RETHINK Residency- Don’t Forget to Blink👀🚢⚡🎨❓🖼️
Young Creatives - Royal Museums Greenwich - National Maritime Museum
Role: Project Manager Dates: Summer - Autumn 2022
Funded by: Charlton Athletic Community Trust, Greenwich Council, Young Greenwich
‘To ask museum visitors if they are proud of the British Empire is challenging, provocative… I like that this project can be disruptive to the norm, not always something you see in museums.’ - YP
In the summer of 2022, a group of young people took part in the ‘Rethink Residency’ at the National Maritime Museum. These ‘Young Creatives’ (15–18 years old) joined a series of creative workshops that sought to reconsider the Museum and its collections, working with the idea of memory. By exploring and re-imagining the Museum together, they created a series of questions to ask visitors via LCD screens, collecting feedback and responses, inviting a critical eye on the role a museum plays and how it uses the objects it collects. They worked with artist Charlotte Grayland, who programmed a week of collage, drawing, photography, painting, printing, badge-making, soundscapes and zines. The zines and accompanying artwork which are displayed for 8 months in the galleries, provoke new ways of thinking and interpreting the Museum, through the eyes, minds and voices of YP. Listen to the soundscape online HERE
‘My favourite part of the week was reading a series of instructions for visitors on the tannoy which broadcasts across the whole museum. I think you just expect to hear about a tour starting, or a lost child…not that you should wave at other people, look before taking pictures etc. We wanted people to connect with each other again, like this project had done for me.’ - YP
Instructions for Museum Visitors: I would like the little girl to point at the boat painting ////// You need to smile at all times ///// Draw Pictures ////// Remember what you see ////// Look at Everything ////// Give us your best dance ///// Wave at a stranger ///// Pretend you're a boat ///// Use the exhibition room as a catwalk ////// Say hello to every portrait ////// Speak loudly in the room you're in ///// Smell something ///// Put your hands on your head ////// Clap or hum to Music ///// Look in the mirror and check yourself out ///// And lastly, don’t forget to blink
Instructions for Museum Visitors: I would like the little girl to point at the boat painting ////// You need to smile at all times ///// Draw Pictures ////// Remember what you see ////// Look at Everything ////// Give us your best dance ///// Wave at a stranger ///// Pretend you're a boat ///// Use the exhibition room as a catwalk ////// Say hello to every portrait ////// Speak loudly in the room you're in ///// Smell something ///// Put your hands on your head ////// Clap or hum to Music ///// Look in the mirror and check yourself out ///// And lastly, don’t forget to blink
Questions for visitors devised by young people....Do you think more modern objects should be here? //// Are there enough workshops/events to get involved in? ///// Should the museum be more interactive for adults? ////// Do you feel angry/upset at some of the displays? ///// Do you see yourself represented in the museum? ////// Do you feel inspired when you are here? ////// Were you disappointed at the lack of women in the collection? ////// Are you proud of The British Empire? //////
Questions for visitors devised by young people....Do you think more modern objects should be here? //// Are there enough workshops/events to get involved in? ///// Should the museum be more interactive for adults? ////// Do you feel angry/upset at some of the displays? ///// Do you see yourself represented in the museum? ////// Do you feel inspired when you are here? ////// Were you disappointed at the lack of women in the collection? ////// Are you proud of The British Empire? //////
Images Copyright National Maritime Museum
Zine created by artist Charlotte Grayland, pulling together the content made by the group of young creatives during the residency. These accompany the exhibition, and are free to visitors.