From collections to classrooms: Object-based learning with museum musical instruments in primary music education

AILSA CRITTEN, FACULTY OF SOCIETY AND CULTURE, NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY, UK Introduction Musical instruments in museum collections are rich cultural artefacts with significant pedagogical potential, yet they remain underused in music education (Clendinning and Gurstelle, 2021; Critten, 2026, unpublished data). This article argues that engaging with instruments as cultural objects – through inquiry-led approaches such as object-based learning (OBL) (Chatterjee and Hannan, 2015) – offers a powerful means of supporting primary students to understand instruments as sonic, material and cultural objects. Drawing on literature and findings from an ongoing doctoral study – including a systematic analysis of 224 UK museum collections, which found that only 13.4 per cent offer any music education programme (Critten, 2026, unpublished data)  – it makes the case for object-based and materially grounded approaches to music education, arguing that their potential to support multisensory le