Making History Fun - overview

Making History Fun 2006-2007: text taken from the museum's 2006 "Awards For All" grant application:

Introduction

Making History Fun is a year-long programme of events and activities aimed at making history fun and accessible to all. The events and activities include exhibitions, living history days, a local history Victorian melodrama and an "Audience with Rudyard Kipling".

This project also fulfils part of the Museum's Education Forward Plan of becoming a learning resource for all our users, expanding the education programme and activities with local secondary school Falmer High School who we have formed a partnership with for this academic year. The majority of the activities and events are based on local history in Brighton and Hove and Sussex.

Making History Fun will run from September 2006-August 2007 inline with the academic year. The Awards For All application is for activities between December 2006 and August 2007 excluding the I Matter project which will be funded from another source pending an application. The events in October and November such as The Big Draw project with Falmer High School and "The Joy of Little People" figure exhibition and toy theatre exhibition will be funded by the Museum.

Aims

The main aims of the Making History Fun project are:

• To make history engaging and accessible for all our users from both the local and wider communities.
• To attempt to make people aware of the history and culture that surrounds them.
• To encourage new audiences into the Museum environment.

To use the Museum as a useable space or venue as well as for the collection it houses.

• To engage with the local community.
• To make history fun!
• To provide positive opportunities for the students of our partnership school, Falmer High School.

The majority of the events and activities are linked to local history such as Victorian Week which includes a melodrama based on a local event, and Victorians by the seaside. This week also relates to the history of the building as the Museum is a Victorian building.

Other subjects include audiences with Rudyard Kipling and Mad Jack Fuller, meeting a real life 19th Century Smuggler and an Elizabethan Soldier.

The exhibitions look at Christmas toys and traditions in a Victorian Christmas, Dolls House Furniture and Entertainment. However, all of the events have a balance of information so that being a local resident is not a requirement of enjoying the exhibitions.
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