Heritage Futures
Gathering Place 360: Making archaeology accessible through dance and creative technology
Katie Green
Made By Katie Green
- Date
- Time
- -
- Room
- A01
- Format
- Paper
- Chair
- Jennifer Young
Presentation abstract
Abstract
An introduction to the Gathering Place 360 project, piloted from 2024-26 by choreographer Katie Green, with support from Arts Partnership Surrey, Surrey County Archaeological Unit, and Surrey County Council IoT and Emerging Technologies Department.
The main aim for this project is to make local heritage more accessible to more people, where previous experience and consultation with local partners showed that there were persistent challenges in ensuring the heritage of the county’s most significant archaeological sites could be available to everyone.
In 2024, we created 4 VR360 ‘inspiration films’ with filmmaker Matt Walker from Cave & Sky responding to Bronze Age Runnymede, Medieval Ankerwycke, Tudor Woking and Godalming in World War I, supported by archaeologist Hannah Potter.
Since then, we have shared these films on VR headsets with hundreds of children and young people and their teachers in years 4-6 in schools, and participants aged 9+ in libraries and community centres, alongside a programme of creative workshops including dance, writing and working with clay.
This presentation will offer: • Extracts from Gathering Place videos to give a sense of the format for the story-telling and the interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and creative practitioners at the heart of the project.
• An overview of our learning so far, which shows that where people aren’t accessing local sites independently for a wide range of reasons, and schools aren’t taking young people, the Gathering Place 360 approach provides a very good alternative to actually visiting a site that is much more accessible and cost-effective, but still able to replicate some of the key elements of an in-person visit. As well as improving engagement with the specific sites explored on our 360 films, the project also increases people’s awareness of and interest in history more generally, and their appetite to find out more.
Meet the presenter
About the presenter
Katie Green
Katie Green is a choreographer specialising in working with dance, music and story-telling in museums, heritage sites, libraries, galleries and other extraordinary spaces. As well as directing her own company, Made By Katie Green, she manages The Imagination Museum dance/heritage professional network. All of Katie’s projects are developed collaboratively with a broad range of partners - particularly those who may not have worked with dance before. Through these projects she aims to create spaces where everyone feels they belong, providing connection with the environment and the world around us, building confidence and changing mindsets about what dance can do.