Hello and welcome to a new episode of The Art Engager. Today I'm chatting with illustrator and educator Jessica Hartshorn. But before our chat, if you haven't already, do go back and listen to the last two solo episodes created to celebrate the launch of my book, The Art Engager. Episode 1 3 6. Episode 6 explores what questioning practices are, why I created them, and how they can help you to create engaging museum experiences.
And episode 137 does a deep dive on one of the key questioning practices in my book, the universal. Listen in to discover how the universal came about and how you can use it with art and objects in the museum. And please help me spread the word about my book. You can do this in a number of ways. You can give a rating or write a short review on Amazon, Goodreads or your favourite book platform. You can post a photo or video on social media with The Art Engager in its new home.
And do tag me in, I'd love to see it. So, back to today's guest, Jessica Hartshorn. Jessi is an illustrator based in the UK who specialises in creating beautiful, engaging artwork for the cultural and heritage sector. As a former museum educator, Jessi has a unique perspective. She understands both the creative and the operational sides of museum work.
And Jessi uses this knowledge and experience to design family trails, maps, educational resources, and more, that are not only visually engaging, but also practical and effective in creating deeper connections with museum collections, even the unloved objects. So in this episode, we explore Jessi's journey from museum educator to designer. and focus on how she uses art to make history and heritage accessible and fun.
Jessi shares insights on her Draw Along sessions, designed to help participants overcome their reluctance or hesitation around drawing, to slow down and to observe artworks and objects in new ways. So listen in for lots of practical and useful advice on incorporating creative activities into museum experiences and also for Jessi's thoughts on how drawing can transform visitor engagement. Hi Jessi and welcome to The Art Engager podcast. Hello.
So could you tell our listeners who you are and what you do? Yeah, I'm Jessica Hartshorn. My business name is Jessi Illustrates and I'm an illustrator. I mostly work for museums and galleries and create illustrated trails and packs and bring collections to life. I know that you started as a museum educator, so can you tell us a bit about your journey from being a museum educator, to a freelance illustrator working with museums? Yeah, absolutely.
So, way back when I was a child, I've always loved art. So, I actually studied illustration and I graduated and started doing a little bit of freelance illustration. But like a lot of people, quite a few years ago, I fell into museums by accident. A job came up as an apprenticeship and I started working at an art centre and museum. As a Apprentice Education Officer and progressed to my next job in rugby at Rugby Art Gallery Museum.
I moved on to being an Education Manager, Learning and Outreach Officer and I loved that job. I absolutely fell in love with museums. I've always liked history, I studied it at A level, but it's a whole new world of looking at collections and caring for collections, and then helping people to appreciate them and understand more about them, which was obviously my role in education.
I absolutely loved that for over 16 years, so quite a long time, but towards the end of that journey, I started to want to be creative myself again. So in my role I was doing a lot of facilitating other people being creative, working with collections and artists together and putting together collaborations, so projects and events. So it's a lot of enabling other people, which I loved, and it was still creative, but it's not the same as making and doing myself.
So while I was still in my role, I started painting again, and it was just more for fun initially, just not really painted for me. So 16 years. And just to get back into it, and I started a secret Instagram account where nobody knew it was me, and I started posting on there just, it's almost like to set myself, be a bit accountable I suppose, I said I'm going to post two, three, artworks a week, which is quite ambitious I think but I did do it and it made me paint.
And then after a little while I applied for a big mural in Birmingham at the MAC which is a big art centre so It was four 13 metre walls, so it's huge. Just off a whim really, and I got it. I couldn't believe I got it. And as a result of that, all of a sudden, a lot of my museum network people saw that I could paint, and it kick started this new journey for me that I could use both the heritage aspect and my illustration skills to, to work in the sector in a new way.
What does your role include these days? So you've now fully made the transition to freelance illustrator. What sorts of things do you do on a daily basis? So, I use my knowledge and experience working in museums, and I take that and create things like trails for both schools and families, and also adults, and I've also created them for ESOL learners, so adults with English as a second language. And I've created things like maps and floor vinyls and wall vinyls too.
I'm just doing some characters at the moment that are going to be made into products for museum shops. So a real range and breadth of different things. But one of my skills obviously working in learning, I did quite a lot of delivery within the museum itself. So I also collaborate with museums to maybe run workshops and test the trails as well as illustrate and put the content together.
So it's quite a kind of unique skill really to be able to actually understand how they work, like physically work and practically work, as well as doing this pretty visual things as well. So you talked about creating illustrated trails for some museums there. How do you go beyond simple treasure hunt approaches and how do you create actual meaningful engagement through these trails? That's a really good question.
For me, I love heritage, so as soon as I see an object, I get really excited about it. So I've already got that kind of understanding and appreciation for things like how we care for collections, how we physically display them, how we might want to find out what they're made out of and why they might have survived, who owned them and the stories behind them. So I've already got all that kind of in depth knowledge from my museum background.
So I bring all of that to my trails and try and I embed that into them. So for example when I'm creating the trails, one of the first thing I do is actually walk the journey and look at the practicalities. So. Are the objects that maybe the staff have identified maybe too high or too low, or is there a glare on the glass from the lighting so the children won't be able to see them?
Because before I start illustrating and doing all the other things, I want to know that it's going to flow nicely and that everything is accessible. So that's one thing I bring straight away from knowing how we display and use the objects. Also, is the object going to stay out? Is it going to get rotated and put in the store? So that's a quite key thing if all this time and money potentially have gone into it and it's going to be taken somewhere else.
So that's something, again, I bring that knowledge with me to ask the right questions, I suppose, right at the very beginning with the team that I'm working with. And then the content itself, I try and bring the different learning styles that children might have into it.
So rather than just running around finding something and not really engaging with The collections themselves I try and use the collections, so illustrate them and maybe make them into characters or focus on something in particular within the drawing but then I also ask questions I do, like, missing word Texts, so they have to read some of the information and find the missing word. I do illustrations where the children have to finish off the design of a pot, for example, or a tile.
And I just try and make it Really rich in terms of visual, maybe using some numbers in something, trying to use lots of different ways of learning and engaging people, rather than just running around and finding some things. There's always a place for that, to just get people into museums and start off perhaps at a lower level, but particularly when I've done school related trails.
We've tried to maybe link it to the curriculum as well, just make it really varied in the way that the children engage with the objects. And what sorts of trails have you worked on recently? So I'm just finishing one at the moment, which is really exciting. And we are hopefully going on to make products and other things from the character that I've developed. I've done quite a lot of that this year where I've developed a character specific In a bespoke way for a venue.
And this is a medieval elephant, and it's for a medieval guild hall and one of the lovely things I get to do is that problem solving element where the staff will say 'right we've got a logo already and it's an elephant and got a castle and I can't see how we can put those two things together' and so my elephant character is wearing a bit like a robe with a castle on it so he's standing up with his hands free so he can hold things and that was my kind of way of using my historical knowledge
doing a little bit of research about what. what they wore in that era and putting all those pieces together. And the trail it goes into a medieval kitchen and an armory and some really beautiful and interesting places in the space. Looks at things like witch marks on the wall that have been carved in and yeah, lots of textural things. We did a lot of like, Touching and feeling, you know, kneel on the floor and feel the texture of the tiles.
So incorporating our senses, listening and smelling in the kitchen and then using their own ideas as well. So, there's some signatures that have been carved into the wall, like graffiti, and we get them to design their own medieval signature using this style of writing. So that was really lovely. It was beautiful aesthetically to take pieces of stained glass window and things like that to illustrate. And yeah, I'm really excited to see it come together.
And when you're designing a trail, something that I was just thinking about then was what comes first? Is it the logistics and the objects or does the design come first? How do you approach it? Always the objects for me. I think, yeah, objects and logistics, because otherwise it just doesn't work. And that's why I love testing them with children, because they're super honest. 'I can't find it, Miss' or 'this is too hard'. So when I test.
With children, I do get them to be, at the beginning we'd say, your role here is really important, you're going to influence how other people see this, and if there's anything that doesn't work, tell me and be honest. And that's really helpful because you want it to work, you want it to be, when you put so much effort in, you want it to be successful. So I like to know physically it will work, there's a good flow, obviously the objects are key, but they could be.
What people would perceive as dull objects that I can then make them more interesting, that's kind of part of my role. And that's where the aesthetics meet in the middle, because that's in a way a joy for me. If someone goes, this is in our collection, what is classed as a really dull object? Can you make it interesting? And that's like, yeah, bring it on, bring on that challenge. So the aesthetics is really important from that point of view as well as of Making people more engaged in something.
We've just done a test in a canal museum and the children were looking at the objects around the site and every single child was walking past a case of canal art. plates and I think it's because there was glass in front of it, there wasn't anything massively engaging about it. They were going for everything they could touch and feel or go inside or that's what was engaging them. So now I'm like right, those plates, we're going to get those children loving those plates, I'm going to find a way.
Because I find them really beautiful as well. So we're looking at how we can potentially, that they've got ribbon threaded through them, the plates, the ceramic plate, and we could get replicas that could be put in front of these cases, and the children can thread the ribbon through themselves, and then I'll hand paint some plates as well that they can engage with. So yeah, the aesthetic is important sometimes to add value in the sense of making it more interesting and accessible for people.
I love the challenge of working with boring objects. I did a whole episode about how to work with boring objects because I think there are so many corners of museums that we overlook. We may just pass by, we may think, oh, I'm not sure how I could work with that object. And I like. Flipping that on its head, as you say, and the challenge of it and thinking about well, how could we work with that object? Are there different ways that we could look at it?
What is it about that object that perhaps is making people just turn away from it or not look at it. What are the things that we could do to really get engagement there? So I love the fact that you're bringing love to unwanted corners of museums and galleries as well. And I think your love and your passion for drawing extends into other areas as well. So you run these amazing draw along sessions in galleries. Can you tell us a little bit about how these work and what makes them successful?
Yeah, so they came out of lockdown, really. I started doing daily drawalongs online and live drawalongs in lockdown. And when we came out of lockdown, I thought, oh, I've got this audience now of people that want to draw along with me. And a few galleries approached me.
To do them live in the galleries and I absolutely jumped at the chance, knowing that using my background again I know how to unpick paintings and really delve deeply into them by asking lots of questions, but also with drawing, especially if you're doing something from life drawing, still life, you have to look. And I teach a lot of workshops as well. And as part of that, we do an activity where we have a looking part for 30 seconds.
So before we do anything, before pencil touches the paper, we look for 30 seconds. And children find that quite difficult, especially with attention spans nowadays, but it's so important to look at the texture, look at the shape, look at the shadow, does it look heavy? Does it look light? We talk about all those different things that we're looking for. And we do that in these draw alongs. So we maybe choose an artwork that we're going to be inspired by.
We have a chat about it, thinking about the materials used, thinking about the atmosphere maybe that it has. And then I'll choose something from the artwork that we'll all draw together. And I break it down into shapes so it's quite step by step. And it's amazing, I was so shocked because obviously in lockdown I can't see the responses. When I'm drawing a line you just have nice feedback but you don't see them come to life drawing themselves and how proud they are.
So, when they've completed something, especially if they think they're 'not a good drawer' in quotes. So I've absolutely loved doing those. What are some of the responses that you get from these sessions then from people? I can imagine the pride in having completed stuff, but also do they reflect on how they engage with the object itself, the artwork or the sculpture? Yeah, definitely. I think that initially it's sometimes shocking that they've managed to achieve something.
A lot of the comments are, 'oh yeah, if I didn't really think about it, if I just break it down into shapes, it seems a lot more simple and straightforward'. People get overwhelmed by looking at something as a whole, which I think we do with artwork as well sometimes, where if we just focus on one, smaller element first and break that down into smaller parts it's a lot easier.
And particularly with grandparents, I get a lot of grandparents bringing the children and initially they're just like, 'oh no, we'll just, we'll hang back'. And they're doing the activity and by the second drawing, they're eager and going for it. And a lot of the grandparents are actually people as well that will say, I've learned so much, I would always say I can't draw and I'm really pleased with what I've created.
And yeah, I do hope that then they go away and look at the artwork in a different way that they can slowly look at an artwork and unpick elements and have more confidence in drawing, generally. Yeah, I think drawing is one of those things.
It's always the same when I suggest in my workshops, if I suggest anybody does any drawing or if they write any poetry, there's always a kind of, either an element of fear passes through people's faces or a kind of eye roll that you get, so there's a hesitancy sometimes about drawing. So how do you really help Participants of all ages, like you just mentioned, the grandparents, the adults, as well as the children, overcome their reluctance and really build their confidence in these sessions.
So I always start off every session with a few games, and they're very silly games generally in the sense of we do drawing with our eyes closed, for example. And so I start off drawing a circle, then we all close our eyes, and I'm quite theatrical when I run these sessions, I'm a little bit over the top and I'll come on everybody and I'm checking on you and that sort of thing, make sure you don't open your eyes. And. Make it really fun, to start off with, make it fun.
Make it a bit silly, so everybody's is going to look ridiculous, whatever you do, because you're drawing it with your eyes closed. And that straight away seems to break down barriers if I can't draw, because it doesn't matter, it's a bit of fun. So we start off with those sorts of games. We do a game where I get people to draw three random weird shapes. Then they swap that with a partner and then they have to make those shapes into something new.
So it could be a new creature or an object or a building. And again, we're using our creativity, we're using our imagination, but there's no pressure to make it look right. It is what it is. And just doing those sort of games initially to break down those barriers of it doesn't matter, seems to really help. And then from that, I'll start. With the draw alongs where I'll step by step draw a bit of something and they follow along.
And generally, I mean, I've had really young children create the most amazing drawings following along with me. And I think it's that comfort blanket of knowing they're doing what I'm doing, gives them that confidence to not be fearful. Yeah, absolutely. And it's not that fear of the blank page as well because they're following along a process and they're following you. And I think it's all about creating the space as well.
So if you were providing the instructions, but not creating the environment that was warm and welcoming, it wouldn't work as well. So it's a combination of the two that really creates the magic, I think, and makes people relax and feel that this is something that they can do. Yeah, and I always try and leave it open for, Their own ideas as well. So it might be that there's a framework that we create.
Say it was, we did one linked to owls with a Quentin Blake exhibition I was working on last year. And we created characters that almost interacted with each other. So I got them to create facial expressions for me. So this owl is going to be cross. So show me how you might do that do that with your eyebrows and getting them to, with their hands, make their eyebrows in a cross shape and get them really interacted in my drawing as well. So it's not just follow me for the whole time.
I'll also say, right, how could we do this? What do you think that facial expression would look like? And then we'll get to a point where, like freestyle, you can add your own accessories and you can add... it's a windy day. So what would you put on on the character, would he have a scarf flowing in the background? And so I try and get them to, once they've got that framework and they're really confident, they can start to add their own things.
And through that, we start to do a bit of storytelling as well, and with their characters and a relationship between two drawings as well, how they might be interacting and one's happy, one's sad, why? And get them to come up with the stories. So yeah, it's really fun. I love it. so you have this real passion for drawing and encouraging people to draw, I can really see that.
So what role can drawing play in really helping visitors to engage with the objects in our collection, but also to help them slow down and notice more? I think within the trails, it's something I've had a lot of teachers mention. Again, a bit like you said, when they, when you say you're going to draw, They get really frightened and teachers have done that as well.
When we've done consultation earlier on, before I created a trail, when I've said, oh, we're going to do some creative activities within it. And they've gone, oh, but our kids hate drawing. I always try and make, again, the activities more fun and they're not just a blank page. So an example of another trail that I've done recently, we had about four different elements that, within it, that were creative. One was an illustration that I created and the children had to finish it off.
So they were looking at something in front of them, and they had to look at the shapes and add the shapes within. an illustration I'd already done. So all of a sudden that wasn't frightening anymore, because they weren't having to draw this whole massive sculpture, they only had to add smaller elements.
And then another one was, we had a shoemaker, and I illustrated a Victorian boot, and then we did some rubbings, because it was outside this particular one, we did some rubbings on trees within the boot to create the texture. And again, It all of a sudden wasn't frightening anymore. So I think some of the, both the drawing and anything creative really, I think it's sometimes helping people to take away that blank canvas and again break it down into smaller steps.
Yeah, so at the same time it's actually encouraging them to notice more details in the world, isn't it? So drawing is observation when you look at it, there's a link between the two. Yeah, absolutely.
And I love teaching life drawing as well We often say it's a bit like learning to drive when you're looking in your mirror constantly, you should be looking at the object, and then your artwork and then your object and then your artwork because your brain, looks at something often and then you think you know, you're going from your memory, but it's not actually right so it's that constant going back and checking and that helps you have to slow down,
you have to do that to enable you to, especially if you're doing it from life.. When I do a lot of drawing there's the two elements really, there's the there's sort of drawing from still life or real life, and where you're pretty much copying, I would say and that's great, and there's a place for that.
And then there's the other element where we're using an object to perhaps be the inspiration for a new artwork, a bit like you were saying with poetry, using it as inspiration, and both have really important places.
The first, it's really useful to understand an object by Drawing and looking, because you're looking at the physical shape, the texture, what it might be made out of, is it heavy, is it weighted, you can see that from a shadow, and there's so much you can learn by just looking and drawing the object as it is, but then there's the other aspect of, well, What Maybe the story behind it, who owned it, or where's it come from, or create a new story, what you
might think it might have come from, or what you might do with it, or whatever. So there's those two elements of almost like your imaginary element, and then the real thing, and both have such an important place, but you can only do either by looking, and looking really carefully. Absolutely, and how do museums create the environment for this to happen.
So I'm intrigued as to how open museums are to host drawing events, how I'm also interested, I think, in how things are changing, how museums are using drawing and illustration to engage visitors. What trends are you seeing in how museums are using drawing? I definitely think that over the years I've been working in museums, they're more open to working with artists like myself to bring people in that can run different things.
I was just, I work at a place called Compton Verney in the Midlands and they're running a neon life drawing session. So it's all glow in the dark, which is fabulous. So I think there's more and more places that are running drawing based activities. I think there's some fair stills in some places. Maybe not quite understanding how it could work. And I think, just ask artists, they're going to have some amazing ideas of seeing your collection and go, we could do this or we could do that.
So I think having those conversations are really important and Potentially things like networking events for museums to invite artists in to just have a chat about different opportunities, because that's their job to problem solve and be creative and think of these amazing, exciting things that can bring in new audiences and engage with collections in different and unique ways. So yeah, there's definitely an opportunity and I do see that more and more museums are open to do that.
However, I've seen a lot of museums lose their education officers and have less and less capacity, less funding. So. One of the reasons I've been quite busy this year, unfortunately for me, I suppose, is that people have lost their staff and I've been brought in to create trails for schools because they haven't got any learning staff to deliver anymore. So these packs I'm creating are being downloaded by the schools and are self led.
So illustration and trails and that sort of thing can be used to supplement what's there, but you know, they can also be used as alternatives, I suppose, for teachers to have access. I mean, it's tricky, I say that, but a lot of the schools I spoke to, I've just done a project where we created three trails in a museum for all their different past projects and past workshops and actually the school said they wouldn't have visited at all, if they hadn't had the trails.
So it's making sure that they are still being engaged and still coming and having an option. So, so yeah, it's really sad in that sense, but there are lots of people using them. in positive ways and still using them when they have got offices as well.
Yeah, and it's still important to enable those self guided visits where there aren't the staff available to support them as well, and to do it in a way that encourages that deeper engagement, that observation, all the things that you were talking about. Now, I'm sure there's lots of people listening who are interested in incorporating more drawing activities, so what advice would you give anyone listening?
I think, as I said, there's an opportunity to work with your local artists if you've got a community of local artists to get people involved. There's also lots of really great bodies out there, so if you're not aware of it, the Big Draw in the UK, and I think it's also international now, has a real range of artists. Resources on their website that you can download.
They also have a range of books which have lists and lists of different drawing games and activities that you can use in cultural settings and heritage settings. And I think it's thinking about your objects. Little bits outside of the box and not being fearful of, yeah, using creative methods. But I think it is about having those tools to, as you said earlier, having a black, a blank piece of paper is really scary and it's tricky to engage people.
So it's using different resources to find new ways of interpreting drawings and creating. new artwork, using tools that can help you, because it is quite overwhelming if you're not from that background. My brain automatically thinks in that way, and so when I, sometimes I've done, what I would class as quite basic things really, creative activities, and some museum staff are like, oh my gosh, this is so exciting, and I'm like, really?
To me that seems quite straightforward and basic, but it's because they're not from that background. So it's either getting in. Those people, those specialists, or finding the resources that can support you. But it can be done and it doesn't have to cost very much at all. That's the other thing actually I'd point out is materials can make a real big impact.
And I know it's hard with funding and things, but I would say the higher the quality of the material, the better experience people get, and that's not necessarily for every single thing that you do, but especially if you're offering workshops. When I do school sessions, I try and give them the best quality that I can afford within the budget, because when I go into schools and they've got the most horrific brushes that are all matted and bits falling out of them... Glue in them. Yeah, exactly.
Glue in them and glitter in them. And they expect the children to create something Wonderful. It's like, well, it's just not going to happen. You wouldn't yourself. So I always take in good quality brushes, good quality paint painting on good quality paper where, you know, we can, and when it's suitable and what they then achieve is going to be far better.
So that's something just to bear in mind that, and also children get really excited when they've got really, Beautiful materials by taking some rolls of black paper and then some really gorgeous oil pastels, and then they see that contrasting colour and texture, they get really excited, just like we would as adults when we see sparkly things or whatever in a workshop. So yeah, it's just something to consider.
And also I would urge everybody listening to this to think that this is not just something for kids either, so this is something for all ages, and it's so rewarding seeing adults engage their creative side, especially when they're young. When you hear people saying that phrase, oh, I didn't know you could do this in a museum, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely.
I do a lot of work with adults and it's so rewarding to see somebody that all their life, probably from school, they've been told they can't do art, they're rubbish, and then they find something that fits them. them. Because we're all creative in our own way, it just might be that some people are more drawn to drawing and other people are amazing at collage or clay or printing and it's finding what works for you. So yeah, it's really important at any age.
I do a lot of work with adults living with dementia in museums and I was doing a session yesterday and we went and saw an exhibition and then we came and created some artwork. inspired by that work. And for a lot of these people, they may have been, say, an architect in a younger life, and they've lost a lot of their ability to do a lot of things, including sometimes mobility within their hands and sort of dexterity.
Yet, they might try something new with me, such as printmaking, and They're amazing at it and they're so pleased that they've achieved something when they've lost so much already and especially when they're in a partnership of, say, maybe husband wife relationship, they've seen this person change so much, so to see them enjoy an exhibition and then, or a museum collection, and then to create something, it's really important, it has such value.
People can't Don't always understand how much value that can add to somebody's life. Wonderful. I think we're going to leave it there. That's a really nice note to end on. Where can people learn more about your work? So I have a website. It's www. jessicahartshorn.com And I also am on social media, particularly Instagram because it's so visual. And you can also find me on Instagram at Jessi_Illustrates. Brilliant.
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing all the lovely details about your work. No problem, thank you. And a huge thank you to Jessi for joining me on the podcast today. Be sure to check out the show notes for more about her inspiring work. And if you've enjoyed this episode, or if any episode in our back catalogue has resonated with you, please consider supporting The Art Engager. You can now join us on Patreon with a simple monthly subscription to help keep this content coming.
Thanks to all our supporters, you're really making a difference. Finally, don't forget to visit my website to learn more about The Art Engager book. Available now wherever books are sold. That's it for this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. See you next time. Bye.