Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
How do you tell the story of the North using 100 objects?
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) is a major museum, art galleries and archives service, managing collections of museums and galleries across Tyneside and Tyne & Wear. They were invited to take part in the Great Exhibition of the North, a summer-long celebration of the North East’s pioneering spirit and the country’s biggest event of 2018. JUMP won a regional tender to work on the project – ‘A History of the North in 100 Objects’ – working with TWAM to develop an engaging, inspiring and immersive website that tells the story and heritage of objects across the North.
Telling stories in imaginative and powerful ways
JUMP wanted to create a truly immersive experience to reflect the richness of the region, offering playful, radical and new approaches to exploring the objects. To do this we held ‘user story’ workshops, considering the ways people view things and presenting options to discover them from timelines to places, themes and sizes in fun and interesting ways. We then considered accessibility from every perspective, giving users text descriptions, locally recorded audio clips, map views and links in order to truly pay homage to storytelling’s many forms. Finally, we enhanced the experience by allowing users to create their own exhibitions, encouraging people to exercise their own innovation, inventiveness and imagination.
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An award winning approach
Our intent was to construct a new method for showcasing contributions to the history of creativity and innovation in the North East. Our solution was to give users the ability to curate their own collections to help create a personal connection between users and the historic objects – breathing life into museum artefacts that many users may not have been able or been motivated to explore in person. This approach was recognised by the Northern Soul awards 2018 in which the website was awarded winner of ‘Exhibition of the year’. We were excited to help the TWAM team secure this award from an organisation which recognises cultural and entrepreneurial excellence in the North of England, demonstrating that the website is telling the region’s stories in an innovative and compelling way that engages its visitors.
Winner of Exhibition of the Year at the Northern Soul Awards 2018
"JUMP’s creative approach has helped us to launch this unique website that has caught the attention of both the general public and industry peers alike."
Sarah Younas, Digital Programmes Officer
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