This year’s International Museum Day (IMD) seemed like an ideal moment to give you a quick update, and to celebrate The Imagination Museum as a resource bringing together dance and heritage practice to make new and exciting things happen in museums, heritage sites, galleries and archives.
"There are local stories, stories within the museum, stories that people hold within the community that haven't been explored. To have the opportunity to do that through dance is incredibly exciting." (previous museum partner)
The theme for this year’s IMD is sustainability and wellbeing, and our research has shown the ways in which dancing in museums can:
- open up history
- create community
- empower people and build confidence
- tell stories - including those which haven't been told before
- connect with people
Find out more about what dance/heritage can do, by reading the evaluation from a Strategic Touring project we carried out from 2018-2021:
The Imagination Museum: Mayflower 400
Read our Strategic Touring reportor browsing our selection of Case Studies:
The Imagination Museum Case Studies
Visit blogA quick update
We’ve been quiet recently while we beaver away behind the scenes trying to pin down the funding we need to sustain and develop the Imagination Museum network. We’re lucky to be doing this with an Executive Committee of brilliant individuals from across dance and heritage, and partner organisations from across the country.
Once we’ve secured our funding, we plan – amongst other things - to start scheduling Imagination Museum meet-ups again, online and in-person, and will work towards a new strand for our programme - co-commissioning dance artists to work with partner museums and heritage sites.
Until we secure that funding, our socials and mailing list will continue to be quieter than usual. However, as many of you have been doing, please:
- get in touch (katie@madebykatiegreen.co.uk) if you have any questions, opportunities you would like to share, or if you need a bit of help linking with a dance artist, or with a museum, or guidance on potential next steps for your dance/heritage project. We are happy to provide advice where we can.
- take a look at the great range of Case Studies we have available to browse via our current website here and the Resources we’ve started to compile here
- watch videos from a selection of our Case Studies via our YouTube channel
- follow us on social media on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
- and join our mailing list using the form online here
To get you started, here are a few of our most recent Case Studies…
The Get Dancing Project, Blackpool
Showtown in Blackpool, together with community arts organisation, LeftCoast and local dance collective, House of Wingz, brought together communities from all over the world to create a new dance - The Blackpool Way.
And They Have Escaped, NOCTURN
An immersive, interactive dance experience reminding us of the simple pleasures to be found in face-to-face interaction and being physically present in our environment.
Fight Or Flight at Norwich Castle
As part of 'Norwich Castle: Royal Palace Reborn', their major National Lottery Heritage Fund redevelopment project, Norwich Castle are proud to introduce 'Fight or Flight': an ambitious creative dance initiative interpreting the 'fight or flight' response.
Seke Chimutengwende's 'It begins in darkness' is an environment for processing the fear, anger and confusion which arise from the histories of slavery and colonialism that haunt the present.
A creative digital adventure that brings to life the history of Leytonstone High Road, through the eyes of young local residents.
And In The Soil, There Be Mirrors
‘And In The Soil, There Be Mirrors’ is a site-responsive dance film by Hollie Miller and Sam Williams set across a selection of historical locations in the English landscape including Waverley Abbey, Coalhouse Fort, Epping Forest and Asylum Chapel.
We hope to be in touch again soon, best wishes to all!
Banner Image:
The Elsewhen Series by Leah Marojević and Theo Clinkard; photographer Roswitha Chesher
Credits for Case Study Snapshot video:
The Imagination Museum: Mayflower 400, Made By Katie Green; photographer Roswitha Chesher
Beneath the Waves, Chris Pavia; photographer Callum Graham-Robertson
Who is the land; Bethan Peters and Stacie Lee Bennett Worth; photographer Sian Peters
Dancing The Portico; Tony Adigun; Avant Garde Dance
Shifting Beneath; Bethan Peters; photographer Stacie Lee Bennett Worth
High Tide | Low Tide; Bethan Peters and Stacie Lee Bennett Worth; photographer Stacie Lee Bennett Worth
Cotton, About Time Dance Company; photographer Andy Ford
And They Have Escaped; NOCTURN; photographer Savannah Photographic
Longways and Crosswise, About Time Dance Company; image by About Time Dance Company
Glitch/Giselle by Glitch Projects
Leytonstone TrailblazARS, Pell Ensemble; photographer Alice Underwood
The Dancestry Project, Born and Bred Dance Theatre; photographer Olivia Peers
Dancing To Art; Corali Dance Company; image from Corali Dance Company
Museums in Motion (Royston, Stevenage, Watford 2016) ; project and image from BEEE Creative
Clay Walks, Suzie West; image from SpinDrift Dance Collective
The Curious Tea Party at the Horniman Museum; image Trinity Laban
Museums in Motion (Luton 2021); BEEE Creative and makeAMPLIFY; photographer Stewart Baxter
The Great Thames Disaster; Daisy Farris Dance Collective; photography Gigi Giannella Photography
ILA Project; photograph and project by Dancing Strong Movement Lab
Beneath Our Feet; Made By Katie Green; photographer Owen Benson
The Elsewhen Series by Leah Marojević and Theo Clinkard; photographer Hydar Dewachi
Get Dancing Project; project commissioned by Showtown, LeftCoast and produced by House of Wingz, film still from film by Wash Studio
And In The Soil There Be Mirrors; project and photography by Hollie Miller and Sam Williams
Black Victorians; Jeanefer Jean Charles; photographer Ash Mills
SALT by Martin Hylton; photograph Martin Hylton/Arts&Heritage
Performed exhibition at Bristol Museum by Lea Anderson; photograph Dan Martin
Silence Between Waves by Richard Chappell; photograph Jim Wileman
The Wavering Light, Made By Katie Green; photography Josh Thompson
Cinderella: A Museum Adventure by New Adventures; photography Alicia Clarke
Lowestoft Dance Map, Glass House Dance; photographer Charlie Ketchen
Disgo Distaw Owain Glyndwr Silent Disco, images and project by Light Ladd Emberton
(Re)Make by Sara Wookey and Camilla Robinson; photographer Roswitha Chesher
Etudes by Shobana Jeyasingh; image from Shobana Jeyasingh Dance
It begins in darkness, project and image from Seke Chimutengwende
Untitled (The Gallery Project) by Casson and Friends; photographer Alisa Boanta
The Elsewhen Series by Leah Marojević and Theo Clinkard; photographer Roswitha Chesher
