Back in April the VE team had a staff meeting where we asked for ideas for a small project that we had set aside some budget to develop.
The brief was thus:
• Aimed at the family audience, interesting for parents with a learning aspect for children
• Hands on and interactive
• Not exclusive (i.e. more than one person/family able to take part at a time)
A number of excellent ideas were put forward including Lucy Elliot and Sheila Chamberlain-Hyatt individually suggesting dress up and photography. Visitors often comment that they miss the old Photography Studio that was a franchise, run in the front Parlour of Doo’s and the recent ‘sharing’ visit to Beamish had whetted the appetite to reintroduce this in the future, running it ourselves when funds became available.
However, the equipment to actually take and print photographs for the public was slightly out of reach for this year so we decided to take things forward in a more ‘selfie’ type approach.
Costume was purchased, Dancer’s Men’s Outfitters donated a number of ex-hire suits, a photographers backdrop was sourced and hung and we even received a last minute unexpected donation of an aspidistra!
The new offer invites visitors to sign up to an appointment on a chalk board on the door. When they arrive they are helped to choose their costume by the ‘Studio Assistant’, played by a member of the Activity Demonstrator team, who then takes photographs of them with their own cameras.
It was a real team effort to get everything ready and Sheila was the first ‘Studio Assistant’ greeting visitors last weekend. The new activity proved very popular but she did manage to find a couple of quiet minutes to take some sample photos of a couple of familiar faces. The black and white version shows what you can do very easily with your original photo when you get home.
The studio is open every Sunday until the end of August and will also be open during October half term. We will be recruiting volunteers to try and increase opening during the rest of the year and looking to offer a printed ‘sepia’ photograph offer in 2018.
Tessa Lovell, Head of Visitor Engagement
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