Sculpture Culture Trail

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Bath Spa University Heritage students working in partnership with Bath museums

Following on from the very successful, atmospheric ‘Roman Sensations’ event organised by 2nd year Heritage students for Museums at Night 2012 at the Roman Baths this past Saturday, 3rd year Heritage students are now putting the final touches on two more public projects delivered in partnership with the Holburne Museum and No. 1 Royal Crescent.

‘Sculpture Culture’ is a family trail developed by Bath Spa students to complement the Holburne Museum’s next major exhibition ‘Presence: the Art of Portrait Sculpture’ (26 May to 2 September). Families can use the trail to discover and explore the rich variety of portrait sculpture in Bath and will be available from Saturday 26 May from the Bath Tourist Information Centre, the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Abbey and the Holburne Museum where it will also be available to download from the website.

Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne Museum notes, ‘Working with Bath Spa University Heritage students is partly about us helping to prepare students for the wider world beyond university, and anything we can do to show how museums really work is valuable, but it also brings an enormous amount to us – the dialogue is two way. Your students volunteer for us, do their placements here, work in close collaboration with our curators, education department and visitor services, and we benefit from their commitment, enthusiasm and fresh ideas’.

‘Bringing you the Whole Story’ is a travelling community exhibition that our students have created in partnership with the Bath Preservation Trust and No. 1 Royal Crescent to highlight ‘The Whole Story’ – the major redevelopment of No. 1 and No. 1a Royal Crescent to ‘reunite a key historic building of national importance with its original service wing allowing the museum to tell the full history of the house and how it was serviced’. The travelling exhibition will encourage local community engagement with the project, and the museum, to foster a greater sense of connection and public ownership of Bath as a World Heritage city. The exhibition will be on display outside of the Building of Bath Collection at the Countess of Huntingdon Chapel on Friday 1st June from 6:30pm as part of the Party in the City events to celebrate the Bath International Music Festival (25th May to 5th June) before it goes on tour at a variety of Bath Preservation Trust events over the next few months.

Tom Boden, Head of Education and Audience Development, for the Bath Preservation Trust and No. 1 Royal Crescent says, ‘We have worked with Bath Spa University Heritage students for a number of years and their contribution has proved a real asset to the Bath Preservation Trust. This year students have worked with us to create a very exciting portable exhibition about our major development of No. 1 Royal Crescent. Their creativity, enthusiasm and capability have resulted in an innovative exhibition which I’m sure will prove very engaging for families and local residents. This exhibition will ‘pop-up’ in community events, such as Party in the City on 1 June, and will help us reach out and connect with new audiences.’

Dr Kristin Doern, Heritage Subject Leader at Bath Spa University comments that she continues to be impressed by the very high standard of work our students achieve in partnership with such renowned organisations, ‘We keep raising the bar of our expectations of what our students can achieve, and they keep meeting it. This wouldn’t be possible without the commitment, professional guidance, and passionate engagement of colleagues at the Holburne Museum, Bath Preservation Trust, and the range of museums and heritage organisations we work with in Bath and the South West.’

Launched at a private celebration at the Holburne Museum on Thursday 31 May, both projects celebrate Bath Spa University’s continued close collaboration with our local museum and heritage partners.

You can download the trail and additional information here>>

Published on: 22/05/2012

The Holburne Museum