Future Exhibition Makers on the Festival of Britain 1951
Are you aged 13 to 18 and curious about exhibition-making and curating? Join our next cohort of Future Exhibition Makers!
We are looking for 15 London-based participants, from a diverse range of backgrounds and lived experiences, who are passionate about historic objects and images; interested in storytelling and communication; and who want to learn new skills related to archiving, curating and exhibition-making.
Join our Archive and Creative Engagement teams for an intensive project to explore and uncover the stories from the Festival of Britain in 1951.
The seed of the Southbank Centre was planted at the 1951 Festival of Britain, one of the landmark cultural events of the 20th century. One hundred years after the 1851 Great Exhibition, it celebrated arts, science, industry and design. More than eight million people visited the festival site, located on the south bank of the Thames, throughout its five-month run. Thousands of other events were held all over the country under the Festival of Britain banner. Today, the only building that remains from the main festival site is the Royal Festival Hall, our largest auditorium.
As a collective, you will work together – uncovering archive materials and stories – to curate a physical and digital online exhibition. You will also take over Southbank Centre's social media channels to create a buzz around archive objects, past events and public experiences on site. Working with a team of skilled archivists and exhibition-makers who guide you through our Festival of Britain collections, you will interpret these for new audiences from your own perspectives.
This free opportunity, taking place weekly on Saturdays (in person at the Royal Festival Hall) and Tuesdays (online) across February and March 2024, is open to young people aged 13 to 18, regardless of experience or ability. No previous visual arts or history experience is necessary – just a curiosity to explore archive objects and create stories about these that capture the interest and imagination of the general public.
By the end of this course, you will have gained:
- A thorough understanding of the Festival of Britain and its context in the cultural life of post-war Britain
- An understanding of archives and archiving in many forms
- Knowledge and experience of curation and exhibition-making, including an introduction to art handling, conservation, oral history collection, cataloguing, interpretation, storytelling and communication
- Experience of social media posts and content creation
- An insight into the wider cultural sector and associated industries
Come and discover your creative side, make new friends and unlock new skills!
Please contact the Emerging Artists team if you have any questions.