Objects and Identity: inspiring cross-disciplinary learning through university teaching collections

This chapter describes a collaboration between curriculum development staff and the Museum & Study Collection at Central Saint Martins (CSM), one of the six colleges that comprise University of the Arts London (UAL). Together we developed a new object-led learning and teaching intervention (described throughout as an ‘event’) to be delivered to students participating in the Bigger Picture, a four-week collaborative Unit for second year BA students that explores the University’s values in relation to questions of design theory and practice through cross-disciplinary and intercultural interaction. Our ambition was to introduce a new methodology to be used with and by students in mixed disciplinary groupings with a view to teaching them the value of engaging with a wide variety of disciplines, knowledge bases and cultures.