Paper House

Paper House was a family participatory arts activity designed and delivered by Cabinet of Curiosity that coincided with the Small Stories: At Home in a Doll's House exhibition at the V & A Museum of Childhood London. The arts activity followed  participation in a knowledge exchange scheme led by Creativeworks London and funded by the Arts and Humanity Council that involved being entrepreneurs-in-residence at the V & A Museum of Childhood,

Research was undertaken into the Robert Freidus Architectural Model Collection, a unique archive of over 140,000 paper models, and the archive of the Cut It Fold It Make It exhibition of paper models that had been previously staged by the V & A Museum of Childhood 2011. The research undertaken informed a live activity subsequently delivered at the museum.

Paper House invited members of the public to participate in making activities, turning everyday materials into an extraordinary paper house installation that grew over the event's duration. Paper craft workshops enabled children to create architectural models and characters using collage techniques, architectural templates and recycled paper materials. Cabinet of Curiosity assembled the children's work as a live event to create a giant paper house inhabited by characters as a temporary installation within the museum space that grew in scale over the duration of the eight-day activity.

Paper House created a wonderful opportunity for families to engage directly with practising artists and explore materials and techniques which they wouldn’t ordinarily experience. Caroline and Edmond developed excellent workshops which deliberately foregrounded non-digital activity using paper-based skills. Families really enjoyed the quality of the materials and the potential to interpret the theme in so many ways – the result was a very unique and beautiful paper structure which grew over the holiday and linked directly with the Museum’s important paper model collections.

Andrea Cunningham, Head of Learning V & A Museum of Childhood

Image credits

PAPER HOUSE, 2015, Cabinet of Curiosity Studio,  Workshops and Temporary Installation

Photos: Cabinet of Curiosity Studio

PAPER HOUSE: CABINET OF CURIOSITY STUDIO
V & A Museum of Childhood, London, UK
3-10 April 2015