We’re catching up once again with the activities of our Whitehall Youth Panel, who over the last year the group have been planning an exhibition based around the theme of: ’10 objects I can’t live without’. Today’s post comes from Maahi Patil (Yr. 9), who recaps on some of the decisions they have explored in relation to the design of the exhibition. Additional contributions from Kathleen O’Sullivan (Yr. 9) and Arushi Khemani (Yr. 11).
With the Government’s new ‘roadmap out of restrictions’ guidelines now announced, we are now making plans reopening the borough’s heritage house museums (Whitehall and Honeywood in Carshalton). Part of these plans include the aim of launching the 10 Objects… exhibition at Whitehall. Watch this space for further updates!
Whitehall Youth Panel – Exhibition Update #2
We are progressing extremely well with the development of our exhibition for the “10 Objects I Can’t Live Without” project. While persevering through our time in quarantine and gathering virtually, we have moved on from thinking about our objects and the reasons why we chose them to brainstorming elements that will be implemented alongside the exhibition designer – Mr. Philip Simpson.
Something we thought would be effective to produce a stimulating display was to have music playing in the background as visitors come in, which would be selected by people who chose a music-related item as something they cannot live without; this gives it all an individual touch and lets them share songs that they adore with the visitors. My much-loved component so far about this has been getting an opportunity to work with everyone to contemplate the layout and format of the exhibition. This has been a fantastic experience get an insight into curatorial processes and all of the work that goes into getting exhibitions up and running. Overall, it made me comprehend that objects that we cannot live without do not have to be for practical use and that the memories and reminiscences connected to them can mean a great deal too!
Kathleen responds, “I have loved being able to think about what really matters to me and then comparing with others to understand what we all value.”
Arushi says, “My favourite part of the project was collaborating and brainstorming ideas with my peers via modern technology. I especially like how everyone was so incredibly involved in helping develop all ideas so that we could create an integrated exhibition in a safe place. It helped me regard the similarities and differences we share with more thought as I was introduced to new viewpoints towards objects that I hadn’t even considered as important. This helped me gain a greater appreciation of the things around me.”
One of the many ideas we have discussed is the colour scheme and here is a palette which Mr. Philip Simpson selected out from the images that we wanted the exhibition to look like. The reason we liked these colours were due to how vivid and fun they look.
We have been thinking about how we can link the whole exhibition so that it flows well, and we have identified themes that objects could fit as well as similarities between the objects from our group as well as Sutton South Hello. Pointing out distinct themes allows our objects to fall into multiple prevalent sections and it ties the whole display together and permits us to think about objects that are entirely separate to one another, yet they can still be interconnected.
For objects that we were unable to represent physically, we selected items to symbolise them. Recently, we have been photographing self-portraits along with one object of our choice to add to the showcase and practicing taking pictures of our objects that we couldn’t bring in school to be photographed. There were several things we had to take into consideration while undertaking this task such as having a plain, white background, high resolution images, maintaining satisfactory lighting, making sure that there weren’t shadows and more, so it took us a couple of tries in order to acquire decent pictures. Here are some examples of pictures that Mr. Philip Simpson snapped to guide us.
During this, we tried to see how we could arrange the objects in a way that was more visually pleasing, so that they look more 3 dimensional and catch the eye of visitors. It has been an absolute delight to work on this project alongside Mr. Simpson, my peers, Mr. Burton, Siobhan and Jane. All of us cannot wait until the installation and to view our contributions to the museum!
Maahi Patil, Yr 9, Nonsuch High School for Girls
10 Objects I Can’t Live Without was due to open at Whitehall in April, but it is likely to now be some time in May. Follow us @SuttonHeritage on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for further news about the exact opening date, or sign up to the Sutton Cultural Services Newsletter to keep up to date with all activities and events (sign up here).
Whitehall Historic House 