World Stories: Young Voices – My Experience, Mike

Meet the young people who have been involved in developing the new World Stories: Young Voices Gallery which opens at Brighton Museum and Art gallery on 23 June 2012.

Mike and mask

Q. Who are you and how did you get involved?

A. Hi, my name is Mike and I’m 19. I first got involved with the project way back in the summertime of 2010 when I was asked to take photos of a project that was being run at my local art group in Whitehawk, in collaboration with Brighton Museum. This led to me becoming the official young person photographer for the project and the museum. After this I got invited into and involved with The Museum Collective.

Mike

Q. What have you done?

A. Mainly, I was the official young person photographer for the project, which was good work experience as I was doing a photography course at college! I got to photograph loads of projects and events, I think the first event I photographed for the museum was White Night 2010

I then joined the Museum Collective and got a say in loads of things to do with the museum too, including events and the development of the new gallery (which I’ve heard rumours that it will contain some of the photos I took for the project).

Q. What has been the most important thing you have learned during this project?

A. I think just how to work with other people and communicate on all different levels. I also learnt, hands on, about professional practice when working as a photographer in a work style role.

Photo taken by Mike

Q. What new skills do you feel that you have developed?  

 A. I feel my photographic skills have improved by the help of working with a range of professional photographers, and also my planning and organisations skills.

Working with the museum has also opened up incredible new opportunities for me even now, like taking photos of different things and even more recently to assist with a one week photography project with other young people, which gave me the experience to teach others! I believe that investing in this experience and working on my skills whilst working with the Museum taught me valuable lessons which later aided me into my employment as a youth worker -which is where I’m at today!

Q. What did you enjoy the most?

A. I enjoyed it all but my absolute favourite thing of all time must’ve been going behind the scenes and seeing how the museum ‘works’ if you like!

World Stories: out with the old…

Out with the old…

On 3 January 2012 the World Art gallery in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery closed in preparation for the new World Stories: Young Voices gallery, opening 23 June 2012.

For three months staff have been removing objects from their cases and preparing the objects for storage.

A difficult case for curator Laura, cheering that it is open at last

After opening the cases – and this was sometimes a feat in itself– each object was inspected. As these objects had been in cases for ten years, it was important to check their condition. The object would then be photographed, measured and carefully packaged. We used ready-made boxes and crates and staff devised some ingenious methods for packing the irregular-shaped objects.

Attack by a deadly fish? No – the malangan flying fish is just being dismantled

One of the dismantled fish’s wings

Visitors using the lift next to the closed gallery may well have been puzzled by the sounds coming from behind the hoardings. These mysterious emanations were in fact sticky-tape ripping, bubble-wrap popping, case hammering and low mutterings.

Objects prepared for storage

Objects prepared for storage

I felt sad closing the lids over familiar objects wondering when they will be seen again. But it is also exciting that the new gallery is beginning to take shape and that there will be new objects on display– and some familiar ones will be back too.

The empty gallery

… and in with the new

Lucy Faithful, Assistant Curator of World Art

World Stories: Young Voices – My Experience, Sadie

Meet the young people who have been involved in developing the new World Stories: Young Voices Gallery which opens at Brighton Museum and Art gallery 23 June 2012.

Sadie operates the Boom for an interview at the Amex Stadium.

Q.  Who are you and how did you get involved?

A. My Name is Sadie and I’m 17. I’m currently a student at BHASVIC and I love sport, especially football. I got involved in the project through Hazel, (a youth worker who works with the museum) who came up and spoke to me and a friend about a project she was starting up that would feature in the museum. The project involved football which is a sport I love so I couldn’t wait to get involved.

Q. What was the project about?

A. The Football in Brighton and Bamako project was a comparison between young people in Mali (Africa) and young people in Brighton, and how football has an impact on their lives. It shows the similarity and differences between football in two very different parts of the world.

Q.What did you do?

A. My involvement within the project as well as others was to create a video to show how football affects young people’s lives. We interviewed professional footballers from Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club to see how football affected them as a young person, as well as young people at a community tournament run by Albion in the community to see their opinions on football.

Q. What has been the most important thing you have learned during this project? 

A. The most important thing I have learned in this project is how similar the effects of football are on young people all over the world and how it brings people together to share the same passion and hobby.

Sadie is interviewed by the BBC

Q. What new skills do you feel that you have developed?  

A. For our project we had to make a film so we got to use all the equipment such as the cameras, the boom and cans. Also with our film we interviewed people, so we got to learn how to interview people properly and ask the right type of questions. Also I was lucky enough to be picked to be interviewed by the BBC along with 3 others in our project. As well as interviewing people, I learned how to be interviewed properly too.

Q. What did you enjoy the most?

A. Overall, I really enjoyed the whole project and my involvement with it, and felt it was a really good experience, and a great project to be a part of. I really enjoyed making the film as a whole and seeing it come together at the end was really nice. Also getting to meet new people from different backgrounds and with different opinions about football. One of my biggest highlights though was getting to have my football boots put in the museum because you really feel part of it.