Children's Lives

The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition starting on the 24th March, looking in to the lives of children from the 18th Century to the present day. The exhibition is called 'Children's Lives'.

I came across this event completely by chance when browsing through a Birmingham Hippodrome Programme. It instantly caught my eye as it is a perfect opportunity for me to gather some primary research within the fields of photography, children, exhibitions. All 3 of these topics are major sections in my Masters Degree. Valuable find!

It is part of a local project taking place in Birmingham, drawing together artefacts, oral histories, film, archives etc, relating to the children's lives in the past. The exhibition is only one section of activity taking place.

Upon further reading, I am able to see that the project is funded by the Heritage Lottery fund. Not only do I want to visit this exhibition for the content it is producing, I would like to pick it apart and analyse it as an exhibition on a whole.

I knew from the beginning that the event I hold will have to include more than one focus. A constant stream of activity needs to be occurring. Within this event, from what I can gather at the moment (their website is undergoing maintenance), blogs are frequently being updated on the latest project news and announcements, links to resources are being produced, education projects are being planned, the exhibition will be open, and I presume there will be a lot more to follow once the website is active again.

"The Children's Lives project website is presently UNDER CONSTRUCTION and will go live soon..."

As it is the case with every event, there is a project team, who oversee all the planning and organisation. Even though events are a collective activity, a backbone is needed to keep the structure in place and running smoothly.

http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1734

This find has got me really thinking about what I am planning to do and how I will be successfully achieving my goal. I need to create a selection of activities to take place over the course of my event and not just have one focus. I need to keep my audience engaged and constantly interested in what I am trying to show them.

The exhibition for this 'Children's Lives' project seems to be the central attraction, just as I hope my photographic exhibition to be. A fee is being charged to enter this particular event, which I assume gets put back in to the project to aid the continuation and development. When I contact the project organisers, this is a question I will raise with them. When I charge a small fee to enter my event, all funds raised will go to my chosen charity, Childreach International.

'Children's Lives'

 

24th March - 10th June 2012

Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery,

Chamberlian Square,

Birmingham

B33DH