Museums Partnership Reading (The MERL & Reading Museum)

Youth Panel Member

Current project: Agroforestry Futures

Location: The Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, Reading RG1 5EX
Please note that The MERL is located at the top of town in Reading very near the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

From Autumn 2025 onwards, our Youth Panel will contribute to Agroforestry Futures, a project which focuses on how combining tree-growing with agriculture can improve rural livelihoods.

The Agroforestry Futures project is a collaboration of art and anthropology and explores how the public can be engaged in sustainable futures for farming and land use.                                         

As our Youth Panel, you will be reflecting on these themes of forests, farming, climate, and colonial history through artistic and sensory methods (e.g. collage, sound, drawing, and archive encounters).

As inspiration, we will focus on the Wonky Wall Hanging, a collaboratively developed fabric print, that was exhibited in the major exhibition ‘Grounding Truths: Alternative Landscapes for Agroforestry Futures’ at The Sill, the National Landscape Discovery Centre, in Northumberland.

Sessions will include creative reflection, critical dialogue, and planning for an exhibition.

This will be a continuation for the Youth Panel, as members took part in participatory workshops in 2024. The project is funded by UKRI (UK Research and Innovation).

When is the Youth panel meeting?

The Youth Panel meets on the Third Thursday of each month. 

We understand that panel members might not be able to attend every session – please attend when you can.  

Thursday 18 Sep 16:30-18:00 at The Museum of English Rural Life

Thursday 16 Oct 16:30-18:00 at The Museum of English Rural Life

Thursday 20 Nov 16:30-18:00 at The Museum of English Rural Life

Thursday 18 Dec 16:30-18:00 at The Museum of English Rural Life

Thursday 15 Jan 16:30-18:00 at The Museum of English Rural Life

Thursday 19 Feb 16:30-18:00 at The Museum of English Rural Life

 

Volunteer Role Description

Locations: Either The Museum of English Rural Life or Reading Museum

 

The Youth Panel will suit you if you:

• Enjoy a challenge or creative opportunity
• Are an enthusiastic and effective communicator
• Are committed to being a change-maker within Reading’s culture and heritage sector by helping to ensure our museums and programmes are relevant to younger visitors 

What you will gain in return  

• gain behind-the-scenes museum experience working with museum and creative industry professionals
• learn transferable skills 
• participate in a fantastic project for your CV, UCAS or job application 
• meet new people 
• practice team work skills

How much time will it take up? 

Meetings take place on the third Thursday of the month (except August) from 4:30 to 6pm and usually take place in person. You do not have to attend all meetings.

We know not everyone will be available every session, but please come along when you can. You will be informed in advance where the Youth Panel are meeting. 

To apply

Please complete your volunteer registration form on our volunteering platform . 

*Please ensure you tick ‘Youth Panel’ in your ‘Interests’ section under My profile, when registering.  

If you are using a mobile or tablet, once you click ‘Fill in an Application’, look out for the suggestion ‘It looks like you are on a mobile device. For a better experience on smart phones, go to Mobile Application Form’ and click on the link it suggests. 

When you are happy with your application, please don’t forget to click SUBMIT – otherwise we will never receive your form!  

Matching to the role

We will check applications on a monthly basis and we send you details about the location of the meeting and the current project.

Further Information about the Museums Partnership Reading Youth Panel

We love to hear regularly from our younger supporters to make sure that we are offering exhibitions and experiences that are of interest across the generations.

Our Youth Panel, for young people aged 14 – 18, offers collective work experience opportunities across The MERL and Reading Museum as part of Museums Partnership Reading’s youth programme. We meet monthly to work on a variety of exciting projects which are great for developing a range of transferable skills. Our panel members influence current projects and programming and are change-makers within Reading’s culture and heritage sector. 

Inspired by the conversations we have had with Youth Panel members during the Youth Manifesto project, we listened to feedback about the need for the museums to offer age-appropriate activities and something different for teenage audiences and offered an increased number of workshops as part of our public and learning programmes.

Past Youth Panel Projects include: 

• Jane Austen 250 - embroidery, natural ink making and creative writing workshops inspired by the writer Jane Austen 250 celebrations
• Understories - Working with Dr Jen Clarke of Robert Gordon University, workshops explored materials selected from The MERL’s archive and library, to celebrate the hidden lives /invisible benefits of trees. There was a focus on often-overlooked elements—the understories of trees - and forest ecosystems, and give voice to stories hidden in the archives and beneath the canopy
• Filmmaking project co-creating short form videos with a resident professional filmmaker to encourage environmental responsibility, inspired by our collections and archives
• 'Reading Festival is Rubbish' - exploring objects recovered from the 2021 festival to create a pop-up display and/or interactive experience in the museum. Panel members worked alongside learning and collections colleagues to consider the different approaches that can be taken in the interpretation and display of museum collections, and how they can use these approaches to convey messages and stories about the objects collected from the festival 
• The ‘Digital Dig’ with the Royal Horticultural Society
• Participating in the Youth Manifesto Project, exploring how the museums in Reading can be inspiring and engaging for and relevant to the young people of Reading. 
• Working as curators for the Festival 50 exhibition project (2021). Panel members influenced the development of the exhibition marking the 1971 Reading Festival displayed at Reading Museum from August 2021. Panel members learned what is required to put on a public exhibition, researched, selected and interpreted items for display and worked with us in developing an exhibition which is appealing to the young people of Reading. 
• Designing ‘The Nook at The MERL’, the new social learning space as part of the Our Country Lives redevelopment project. Students worked with museum staff and designers to create a new, relaxing space where students and the public are welcome to study, relax and reflect. 
• Organising two successful Museums at Night events, the ‘1951 Vintage Night’ and ‘Chalk or Cheese?

“The Youth Panel is a small commitment for such a huge personal gain. Something I love is that the leaders of the panel and the people at the museums that we work with treat me like an adult, they value my opinion and I feel empowered to make changes that will engage youth in our local history.” (Youth Panel member)