

Based on our content, we gave a brief to the designer, who was then able to present several design concepts to us. We chose a final design picking bits that we liked from each design, which has resulted in the creation of a natural play area that we set out to achieve. The new play area will is very natural, using timber, sand and stone, in all sorts of colours, sizes and textures. A unique mosaic water feature encourages interaction, with children able to affect the water flow. A mini nature trail runs along one edge of the site, and come the Spring will be filled with different wild flowers, herbs and interesting shrubs like bamboo, and will encourage children to use all of their senses to explore their new outdoor habitat.

The design plan submitted for the Nursery play area

My favourite feature is the large, permanent timber story chair, which will be used for story time outside. I really like the idea of the new area having different uses, whether it is for play, exploration or story time.

Our designer then worked the concept drawings up into detailed plans, and, delivered them to a firm of contractors to start work on the play area. While I wasn’t laying sod or installing the tunnel, as project manager part of my job was to co ordinate deliveries and make sure things turned up on time! One of my main responsibilities was also to make sure that the site remained safe, as we want to ensure that even during construction, our visitors have a great experience at Eureka!.

It is always exciting seeing a project progress from start to completion. Project management is a challenging role, and at times quite stressful – especially when faced with adverse weather conditions. Despite this, I really enjoy my varied role here, as I get to meet and work with lots of different people, and no day is ever the same!

Amanda Phillips is the Exhibition Manager at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Archie's First Bath

Eureka! is turning 18 on 9 July 2010, and through the year we've been celebrating around the museum with our visitors, and revisiting memories behind-the-scenes.

The official opening of Eureka! was set to be a very exciting event, with all the supporters and members of the public ready to come through, and HRH Prince Charles, who had been key to getting the museum located in Halifax, arriving here just to open our doors. It was down to the wire though, with several of us Technicians staying well into the night putting the finishing touches on the paint job in ‘Me and My Body’.

It was all the extra security that gives me my strongest memory of the day. It started the night before when the museum was closed down so that the Prince’s security guards could do a full sweep. Closed down, except for us still painting in the galleries that is! They had dogs come through and sniff for explosives. The dogs were very thorough, one dog popped his nose in my paint can, but they didn’t find anything unless you count a snout full of paint.

I had one of the most important jobs on opening day: standing on the balcony, I watched for when the museum’s designer gestured up at the sculpture of Archimedes in his bath. As soon as all the guests looked up, I had to press a button from the balcony to give Archie (as he’s affectionately known here) his first bath.

As you might know, Archimedes is an important figure for Eureka!. He’s where we get our name, in fact. He’s set to a clock to take a bath every half hour during museum opening times, and he’s been doing so since 9 July 1992, give or take a few days off around Christmas. We hadn’t yet set him to the clock on opening day though, since we wanted to coordinate our inaugural show.

 Archie arriving at Eureka! 18 years ago.

Everything went without a hitch, and the moment for the grand descent came. The designer pointed upwards, the crowd’s eyes followed, and I’m interrupted by a firm tap on the shoulder as one of Prince Charles’ bodyguards steps behind me, thinking perhaps that I’m there ready to detonate a bomb instead!

We showed him pretty quickly that it wasn’t the case; the only harm to anyone might be if Archie displaced a little too much water, and just as quick we lowered Archimedes into his bath and opened Eureka! for an entire generation of children to enjoy.

18 years and still cool as a cucumber!

‘Bazza’ Barraclough is a Technician at Eureka!. He has worked at Eureka! from before its opening and looks forward to receiving his gold watch soon!