It is very exciting to be offered the opportunity to work with an organisation that can bring one of the people we are so very proud of to a much larger audience … The digital content will be of great benefit to the physical Museum and the Museum website. It is far easier to tell a story through images than static panels.
Erica Chambers, Website and Digital Media Volunteer, Dorking Museum and Heritage Centre
Over the past six months the Citizens project team, in collaboration with the South East Museum Development Programme, have been working with local museums in the South East to create new and exciting digital content. Museums benefit from their partnership with Royal Holloway in a variety of ways, ranging from being pinned onto the project’s innovative interactive map, which as the audience for the Citizens project website grows will help to raise their profile, to receiving assistance in carrying out local research and transforming this research into scripts for digital resources. The main offer of the Citizens project though is the opportunity to work with Royal Holloway to create an exciting and innovative digital resource, in many cases a presenter-led or animated video for display in museums, use online or as part of a museum’s own schools outreach.
The first such digital resource to be finished is an animation created with and for the Guildhall Museum in Sandwich sharing the story of the 1217 Battle of Sandwich.
Like many museums, the Guildhall Museum’s forward plan involved enhancing their visitors experience through digital technology since their museum had no digital or video content. Now, through the Citizens project, an exclusive animation on the Battle of Sandwich will be available online and in the Museum’s entrance to engage new audiences. Madylene Outen, a Heritage Development Officer at Guildhall Museum, gave the following feedback on the animation.
I think it’s excellent, a huge well done to the whole team. We really appreciate all the effort and time that goes into making these animations.
Lynne O’Donoghue Whitehouse, a local councillor and key supporter of the museum added:
The animated film is a wonderful and important contribution to our celebration of the Battle of Sandwich and the new museum and we are forever grateful to you and your team for making it possible.
In the future, this animation, along with all partner museum productions, will not only feature on the museums’ own websites but will also feature alongside the Citizens project’s other free online education resources for schools, supported by the AQA exam board and The Historical Association. The animation not only reflects the hard work and creativity of the team but also provides a glimpse into the type of productions to come. For example, work is already underway to develop resources for the Cowper and Newton Museum in Olney, Dorking Museum, Guildford Museum and the Museum of Oxford to name a few.
If you represent a heritage sector organisation in the South East and are interested in taking advantage of this valuable and subsidised opportunity the project is still welcoming new partners who have a story to share relating to an event, movement or figure associated with the struggle for rights during the last 800 years. Together we can help new generations of Citizens better understand their democratic heritage and the struggles and sacrifices that won us the rights we enjoy today.
By Abbie Evans.
Abbie Evans is a Citizens Project / SEMDP intern and History student at Royal Holloway, University of London.
For more information please contact the Citizens project team at citizens@rhul.ac.uk
