Museums Sheffield Weston Park Space Age: Launch Day
Contact: Caroline Pantling
caroline.pantling@sheffieldgalleries.org.uk
Name of Event: Space Age: Launch Day
Date(s): 3rd May 2008
Budget: Learning £1600, Marketing £800
Theme: Space Age: Design, Exploration and Popular Culture
Objectives:
Family Learning
· To engage families in creative activities inspired by the objects on display in our Space Age exhibition.
· To particularly encourage fathers and other male carers to participate with the creative activities alongside the children in their group.
· To create excitement about the exhibition and the learning activities that will accompany the run of the exhibition.
· To engage families' imaginations allowing them to be inventive and creative around the theme of Space.
· To inspire families to return to Weston Park in the future.
Marketing:
· To create a daytime launch event which would attract Weston Park Museum family attendees, as opposed to the VIPs and ‘usual suspects’ at art exhibition private views, thereby positioning WPM as family-friendly.
· To create genuine excitement about the exhibition launch by using real life Star Wars re-enactors to interrupt the opening as part of a stunt.
· To create positive word of mouth from the launch event, in order to generate follow up visits from friends and relatives of those present.
· To deliver a ‘ready-made audience’ for the family learning activities attached to the exhibition.
Description:
The day launched with a surprise visit by Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters who opened the exhibition using the Force to the dramatic sound of the Star Wars theme.
Families explored the exhibition with many engaging with the Family Trail and Under 4’s explore box.
Drop in activities of rocket design and alien mask making ran through out the day.
Overall evaluation of event
2182 people attended the Space Age Launch Day.
Learning Team achievements, measured against the objectives:
· 571 people (adults and children) engaged with the creative activities.
· A large proportion of the adults engaging with the creative activities alongside their families were fathers and other adult male carers. Traditionally it is the female adult with the group who engages with the creative activities however the activities available and the subject matter captured the imaginations of the male adults and this lead to a higher level of engagement from this traditionally non participative audience. This high level of participation from the male carers will be further encouraged through a special Father’s Day Rocket Launching event in June – Design with Dad (and Mum too).
· There was a buzz of excitement running throughout the whole day with positive feedback being received by many of the visitors. The bookings for other learning events relating to the exhibition greatly increased after the launch day due to word of mouth and press coverage.
· Imaginations ran wild throughout the launch day with families spending time creating a range of wonderful alien masks. Many of these aliens were named, planets were invented for them and one group created an entire alien family. Rocket making especially engaged the male members of the group with amazing spaceships being created and inspiration being taken from the rocket models on display in the exhibition.
· Families have returned to Weston Park after the launch day to explore the rest of the museum and to engage with further family activities relating to Space Age. The programme of activities continues throughout the summer and bookings for further activities are going well.
Media Coverage:
· Front page coverage on Sheffield Star with full page story and pictures on page 3.
· Subsequent photo story a few days later of Star Wars re-enactors visiting Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
· Front page coverage on Sheffield Gazette.
Other targets met:
· The event successfully positioned the Museum as family-friendly and moved away from the idea of exclusive private views as the most appropriate way to launch new exhibitions.
What made this event/activity special to the participants and for the museum?
The real life Star Wars characters were clearly a major attraction, adding a level of excitement which static exhibitions can struggle to generate, however it was many other elements which all contributed to a great event – music, balloons, lots of happy children, and – of course – a very good exhibition with a strong universal theme.
How will this project inspire you for the future? And, how could it inspire others?
This is the first family launch day of its kind at Museums Sheffield: Weston Park. The excitement that it generated around the exhibition and the number of people that attended on the day has proved to be so successful that we will be using this model in the future to launch other exhibitions including Green Drops and Moonsquirters: The utterly imaginative world of Lauren Child in October.
