Maritime Bus – Engaging New Audiences
Click here to take a 'virtual tour' of the inside of the Maritime Bus!
This exciting three year, Heritage Lottery Funded project includes the design and creation of a unique community outreach facility: furnished with interactive displays, information and hands-on activities, the Maritime Bus makes learning about maritime heritage possible for all communities.
Archaeologists from Hampshire and Wight Trust have been working in the Solent region to promote understanding of maritime heritage for the last eighteen years. Education and outreach is central to everything we do at the Trust and we have always worked hard to reach people of all ages and backgrounds, helping them to recognise, understand and appreciate their ‘hidden heritage' that lies beneath the sea and on muddy foreshores.
HWTMA's new Maritime Bus is an inspiring mobile resource facility that enables us to take our activities and information all over Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and beyond, visiting schools and colleges, community centers, events, local shows, open days and public spaces, from parks to libraries and supermarket car parks.
The 'Bus' is a large exhibition-style vehicle that opens up, to create a covered 'stage' area. It's a fully-accessible space in which people can move around and ‘play' with the interactive contents, all with a maritime archaeological theme.
Look out for us while we're out and about around Hampshire and the Isle of Wight or contact us for details of our project.
Want to come out and about in our bus? See here for further information.
During the design and build phase of the bus, HWTMA Education Officer (Caroline Barrie-Smith) and Outreach Officer (Gareth Owen) lost no time in fulfilling the project aims. They have been all around the region and beyond, carrying out classic archaeology outreach activities while piloting new ways of inspiring and engaging.
Central to the project is the recognition that to successfully engage new heritage audiences, we must experiment with new approaches, skills and tools. To this end, Gareth and Caroline have undertaken training in communicating with people with Special Educational Needs and in how to use Makaton sign language.
Recognising that people learn in many different ways and that diverse audiences need a range of stimulus, we've also been experimenting with new multi-sensory equipment such as talking tins, smell boxes, talking photo albums, flip video recorders and 3D imaging.
Among the most popular of our new hands-on activities are those involving facial reconstruction and mini-ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles). The ROV Pilots' Challenge encourages participants to navigate their mini-ROV through a short underwater course or (with thanks to Southampton University's National Oceanography Centre for the loan of their mini-ROV units) steering a mini-ROV to retrieve pennies from the bottom of a tank. Similarly popular is the facial-reconstruction activity. Using fish-tank skulls and play dough, people construct a face, building up muscles, flesh, skin, facial features, hair and sometimes more unusual appendages!
The activities are accompanied by information sheets about the relevance of ROVs and facial reconstruction to archaeology. These two new activities, in particular, have proved extremely popular with families who often choose to work together (both supportively and competitively!). For more FABULOUS FACES, please click here.
During the design phase of the van, we sought ideas and suggestions from the general public. See below for some suggested designs from local Cub Scouts.
