We are very excited to finally announce a collaborative project we have been quietly working on for a few months now – may we present Hidden Heroes!
Hidden Heroes is an islandwide campaign initiated with the aim to highlight 7 important but lesser known island figures from history. The project commissioned by The Resillience Group made up of 7 museums and galleries on the Isle of Wight seeks to encourage more local island people to engage with island museums more often and attract new audiences.
In May we started off by getting informed and visiting the partner museums – Carisbrooke Castle Museum, Dimbola Museum and Galleries, Newport Roman Villa, The Museum of Island History, The Classic Boat Museum, Cowes Maritime Museum, Dinosaur Isle, Quay Arts and The County Records Office. These visits told us an in depth story of our island’s history and how it connects together whilst also inspiring us seeing how committed and passionate so many people are to preserving our unique heritage and culture.
Our audience development role in the campaign led us to think up how we could bring some our museums culture out to the public. We thought how about in a Travelling Museum??
The Travelling Museum is a dynamic theatrical and immersive experience that will include some of the museums real artefacts and replicas going out on the road in a converted van called The Errant Stage to public spaces such as high streets and town centres this half term, so keep a look out.
Find out more here.
The tour’s final stop will be at Dimbola where we are holding an interactive museums at night event at Dimbola Museum where kids and big kids alike are invited to make dens in the museum after dark, hear the amazing stories from by gone days about our Hidden Heroes and you can find out more about it here.
The Hidden Heroes project will culminate with a special exhibition at Quay Arts in March 2018 to illustrate the fascinating background of our heroes and their achievements whilst also showcasing the work of Island young people with artworks created in response by school and community groups. This will just be the beginning of an on-going collaboration to celebrate island history.
To find out who the Hidden Heroes are and upcoming related events and a chance to give your views on your own personal Hidden Heroes visit the website: www.iwhiddenheroes.org.uk
