Amersham Museum opened a new permanent timeline exhibition telling Amersham’s history through a chronological display in 2024. Now bedded in, it has been useful to reflect on our process and experiences, says Director Briony Hudson.
Funding from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust enabled us to create a new temporary exhibition gallery in the room housing our previous timeline exhibition. Although much loved, our inability to change its content and the text- heavy approach meant that for many it wasn’t an accessible introduction to the town’s history. External funding provided much-needed time and capacity for consultation and allowed us to employ external expertise. Our core team of staff and volunteers, and a project manager worked with our Young Curators group of 14–18-year-olds and local early career illustrator Elly Bazigos, to re-think our approach.
The Young Curators worked with the team to critique other timeline exhibitions, write the brief for the designer of our new display, and take part in workshops to select potential objects to exhibit. Our decision to work with an illustrator was based on several factors: we wanted to convey both detail and atmosphere; to create an exhibition that engaged, inspired and intrigued visitors; and we wanted to literally illustrate people and moments in history for which we had no visual evidence. Elly’s meticulous research of historical detail, vibrant style, and focus on the individuality of buildings and people made her a great fit.
Elly reflects: “Working with a client that trusted my work, in terms of visual appeal and historic accuracy, gave me the freedom to use my voice with the illustrations. Insight from the steering group helped me consider diversity and representation. I hoped that every illustration would help the viewer imagine the purpose, ownership and people behind the
objects. Overall, I wanted to provide visuals that would delight and intrigue all age groups and abilities and set the tone for their museum visit.”
Elly’s approach reflected the project’s perspective: “The illustrations provide a strong branding for the museum, as they steer away from the expectation of ‘realistic’ representations of the past, influenced instead by children’s book illustration as opposed to ‘textbook’ representations. I chose to use traditional materials in a contemporary way, to emphasise the museum ethos. As we will never be able to 100% recreate the past, I think it’s best to leave room for the viewer’s imagination to be spurred by more playful illustrations. History is in the stories that feature the objects on display, the illustrations allow audiences to access these stories with ease.”
We have continued to work with Elly to create learning resources, including an interactive activity mat based on the timeline, primarily for use with SEND school visits. She has also worked with us to create a range of retail products based on key illustrations from the exhibition. Our brief for the display included an ability to alter or replace individual dated elements, and we hope to continue to do this in the future.
We’re currently considering commissioning a portrait from Elly to add to the timeline of ‘Ruthe of Meritania [Mauritania]’, a West African woman recorded in the parish registers in 1575, for whom we have no other evidence and certainly not an image.
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