York Roman Festival 2022
Eboracum Festival 2021; Photo Credit Frank Dwyer.
In June, York Museum Gardens asked us to include family friendly activities during the popular Eboracum Festival in 2022. We took inspiration from the exhibition of their acquisition and exhibition Ryedale Roman Hoard. The contents of the hoard included a mask of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, a plumb bob, a horse and a figure of Marcus on a horse.
We created a carousel of creative free activities for the public to enjoy in the space and to create flow away from the space and connect the event back to the museum exhibit. These were located on the main garden space in front of the museum.
“Playful Anywhere were a delight to work with and brought a new dimension to our annual Roman Festival; with a host of accessible and really engaging activities for children and families to get involved with.
The facilitators were all lovely, super professional, super welcoming to all our visitors and we had great feedback from everyone who joined in. Playful Anywhere will definitely be a regular feature in the festival going forward. ”
Over the two days we delivered artist led activities intertwined with free play elements.
The artist led activities involved storyteller Eden’s fantastic Roman retelling story of digging up the hoard 100 years later, a ‘Clay Feast Frieze’ led by Angie Thompson involved making food for a Roman Feast out of clay, Roman Flag making with Alex O’Donnell, Hobby Horse making in cardboard led by Roberta and Joe, and Winners Victory Laurel Wreaths, faciliated by Marie Millward.
The free play activities involved: A paddock with hay bales, ropes for jumping and racing in, Plumb Bob - sand play, modeled on the artifact in the hoard. Roman Trail around the gardens with clues and print outs. 20 Clues linked directly to the Ryedale Roman Hoard.
We also created a Minecraft Map and Server of the Ryedale Roman Hoard as a pilot with the intention of engaging a different remote audience. This was devised by and constructed by long term collaborator, digital artist Adam Clarke.
Adam is a great believer in shareability and how to offer the opportunity to experience the content to a range of audiences - it is for this reason that he wanted to make the Roman Hoard Minecraft Build available to view on Sketchfab, a 3D web-based view that can be used on all web browsers. The Minecraft Workshop was a great success - all the participants were able to access the server and were very keen to build and create around the themes of the project.
We'd like to thank York Museum Gardens for asking us to be a part of this wonderful festival and for all of their help facilitating our activities! We hope to return in 2023