Two drawings by Minnie Jane Hardman; one of the complete sculpture, while the second has been anatomised to the skeleton.

Teaching with Collections

The University of Reading Art Collection is an amazing and often surprising resource. We encourage its use in university teaching and learning, and work to enable this across the University of Reading and beyond.

This page outlines how the University of Reading Art Collection can support teaching with collections. The form at the bottom of this page is where you can book sessions with us.

Learning from collections takes students to the frontier of knowledge and enables them to develop key study skills such as critical reading, research and analysis. These not only feature highly on the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) subject expectations, but also strike at the heart of the University of Reading’s Curriculum Framework, academic principles and graduate attributes.

Our Offer

The University of Reading Art Collection offers hands-on group sessions. These typically fall into two categories.

  • Academic led with an introduction by collections staff.
  • Collections staff led with an academic present.

A member of collections staff will be present throughout to supervise the handling of collections.

We can also advise on relevant collections for sessions and provide inductions for students accessing and researching using collections for the first time. This can include a demonstration of searching our collections catalogue and an overview of specific collections featured in the session.

Facilities

We have several rooms available that can be used for teaching with collections. These vary in capacity from 8 to 22 students and have AV projection facilities. As with our Art Study Room, we do not permit bags, pens, food or drinks in the same room as collections. We have a set of free lockers which are available to store these items during the session.

Please note that central timetabling does not have access to our booking system. Our spaces are used for corporate hire groups and other groups we host at the Museum. Timetabling may allocate a room for your teaching onsite with the University of Reading Art Collection, but you can only finalise a booking with us.

Booking Process

Your completed form will be sent to our team. You will be contacted about our room availability for the date and time requested first. Once a room has been allocated, a member of collections staff will contact you to discuss the details of your session before confirming it.

If you are a module convener booking on behalf of other academics who will also be teaching sessions as part of your module, please include their names when completing the form below.

To book a teaching with collections session with the University of Reading Art Collection, please complete the booking form below. If you have any questions about the support we can offer you, please contact us by email.

To book a teaching session using the MERL or Special Collections, please click here.