Building ‘Digital Courage’ at Greenham Control Tower, Newbury
Greenham Control Tower is a small independent charity, which opened its doors in Summer 2018 as a visitor centre, museum, cafe and community hub with the aim to preserve and share the historical legacy of one of the few remaining airfield buildings. This 1950s control tower had stood unused for almost three decades, located at the heart of Greenham Common, site of the Greenham Women’s Peace Camp in the 1980s as well as many other legendary military manoeuvres.
Capturing Oral Histories and Digital Recording
On 24th July 2019, all volunteers – regardless of skill or interest – were invited to attend a 90-minute Oral History and Digital Recording Workshop at Greenham Control Tower. During the workshop we discussed the purpose and value of oral history; learnt about different interview techniques; considered some good practice models for oral history making used by other heritage organisations and; learnt about the practicalities of oral history gathering - from digital recording to dissemination.
Introduction to Creative Programming and Exhibition Planning
On 14th October 2019, I was invited back to GTC to deliver a workshop with volunteers as well as volunteers from neighbouring West Berks Museum to consider what makes for a successful temporary museum exhibition. We reflected on some best practices of exhibition curation used by other regional museums; covered the basics of exhibition design; talked about the practicalities of exhibition management - from installation to invigilation and; considered how to programme a series of themed events around an exhibition.