- Cost cited as the major barrier as 60% of UK teachers say they had not taken their class to a museum on a school trip in the last 12 months
- Charity ‘Art Explora’ to fund museum visits and school transport costs to tackle cultural inequality in the UK
- Groundbreaking digital interactive experience ‘Time Odyssey’ introduces KS2 school children to museum collections for the first time
- Launch partners include Yorkshire Museums, York; Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; The Great Northern Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne; Manchester Museum; South Shields Museum & Art Gallery; and the British Museum
13 MAY 2025 – Today at the British Museum, leading philanthropist Frédéric Jousset launched a major campaign to tackle cultural inequality in the UK. His charity, Art Explora, teamed up with the British Museum to launch Time Odyssey – a new interactive learning experience for KS2 children which takes pupils on a quest through their local museum physically and virtually.
Time Odyssey offers a completely free experience – both the museum visit and the school transport costs are covered by the charity – to ensure all schools can take part. Over three years, the programme expects to take over one hundred thousand children on school trips to museums across the country.
The launch of Art Explora’s Time Odyssey programme comes after new data, commissioned by the charity, shows that school visits have not picked up since the pandemic. Over 60% of teachers say they had not taken their class to a museum on a school trip in the last 12 months.
Despite 90% of teachers agreeing that every child should visit a museum on a school trip before leaving primary school, 14% have never taken their class — with cost cited as the most significant barrier, particularly for schools outside London and in those with a higher percentage of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Art Explora removes this barrier by offering the entire experience free of charge, including museum admission, experience and transport.
Time Odyssey is an immersive, tablet-based experience, developed by 1UP Studios, that engages pupils with museum collections in a meaningful way, dramatically improving their dwell time in front of objects, while providing teachers with structured learning support. Co-created with over 500 students from schools across the UK, Time Odysseysupports a range of KS2 subjects and skills, enhancing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of historical periods and skills, as well as their teamwork, communication, and digital literacy.
Frédéric Jousset, President and Founder of Art Explora says: “School trips offer enrichment that cannot be experienced in the classroom. This should be a fundamental right for young people, not be an optional extra. Time Odyssey levels the playing field, making sure that all children have access to culture, no matter what their background.”
The national rollout follows a successful pilot last year and will be delivered in collaboration with a consortium of museums including:
- Yorkshire Museums, York
- Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
- The Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne
- Manchester Museum
- South Shields Museum & Art Gallery
National Museums Liverpool, Heritage Doncaster and Tees Valley Museums are also set to join the programme later this year.
Students from disadvantaged backgrounds typically benefit most from these experiences as they are less likely to have this opportunity outside sponsored school trips. This exposure can lead to greater appreciation and understanding of different cultures across the world, and a tangible connection to the past.
Art Explora is working closely with partner museums to prioritise schools with a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals and those located in rural areas, both of which face historic challenges in accessing cultural experiences.
QUOTES:
Teachers:
“They were given a little bit of free time when the devices were taken from them. And you could see that their engagement was different. They weren’t as focused. Their learning hadn’t been as meaningful as when they had a real purpose to learn; when they had Time Odyssey to try and follow around the museum. I think when they go back to school, they will be able to talk a lot about what they’ve learnt today” – Rachel Malster, Stanford Bridge Primary School, Year 6 Teacher after visiting the Yorkshire Museum.
“The fact it’s free is a very important factor. Our catchment really struggles with money.” – School Administrator
“I’ve got a lot of children with varying ability and different needs in my class; it was accessible and appealed to every single one. It worked wonders! Nothing has done that before, especially when we’ve gone to a museum” – Yr 5 Teacher
Students:
“I really like that we got to explore the museum in a fun way instead of the boring way” – Yr 6 Student
“I really like how there was different characters from China and others too!” – Yr 5 Student
Museum professionals:
“In 15 years working in museums and education, I’ve never seen a piece of EdTech do anything like as good a job as this one: it is imaginative, open-ended, fun and accessible but genuinely gets kids to really look at and engage with museum displays. The way it’s been designed to work in any museum context is really clever.” – Amy McDowall, Primary Learning Coordinator at Manchester Museum
“The Time Odyssey project has provided us with a valuable opportunity to connect pupils in areas such as Leeds, Hull and isolated parts of North Yorkshire with the incredible Stone Age, Roman and Medieval collections at the Yorkshire Museum. Both pupils and teachers have enjoyed the sense of adventure created by the Time Odyssey app and how it empowers young people to approach museum objects from a variety of creative angles.’ – Charlie Trzeciak, Schools Learning Manager at York Museums Trust.
“The visits remain extremely popular and enjoyable for all with some children saying, ‘It’s the best day ever!’” – Neil Heasman, Time Odyssey Facilitator at The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.
