Discovery Box is a free, self-directed gallery resource for young children aged 18 months to 6 years and their parents / adult carers to use autonomously, both one to one or as groups of friends in the gallery. It encourages adults and children to engage with the exhibition, see and interact with the artwork and gain insight into the exhibiting artist’s practice.

The Discovery Box is not about making art and does not include art materials as such. It is rather a series of bespoke imaginative tools to employ the creative mind and to investigate the artwork through play and conversation. In participating, it creates a space for people to spend more time with the artwork.

Justine initiated this programme during an exhibition by Graham Crowley in 2008 commissioning visual artist, Monica Boyle.Since then, three other Discovery Boxes have been commissioned to engage with specific exhibitions; Sarah Ruttle for Children’s Exhibition 2011 and Susan Montgomery for Rita Duffy 2012 and Mikala Dwyer 2013. Most recently Tomasz Madajczak has been commissioned to create one for his own exhibition which opens on 20 July 2013. As each box is created, more is understood about the process of engaging with very small children.

The Discovery Box has proved a significant and successful aspect of the Arts and Early Childhood programme at West Cork Arts Centre and is supported by events, workshops and performances. The Discovery Box is specifically designed .

A child psychologist was consulted to advise on understanding the experience from a child’s perspective particularly the 18 months to 3 years age group. How do children make meaning of their experience? When do they begin to conceptualise? How best to communicate the activities? Children between 18 months and 2 years enjoy touching and handling the objects, taking them in and out of the Box and the containers within, stacking and building towers and responding to their parent or sibling. Older children engage in imaginative play and story-telling. While simple instructions are provided, they are presented as cues and ideas to help the parent to engage with the activities. The focus is on enabling a child-directed experience. Junior/senior infant school groups have also used the Box with the aid of a Gallery Educator and young teenagers have used it independently with their friends. Further investigation is underway to understand and respond to the potential for all ages.

New Developments: - Exploring ways to document this work West Cork Arts Centre has recently been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland to document the Discovery Box and supporting programme. We commissioned two approaches with accessibility for a wide audience in mind: For adult and arts peers – witness writer Toma McCullim was commissioned to develop a peer to peer critical text that aims to be practitioner-centred and reflective in nature. It reflects on the process, the parents’ experience, methods, interactions and collaborations, investigating how the Discovery Box works as an agent in the gallery setting For child with adult carer – Sarah Ruttle in collaboration with Susan Montgomery was commissioned to produce a once-off visual and interactive document which communicates to the child participant the Discovery Box gallery experience. The artists reflected on their own process and consulted with an infant child psychologist to develop a soft cloth sensory document (book) for a child to view prior to / outside of experiencing the programme. Outcomes of these commissions will be uploaded in July with the next Discovery Box on www.westcorkartscentre.com

Touring Discovery Box While a number of exhibition-specific Discovery Box commissions had taken place, an award to document the process from the Arts Council, combined with the playful potential of Mikala Dwyer’s Panto Collapsar exhibition, gave the Discovery Box in 2013 a new impetus. The additional support from the Arts Council allowed for a deeper reflection on the process and the engagement and facilitated more time to discuss, reflect on, and understand what we were trying to achieve. An added bonus was the Panto Collapsar exhibition tour. Supported by an Arts Council Touring and Dissemination Award and the Project Arts Centre, Panto Collapsar is to tour to 6 other venues across the nation over a year. The Panto Collapsar Discover Box, developed by West Cork Arts Centre, is also touring with the exhibition to be used as an exhibition resource in each of the participating venues. This has meant that the additional time and resources invested in the development of the Box will have added value. It also meant we had to consider the robustness and longevity of the contents and the utilisation of the Discovery Box within venues without the on-site support on the artist creator.