12-02-2025
Making Egypt, Young V&A: an exhibition for children that they will actually want to see
How do you create an exhibition geared specifically for children? This is the question that preoccupies curators at east London's Young V&A, where the second temporary exhibition since the 2023 revamp of the former Museum of Childhood opens this week, on the theme of ancient Egypt.
Since the show's target audience is eight- to 12-year-olds, and I have a couple of those at home, I decided to bring along my children for a preview. 'If only,' messaged a friend, upon hearing of my plan, as I doled out notebooks and biros, and briefed the girls to deliver a verdict fit for a national newspaper, 'you could always get them to do your work.'
With more than 200 exhibits – some thousands of years old (and mostly amulet-sized), but many modern (including a Lego set of the Great Pyramid and a chic 1920s beaded lamé evening jacket) – Making Egypt is about 'creativity' as much as ancient history. You might expect an exhibition on this subject for kids to go big on, say, the grisly processes of mummification (brain tissue was removed via the nostrils – ew!).
But, while it does contain a sarcophagus, as well as beautifully painted fragments of cartonnage (plaster-covered linen wrappings from coffins), this show – the mise-en-scène of which, in the opening section, ingeniously summons an atmosphere of sunny ease beside the Nile – shifts the emphasis from death and the afterlife to ancient Egyptian art and design, which, it argues, still inspires artists, couturiers, and filmmakers. That inner sarcophagus of Princess Sopdet-em-haawt is used to tell a story about writing.
There's no timeline or historical overview, and only one overarching genealogy of the gods (in cartoon form); instead, the curators provide fun, themed displays about, say, the animals of the Nile (including hippos and crocodiles, which the Egyptians worshipped), or the significance of various deities' bestial attributes. Interactive games encourage children to learn about hieroglyphs (although it's brave to include a grammar lesson on 'determinatives', which scrambled my adult brain). My nine-year-old's response when invited to guess what the hieroglyph for a tree could represent? 'Um, is it a willy?' Sigh.
The curators, though, understand what tone best appeals to children, and accordingly pepper the labels with punning subheadings and jokey asides; while, for me, these quips induced much groaning, my eldest approved. Both girls were struck by an astonishingly 'pretty' and contemporary-looking ancient bracelet of faience daisies, and a stunning blue silk-and-satin gown from 2022, by Maison Farah Wali, with a resplendent beaded bodice inspired by Horus, the falcon-headed god.
With an area for reading storybooks, and a couple of zones where children can draw, there's plenty to keep young visitors occupied. Although my five-year-old son seemed to be most taken by a big screen playing clips from the video game Minecraft (which, I fear, may reflect badly on his parents), and soon got a little antsy, the girls, I'm happy to report, were engrossed for the best part of an hour. Making history palatable for schoolchildren isn't easy – but all the work that's gone into this imaginative, effective show pays off.
From Feb 15; information:
