HRP Outreach and Community Involvement

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!

On the 8th of February 2011, 16 people became new British citizens in two cermeonies at Kensington Palace (8 per ceremony). The citizens were accompanied by their friends and families, and enjoyed having a life changing moment in a building which has witnessed some of the most significant moments in British history.

In the late Princess Margaret’s Drawing Room, the new citizens were welcomed to the palace by its Director, Nigel Arch, before making their oaths and pledges of loyalty and commitment to Queen and country. The Deputy Lieutenant for Kensington and Chelsea, and the local Mayor, presented the certificates of nationality at the first and second ceremonies respectively.

We were delighted to once again work in partnership with the Kensington and Chelsea Register Office, who have made such ceremonies in the palace possible.

From Sutherland (at the Tower of London today)

Above: Some participants see their finished work for the first time at the celebration tea party in Princess Margaret’s Drawing Room.

During February 2011, 30 older people from community groups near Kensington Palace (Open Age, Westminster and the Abbey Centre, Westminster) took part in an art project inspired by Kensington Palace’s first resident - Queen Mary II.

Mary was famous for her love of blue and white porcelain, and it was this passion that sparked the idea that as people learnt about the Queen and her collecting, they could actually make their own versions of Mary’s famous blue and white china.

The groups went on a tour of Kensington Palace, learnt about the craze for blue and white china which swept Europe in the 17th Century, and heard about the displays of this porcelain which Mary II had at Kensington Palace. The participants then worked with the ceramics artist Kay Aplin to create their own blue and white designs, inspired by traditional flower imagery, stories from the palace and moments from their own lives. Their designs were turned into transfers which they then applied to bone china cups, saucers, plates, tea pots and more - over 120 items in total.

The groups have been inspired by this project - from taking up drawing again to planning outings to other historic properties. Their confidence increased as the project progressed and they saw that they were capable of much more than they thought, and that their work was appreciated by others. They learnt about the history of both the palace, and blue and white china.

Their work will be displayed at Kensington Palace in April, and the tea set will be kept at the palace for use by special guests and community groups. Who knows, perhaps in 100 years another group of people will create a tea set inspired by this one?!

From Sutherland (at the Tower of London today)

Secrets of the Palace Kitchen

New outreach workshop was developed in Kew and is ready to be booked by community groups working with adults or/and parents&children.

Click on the link to find out more

Even the Christmas trees are enchanted at Kensington!

On a snowy day in early December, a group of Year 6 students from Keyworth Primary School visited Kensington Palace with our Community Partner, IntoUniversity, as part of their Design and Technology FOCUS week. 

Working with professional sculptor Veronika Seifert the children created branches for a fantastical tree, responding to a design brief and taking inspiration from the Enchanted Palace.  In particular the children looked to Peter the Wild Boy, the young Princess Victoria’s bedroom (the Room of a Sleeping Princess), and the Room of Dancing Princesses for their ideas.

Kensington Palace’s Learning Space was a hive of creative activity, filled with (fake) fur, feathers and a good helping of festive fun. 

The tree now stands in pride of place in our ticketing room, spreading a little off-kilter Christmas cheer to all of our visitors.  So, a big thank you to the students, their teachers, the staff of IntoUniversity and Veronika for their ideas, energy and enthusiasm!

From Nat (at the snowy Tower today)

Nikki Lindsey, Outreach and Community Involvement Manager - text of speech at the Historic Royal Palaces Community Carol Service, 16 December 2010.

A year in review: I thought I’d start by reflecting on why we’re all here tonight.  What is it that the Outreach & Community Involvement team at Historic Royal Palaces can offer that is unique and special and draws in so many people?

In a landscape of spending reviews, job uncertainty and welfare cut-backs, one of the big challenges that the Outreach & Community Involvement team face is convincing people who are new to us that anything that is royal, historic or a palace is relevant to their 21^st century world.  But actually if you are here you will know: our past forms the roots of our identity, of who we are and how we want to live our lives.  In a climate of challenge to the continuation of social services, it is the most vulnerable people in society who are likely to lose out the most and so arguably our role is now more important than ever.  And we are indeed very fortunate that, against a trend of significant decimation of outreach teams across the sector, Historic Royal Palaces continues to welcome and support the work of the Outreach team and encourage our local communities to become more involved and play a bigger role in the future of the palaces.

So, although we are not social workers, the Outreach & Community Involvement team does work in a social context exploring and sharing stories in inspirational places.  What we do is aimed at improving people’s lives; increasing self-confidence, lifting spirits, encouraging creativity, involving and bringing together people from different generations, cultural backgrounds and perspectives to access and add a layer to our shared heritage.  Sometimes this happens in very small ways, sometimes there is greater involvement and longer-lasting impact.

So, that’s the context against which we set our work.  On the back of your programme you will have noticed a list of events, projects and programmes that the Outreach & Community Involvement team have initiated this year.  It is a very long list and none of this would have happened without the flair, determination and sheer hard work of a large number of people, many of whom are here tonight. 

So, first of all I’d like to say a very public and heartfelt thank you to the Outreach team, each of whom is focused on working with a different audience group.  In case you don’t know all of them, I’d like to ask them to stand up so if there’s anyone you’ve not met before you’ll know who to say hello to after the service.  So, first of all, we have Sutherland Forsyth who works with adults; Sarah Phillips, our youth worker; Natalie Cain who works with Children and Families; Sue Whittaker, our Access Officer; and Jana Haragalova who works both for HRP and Kew Gardens and engages with audiences around Kew.  There is one person who couldn’t be here today and that is Joy Ekpeti, the newest member of the team who joined us at the beginning of July as the Intergenerational Outreach Officer based at Kensington Palace.

So that’s us and then there’s you: our colleagues and partners from a wide range of organisations; our community partners and ambassadors; members of our access panels; the youth panel; group leaders; participants; artists; and volunteers.  So you all have different roles and titles too which I’d like to consolidate into a simple but comprehensive term: Our Friends. 

So, what have we all been doing?  It is impossible to mention everything but for those of you who have been involved with just one activity at one location, here’s a glimpse of some of the things that have been happening across our sites and in our local communities over the last year.

Firstly, the access panels continue to advise best practice and I know that many of you will have been saddened by the recent death of Norman Walton, one of our original Access Panel members.  Our thoughts are particularly with Patricia at this time.    On a happier note, across our sites, these are some of the things that have happened: Citizenship ceremonies at the Tower, Hampton Court, and the Banqueting House with one shortly to be held at Kensington.  We’ve produced a lot of printed and web-based resources: a new citizen’s guide, short booklets on the Banqueting House and the Enchanted Palace and a cross-palace access leaflet.  Our web resources continue to widen access for disabled people with a new guide for the parents and carers of children on the autistic spectrum at Kensington Palace.  I’m also delighted to say that we recently won the Jodi Award for digital access online with the judges saying This project innovates by raising standards of BSL video clip presentations. The acting qualities and period costumes make for a really engaging experience.

At the Tower of London we have been working on a ‘Memories of the Crown Jewels’ project where, so far, we’ve met with around 100 older people in Tower Hamlets for storytelling and reminiscence on a project which will continue into 2011.  We’ve worked hard on increasing the number of local people who visit using the Reduced Price entry scheme through new promotions, research and the production of local and international history booklets given free to visiting Tower Hamlets residents.  And, once again, with a number of partner organisations, we hosted the very successful Archaeology and Discovery weekend, encouraging hundreds of visitors to explore the Tower foreshore.  We’ve run film projects with our community partners and hosted many, many visits engaging with people in a borough traditionally challenged with problems of high unemployment, poor health and poverty. 

At Hampton Court, ceramic reliefs reflecting the symbols of the Palace, were produced with a range of groups all of whom had fun (very important!) However, it seemed a particularly valuable experience for the residents of nursing and care homes, providing physical and mental stimulation to an often forgotten group of people.  We’ll be working with these groups again, and with hospital patients, in a new project linked to an upcoming exhibition on Royal Beds.  Homeless people – another very excluded group with complex needs – were one of the many groups who enjoyed a visit to the Palace giving them an opportunity to integrate with each other and Palace staff in a shared experience that they talked about for a long time afterwards.

The Banqueting House was the inspiration for involvement in West End Live – a major two-day event in Leicester Square which saw 2,500 people visiting our marquee; 500 mini-guides and guidebooks distributed and thousands of jewels and tons of glitter being sprinkled as visitors (mostly adults) made themselves crowns to take away. 

At Kew, the Temple of the Imagination was re-imagined involving over one hundred local people in fourteen workshops with six different artists to create a new soundscape, decorative copper boards, a chandelier and copper flowers.  Also at Kew, the Feast programme involved people with learning disabilities working alongside artists and Kew Gardens staff to grow vegetables and create artwork that culminated in a final celebratory picnic. 

At Kensington Palace, at the beginning of the year an illustration and reminiscence project resulted in a beautiful booklet and an exhibition at a local gallery.  Since then Kensington Palace has become ‘enchanted’ and literally hundreds of local people of all ages have been working like mad to produce, amongst other things, a knitted throne and more recently knitted Christmas tree decorations.  The cabinet of curiosities became an almost entirely community-curated space with journey journals and paper map dresses created by young people filling cupboards and drawers alongside two beautiful textile maps telling the stories of older people’s journeys to London from across the world.  There were two large scale public events: Party at the Enchanted Palace and Music for an Enchanted Palace exploring the stories and musical tastes and dance styles related to the seven princesses whose stories are told in the Enchanted Palace Exhibition.  We worked with Chelsea & Westminster hospital to create an activity booklet for the children wards and very recently with local schoolchildren and their families in Palace Explorers family learning sessions which include textile and print making workshops.  Kensington Palace is being re-presented ready for a re-opening in spring 2012 and we are delighted that so many people have become so engaged with its stories and its possibilities.  I think it is appropriate that the final word on one of our projects should be a community voice, commenting on a series of workshops with young people at a pupil referral unit, Angela the Head of Art at Harpley said:

“It wasn’t just an art project, it was history, citizenship, social problems, isolation, depression, marital problems – the themes it covered were endless – its all about learning about life and all of the intricacies of it. Like all of art when you get immersed, you lose yourself in it but you also find yourself in it.” 

Phew - this all sounds like a lot – but actually it’s only a small portion of the range of projects that we’ve been involved in.  So, apologies if I haven’t mentioned your pet project or the thing that you participated in. Once a year I get an opportunity to stand here and say a really sincere and public thank you to all of you who have been a part of this.  We hope that you will continue to work with us and support us in the year ahead and we look forward to lots more projects – and lots more fun with all of our friends. 

Finally, from all of us in the Outreach & Community Involvement team I’d like to wish you a very happy Christmas and healthy 2011.

From Nikki (at Hampton Court today)

Image: Kew Palace in the snow last year

2010 was another hugely busy year for the Outreach and Community Involvement team. We have been so fortunate to have been able to work with thousands of fantastic people from the local communities around our palaces on a wide range of projects and events.

Thank you to everyone who was involved with us this year - here’s to 2011…!

Below is a list of some of the main things we did at the palaces this year…

Tower of London 

• Crown Jewels reminiscence project
• Citizenship ceremony
• Tower local and international history booklets
• ESOL resources
• £1 entry promotion
• Visits
• Archaeology & Discovery Weekend
• Regalia project
• PRU film project
• Research into reduced price entry

Hampton Court Palace

• Ceramic reliefs project
• Citizenship ceremony
• Connaught Opera
• Visits and talks
• ESOL resources
• State Beds project

Banqueting House

• West End Live event
• ESOL resources
• Banqueting House booklet
• Visits and talks
• Citizenship Ceremony
• Into University Graduation Ceremony

Kensington Palace

• Debutantes illustration and reminiscence project
• Party at the Enchanted Palace event
• Visits
• ESOL resources
• Into University graduations
• Enchanted Palace PRU hoardings
• Prince’s Drawing School
• Enchanted Palace staircase drawings
• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital activity booklet
• Storytelling sessions for children
• Cabinet of curiosities ‘Journey Journals’
• Cabinet of Curiosities fashion project
• Enchanted Palace Knitted throne
• Christmas tree and knitted Christmas tree decorations
• Chelsea & Westminster adolescents project
• Enchanted Palace booklet
• Music for an Enchanted Palace event
• Palace Explorers family learning sessions - textile and print making workshops
• Youth Panel
• Thomas More girls project
• Into University ‘Careers in Heritage’ day

Kew Palace

•  Feast - vegetable growing programme with craft activities
• Temple of the Imagination workshops - copper flowers making, creative writing, sketching, light bulbs decorating
• ESOL visits and resources
• Home at Kew Palace workshop

Across Historic Royal Palaces

• Access leaflet
• BSL films
• ‘New Citizen’s Guide’ distributed
• GEM conference and seminars

From Sutherland (at the Tower of London today)

Last night was our fourth annual Community Carol Service, held in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. It’s a chance for some of the people we’ve worked with over the past year from community groups around our palaces to get together, as well as artists and colleagues who have helped with projects. A lovely mix of people came and sang carols and heard about some of the things that the Outreach and Community Involvement team at Historic Royal Palaces have been up to.

From Sutherland (at the Tower of London today)

Top image: The Queen’s House, Tower of London; Bottom image: The Sunken Garden, Kensington Palace

Well, the snow was falling last week at the palaces, making them look more beautiful than ever! The top image shows the Queen’s House at the Tower of London, one of the oldest wooden Tudor buildings in London and the home of the Resident Governor of the Tower. The bottom image shows the Sunken Garden at Kensington, which in the summer is a riot of colour, but last week was covered with ice and a blanket of snow.

From Sutherland (at the Tower of London today)

This week Historic Royal Palaces won a JODI award for our British Sign Language videos which can be seen on the palace access pages of our website - www.hrp.org.uk

Sue Whittaker - who works on access issues for the Outreach and Community Involvement team - worked with John Wilson (a member of our Access Panels) to produce some fun videos which break with the normal style of such videos, by having John provide lots of information about the palaces in BSL whilst dressed in historic style costumes and with appropriate palace backgrounds.

The videos will hopefully be both useful and entertaining for BSL users! 

Well done to John and Sue!  

From Sutherland (at the Tower of London today)