The education and community outreach teams at Historic Royal Palaces have a new blog! So from now on please visit http://learningblog.hrp.org.uk/ for news and updates about our services.
Hope to see you there!
I’m delighted to let you know that we have now received all our project work for Take One, and are currently in the process of putting together our exhibition. A total of 11 schools from the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lewisham and Hackney have taken part, with over 550 children visiting the Tower for a bespoke workshop based on the Beauchamp Tower.
The quality of the work that has been produced is brilliant, and one school even created the Beauchamp Tower in their classroom! We are looking forward to exhibiting the work on our website very soon.
Catherine at the Tower
Lecture with Adam Hart-Davis
Date: Wednesday 6 April
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition was an extravaganza of technological talent. Albert was the figurehead and chief promoter of this great spectacle, built a stone’s throw away from Kensington Palace to celebrate the great advances of the British industrial age and the expansion of the empire.
Railway fever had gripped the country, and Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace became a showcase for locomotives and rolling stock. Steam-powered ploughs were on display, along with the electric telegraph, the growing art and science of photography, the world’s first mowing machine, and dozens of other pieces of new-fangled technology from around the world - not to mention George Merryweather’s leech-powered Tempest Prognosticator.
Writer and presenter Adam Hart-Davis will take you on a journey through the inventions and peculiarities of this fascinating spectacle.
This event includes a drinks reception.
For more information and to book, please go to our Adult Learning section of the website.
From Jenny at Kensington
Talk and Workshop
With musicians from the Saltarello Ensemble
Date: Saturday 2 April
Time: 2 - 5pm
Cost: £28 / £25 HRP members
“Handel’s oratorios thrive abundantly — for my part, they give me an idea of heaven, where everybody is to sing whether they have voices or not” Horace Walpole
In this workshop, the members of the Saltarello Ensemble will bring the sounds of George Frideric Handel’s world to life!
Saltarello will lead you on a musical journey, introducing the work of Handel through the context of baroque music through explanation and live performance. Playing a variety of recorders and continuo they will introduce participants to the music of Handel as well as intriguing works by his contemporaries. The workshop will also explore Handel’s role as court musician to George I and George II and will imagine some of the performances that took place in the candlelit rooms of Kensington Palace.
This event includes light refreshments and entry to Kensington Palace.
For more information and to book, please go to our Adult Learning section of the website.
From Jenny at Kensington
This February half-term we ran 9 days of Family Learning activities in the Enchanted Palace at Kensington. Children and adults worked together to make their own cabinets of curiosities, inspired by the strange and wonderful things Kings, Queens, Princesses and Dukes used to collect. We also had giant squid, fantastical jewels, a double-headed monkey and gorgeous gold garments created to go in our large scale cabinet of curiosities.
Many thanks to everyone who took part and to all the volunteers who helped on the day!
From Jenny at Kensington
Exciting things are happening at Kensington!
We’d like a graphic designer, printmaker, illustrator or textile artist to undertake a residency with the Access and Learning team at Kensington this summer.
Kensington Palace is being transformed. Work is underway to create new spaces, places and narrative routes as part of a £12 million renovation project to bring the amazing characters and stories of Kensington to a wider audience. It is the greatest change to come to Kensington in over a century and offers us a fascinating opportunity to explore and learn about the very fabric of Kensington’s history.
During some recent building work we’ve uncovered a fascinating glimpse into the past decoration of the palace through scraops of wallpaper dating back 200 years hidden under panels and plaster. It’s this hidden history that will be the inspiration for the project. We’d like you to take these fragments as a starting point to create new work in dialogue with our palace community and learning audiences.
To find out more about the post and to apply please visit the Kensington Learning news and events section.
From Jenny at Kensington
On Saturday 26th February, 20 children from the Palace Explorers project were invited to tell their stories in Kensington Palace to their friends and families. The children worked hard to become ‘Palace Explorers’, discovering and writing stories about Kensington Palace and its inhabitants.
The book keeper managed to make an appearance, congratulating everyone and handing out certificates.
Further activities included dressing up, storytelling and creating ‘cabinets of curiosities’. What a wonderful way to spend your Saturday!
Thanks to everyone who took part and for some amazing stories!
Ina from Kensington Palace
I’m pleased to announce that HRP Education Service will be taking part in a very forward thinking project called Strengthening our Common Life (SOCL), devised and managed by London-based arts and heritage charity, Cultural Co-operation.
This project provides 12 paid bursaries in one of ten heritage organisations allowing trainees the opportunity to develop a rich variety of skills and experiences that will help them secure a Diploma in Cultural Heritage (QCF Level 3) and pursue a future career in heritage. Placements are 9-18 months long, with each trainee receiving a bursary of £13,500 gross per annum.
The project is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Skills for the Future programme. SOCL aims to increase workforce diversity by offering opportunities to individuals in sections of the population currently under-represented in the heritage sector. 18-25 year olds in Britain’s minority ethnic and faith groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
I’m pleased to tell you that the Tower Education Service will be hosting a placement, but please note that Cultural Co-operation are managing this project, so for information about the project, including an application pack, please head over to Cultural Cooperation’s website where you can find everything you need here.
Alex at the Tower
Hampton Court Palace
Date: Thursday 31 March
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Michael Hirst, writer and executive producer of the compelling TV series The Tudors, gives a talk on the challenges of constructing historical drama and the balance between historical accuracy and dynamic storytelling.
A global smash, The Tudors thrills, shocks and delights viewers in 70 countries, but has also attracted criticism for taking artistic licence. This evening promises an exploration of the issues faced by the dramatist when working with history. How do you bring a national icon to life, and how do you answer detractors’ claims of sexing up and dumbing-down?
The Tudors was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 for best TV drama series. Michael’s other credits include a BAFTA nomination for the screenplay for Elizabeth. He is currently working on series 4 of The Tudors tells the story of King Henry VIII, his wives, his court and his reign. What makes it stand out is that Henry isn’t the bitter, corpulent King we instantly recognise but a young, vigorous - and ruthless - autocrat.
This event includes a drinks reception.
Evening Lecture - Hampton Court Palace
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Staging the Henrician Court is a collaborative research project between Historic Royal Palaces and Oxford Brookes University funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Over the course of 2009-10, this project has seen two court dramas staged in the Great Hall that were performed at the Henrician court: The Play of the Weather (1533) and Magnyfycence (c1515), as well as a site-specific promenade theatre piece entitled A Little Neck.
Professor Thomas Betteridge from the Department of English and Drama at Oxford Brookes has been HRP’s theatrical advisor on these public performances and he shares the unique challenges of staging Henrician drama in its original setting, alongside the experiences of the director of The Play of the Weather, Gregory Thompson, and actor Peter Kenny. This is a rare opportunity to discover the mechanics of entertaining one of England’s most demanding monarchs!
This event includes a drinks reception.