Museums are increasingly looking beyond visual artists to offer residency schemes to people from different disciplines – from scientists and poets, to musicians and designers.
A museum could work with chefs, comedians, actors or games designers, depending on what its objectives are. It is even possible for cultural institutions to take on entire groups or organisations.
In 2016, Beamish living history museum in County Durham appointed a writer-in-residence for the first time. Becci Sharrock took part in a number of activities, including one project that saw her live on 1950s rations for a week.
Sharrock was allocated rationed quantities of meats, dairy products, sweets and chocolate. She used the, ingredients to recreate 1950s recipes. Her experiences were documented in a blog, which also contains a number of diary notes and short stories inspired by her time at the museum.
Sharrock ran a series of creative writing workshops linked to a fish and chip shop in Middleton St George. These will be replicated in the 1950s town currently being built at the museum as part of the Remaking Beamish project, which will be completed in 2021.
Sharrock’s writing project involved children interviewing adults who remembered the original fish and chip shop when it was open in the 1950s. These memories were then used to create stories, which were printed in the style of a newspaper, which would have once been used to wrap fish and chips.
“If felt the right time to be working in new ways,” says Sally Dixon, the assistant director of partnerships and communications at Beamish.
“Our community participation team has been working with communities right across north east England and a community project is linked to each building in the scheme. The up-scaling of this work gave Sharrock a context in which to embed herself.”
“It has also given the community participation team a greater range of tools to explore all the histories and memories of the people they are talking to from a creative writing perspective that they perhaps wouldn’t have had the confidence to use before.”
The residency, which was instigated by Sharrock, was funded through the Leverhulme Trust’s artist-in-residence programme.
The McManus in Dundee has appointed a choir-in-residence as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations. The choir, Loadsaweeminsingin, is a key part of the museum’s outreach project The People’s Story, which explores the relationship between the city’s diverse communities, the museum and its collections.
Appointed in February, the choir has performed at a number of late-night events at the museum. Led by Alice Marra (the daughter of singer-songwriter Michael Marra), the all-female choir has a rehearsal space provided by the McManus where its members meet on a weekly basis.
Loadsaweeminsingin has a large archive of historical songs about mill workers, which complement the McManus’s social history gallery by telling stories related to industrialisation, the growth of Dundee and ordinary people’s lives.
“It is about looking at what the purpose of the museum is,” says Christine Millar, the section leader, learning and engagement, at the McManus. “Is it for people to just come along and look at our collections, or is the museum a place to be creative and share and collaborate with other people?
“The communities we work with have had families that work in the mills and are associated with industry in Dundee. They have seen the hard times and good times.”
The McManus, which has taken on two other choirs, is looking at ways to keep Loadsaweeminsingin on board beyond 2017.
The Foundling Museum in London appointed a composer-in-residence for the first time in February 2015. Luke Styles, who was in residence for 12 months, led composition and music-making workshops with schoolchildren.
He then used the music composed and performed in these workshops to create a modern-day response to George Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem, which was composed in 1749. Handel was a long-term supporter of the Georgian charity, and the Foundling Museum has a gallery dedicated to the composer.
The residency was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
In September 2015, the museum announced an artist research residency with Sophie Yetton and Gabriel Birch – a collaborative artist duo known as Pavilion. The purpose of the project was for the artists to work with the museum’s collections and curators to develop artistic practice and a new body of work.
During the residency Pavilion developed its project The Archive Series, which “adopts collage and video montage to create re-imagined mythologies for museum collections”.
“The physical framework in which something is seen always draws us towards it,” Yetton says. “One of the really important institutional spaces in the original Foundling Hospital would have been the court room, this extraordinarily ornate room with luscious exotic plasterwork, where the moment of encounter between the mothers, the children, and the hospital governors would have occurred. The difference between that opulence and that poverty is quite an extraordinary one.”
A partnership between the V&A and the Royal Opera House to present Opera: Passion, Power, Politics (until February 2018), an exhibition exploring the history of opera from its origins in late renaissance Italy to the present day, has resulted in the appointment of a small theatre company-in-residence. The residency started in autumn 2017.
During the residency, Metta Theatre (comprising a librettist and a composer/singer) is exploring the lesser-known female characters that have featured in operas. It is working with costume and set designers to put on pop- up performances in the V&A’s gallery spaces.
“Metta Theatre is going to compose and stage some [pieces] that are inspired by female opera characters who don’t have a very prominent role,” says Laura Cardera, who heads up the V&A’s residency programme. “They want to bring those characters to the forefront.”
Metta Theatre will also be running family workshops and open studios, which will offer audiences a glimpse of the range of artists that work together to put on an opera production. The theatre company was selected following a nomination process rather than an open call for applications.
“We asked different experts [in opera] to nominate people and we invited that pool of people to submit a proposal, and then we shortlisted and interviewed,” Cardera says.
A museum could work with chefs, comedians, actors or games designers, depending on what its objectives are. It is even possible for cultural institutions to take on entire groups or organisations.
Beamish, County Durham
Writer-in-residence
Writer-in-residence
In 2016, Beamish living history museum in County Durham appointed a writer-in-residence for the first time. Becci Sharrock took part in a number of activities, including one project that saw her live on 1950s rations for a week.
Sharrock was allocated rationed quantities of meats, dairy products, sweets and chocolate. She used the, ingredients to recreate 1950s recipes. Her experiences were documented in a blog, which also contains a number of diary notes and short stories inspired by her time at the museum.
Sharrock ran a series of creative writing workshops linked to a fish and chip shop in Middleton St George. These will be replicated in the 1950s town currently being built at the museum as part of the Remaking Beamish project, which will be completed in 2021.
Sharrock’s writing project involved children interviewing adults who remembered the original fish and chip shop when it was open in the 1950s. These memories were then used to create stories, which were printed in the style of a newspaper, which would have once been used to wrap fish and chips.
“If felt the right time to be working in new ways,” says Sally Dixon, the assistant director of partnerships and communications at Beamish.
“Our community participation team has been working with communities right across north east England and a community project is linked to each building in the scheme. The up-scaling of this work gave Sharrock a context in which to embed herself.”
“It has also given the community participation team a greater range of tools to explore all the histories and memories of the people they are talking to from a creative writing perspective that they perhaps wouldn’t have had the confidence to use before.”
The residency, which was instigated by Sharrock, was funded through the Leverhulme Trust’s artist-in-residence programme.
The McManus, Dundee
Choir-in-residence
Choir-in-residence
The McManus in Dundee has appointed a choir-in-residence as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations. The choir, Loadsaweeminsingin, is a key part of the museum’s outreach project The People’s Story, which explores the relationship between the city’s diverse communities, the museum and its collections.
Appointed in February, the choir has performed at a number of late-night events at the museum. Led by Alice Marra (the daughter of singer-songwriter Michael Marra), the all-female choir has a rehearsal space provided by the McManus where its members meet on a weekly basis.
Loadsaweeminsingin has a large archive of historical songs about mill workers, which complement the McManus’s social history gallery by telling stories related to industrialisation, the growth of Dundee and ordinary people’s lives.
“It is about looking at what the purpose of the museum is,” says Christine Millar, the section leader, learning and engagement, at the McManus. “Is it for people to just come along and look at our collections, or is the museum a place to be creative and share and collaborate with other people?
“The communities we work with have had families that work in the mills and are associated with industry in Dundee. They have seen the hard times and good times.”
The McManus, which has taken on two other choirs, is looking at ways to keep Loadsaweeminsingin on board beyond 2017.
Foundling Museum, London
Composer-in-residence and visual artists–in-residence
Composer-in-residence and visual artists–in-residence
The Foundling Museum in London appointed a composer-in-residence for the first time in February 2015. Luke Styles, who was in residence for 12 months, led composition and music-making workshops with schoolchildren.
He then used the music composed and performed in these workshops to create a modern-day response to George Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem, which was composed in 1749. Handel was a long-term supporter of the Georgian charity, and the Foundling Museum has a gallery dedicated to the composer.
The residency was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
In September 2015, the museum announced an artist research residency with Sophie Yetton and Gabriel Birch – a collaborative artist duo known as Pavilion. The purpose of the project was for the artists to work with the museum’s collections and curators to develop artistic practice and a new body of work.
During the residency Pavilion developed its project The Archive Series, which “adopts collage and video montage to create re-imagined mythologies for museum collections”.
“The physical framework in which something is seen always draws us towards it,” Yetton says. “One of the really important institutional spaces in the original Foundling Hospital would have been the court room, this extraordinarily ornate room with luscious exotic plasterwork, where the moment of encounter between the mothers, the children, and the hospital governors would have occurred. The difference between that opulence and that poverty is quite an extraordinary one.”
Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London
Theatre company-in-residence
Theatre company-in-residence
A partnership between the V&A and the Royal Opera House to present Opera: Passion, Power, Politics (until February 2018), an exhibition exploring the history of opera from its origins in late renaissance Italy to the present day, has resulted in the appointment of a small theatre company-in-residence. The residency started in autumn 2017.
During the residency, Metta Theatre (comprising a librettist and a composer/singer) is exploring the lesser-known female characters that have featured in operas. It is working with costume and set designers to put on pop- up performances in the V&A’s gallery spaces.
“Metta Theatre is going to compose and stage some [pieces] that are inspired by female opera characters who don’t have a very prominent role,” says Laura Cardera, who heads up the V&A’s residency programme. “They want to bring those characters to the forefront.”
Metta Theatre will also be running family workshops and open studios, which will offer audiences a glimpse of the range of artists that work together to put on an opera production. The theatre company was selected following a nomination process rather than an open call for applications.
“We asked different experts [in opera] to nominate people and we invited that pool of people to submit a proposal, and then we shortlisted and interviewed,” Cardera says.
