J.R.R. Tolkien in Staffordshire – Touring Exhibition
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PPRG Marketing Excellence Conference 2018 Bronze Award Winner Staffordshire Library and Arts Service
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J.R.R. Tolkien in Staffordshire – Touring Exhibition
- 1. J.R.R. Tolkien in Staffordshire Touring Exhibition Staffordshire Library and Arts Service and The Haywood Society CILIP PPRG Marketing Excellence Awards
- 2. Background • Discovery of Tolkien in Staffordshire connection • The Staffordshire Tolkien Trail • The Great War Centenary Book Cover The Book of Lost Tales Part 1 © The Tolkien Estate Limited and C R Tolkien (1983) Book Cover The Book of Lost Tales Part 2 © The Tolkien Estate Limited and C R Tolkien (1984) ‘M’ Lines Officers’ Huts - reproduced by permission of The Berkswich History Society
- 3. What were our objectives? • Submit a HLF application to develop a touring exhibition that would visit libraries and museums. • Develop a style palette and publicity plan to engage people of all ages and offer them an understanding and appreciation of the 'Tolkien in Staffordshire' story. The aims of the publicity plan were to: i) Raise awareness of the ‘Tolkien in Staffordshire’ Story and put it on public record to secure a lasting legacy ii) Promote the tour dates and venues and accompanying events and activities - talks, arts/craft workshops, guided walks iii) Share news items relevant to the project iv) Share the project’s outcomes and ongoing feedback Tolkien's Webley Mark VI Revolver © IWM (FIR 11492) Shugborough Hall, Tolkien’s House of a Hundred Chimneys The Sher Brook Valley, Tolkien’s Brook of Glass
- 4. Additional objectives Create and promote a heritage offer in smaller communities Promote the opportunity for people to get 'hands-on' history, participate in art and craft activities, offer a chance to interact with re-enactors, historians and enthusiastic, knowledgeable people To engage with volunteers To engage with traditional library users and attract new visitors to libraries Partners
- 5. How were these objectives met? • Successful £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund application • Tour plan • Volunteer recruitment • Publicity: i. Press Releases ii. Imagery and logos iii. Posters and flyers iv. Exhibition guide v. Social media guidelines
- 6. Design of the exhibition • Palette for exhibition including work with a graphic designer • Colours • Font • Images (Photos and artwork) • Copyright and acknowledgements • Logos of key partners Thiepval, Shattered Trees Sept 1916 © IWM (Q 1431)
- 7. Images of the exhibition
- 8. Images of the exhibition and other related activities
- 9. Social Media #Tolkien in #Staffordshire Staffordshire Libraries Facebook @StaffsLibraries StaffsGreatWar Facebook @StaffsGreatWar @TolkienSociety @StaffordshireCC @EnjoyStaffs @StaffsArts @HLFWestMids @ArchandHeritage
- 12. Impact and Evaluation so far … • Over 200,000 visitors at 16 venues • 13 schools • 12 family art/craft events • 14 talks reaching 320 people • 7 Tolkien Trail walks • 25 volunteers and 679 volunteering hours • Partnership opportunities • Raised profile of ‘Tolkien in Staffordshire’ story • Over 1000 pieces of positive feedback – “I never knew that!” “What a thought-provoking exhibition – informative, touching, and rich with evocative images. I love the sense of passion and craft behind it all! “ John Garth, Tolkien biographer and author of Tolkien and the Great War
- 13. Promotional You Tube video
- 14. Thank You All images, unless otherwise referenced in the presentation produced with permission of Staffordshire Library and Arts Service, Staffordshire Archives and Heritage (Staffordshire County Council) or from the collections of Scott Whitehouse and David Robbie
Notes de l'éditeur
- From left to right – David Robbie (Haywood Society and local historian), Claire Sandys (Exhibition coordinator), Scott Whitehouse (Staffordshire Library and Arts Service)
- In 2009 I discovered a few lines in a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien that mentioned that he was stationed near Penkridge, Staffordshire, during the Great War. As a young Army officer Tolkien was billeted on Cannock Chase in the County where he wrote poetry, including some of the first in his created elvish languages. He returned to convalesce in the Staffordshire village of Great Haywood after contracting Trench Fever during the Battle of the Somme and it was then that he first put into prose some of his mythological stories – The Fall of Gondolin and The Cottage of Lost Play – these stories would appear in the posthumously published ‘Book of Lost Tales’, but were critical in his development of what became Middle-earth and the more familiar stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In 2012 I first met David Robbie, local historian for Great Haywood and member of the Haywood Society – a small group concerned with promoting the heritage of the area. David was also interested in the Tolkien in Staffordshire story and so began a very productive collaboration. Our initial focus was on tracking down the key locations associated with Tolkien and his movements during the war, which are rather complicated and had, quite appropriately, taken on ‘mythical’ status in the County. We collaborated on the Staffordshire Tolkien Trail – a colourful guidebook, detailing the history of Tolkien’s connections with Staffordshire, maps with suggested walking routes to visit these locations and a detailed chronology of Tolkien’s time in the County. As the centenary of the Great War approached and Staffordshire County Council looked to support and coordinate efforts in the County, David and myself began to consider how we might best use this opportunity to raise the profile of this little known aspect of Tolkien’s life and so the idea of a touring exhibition began to take shape.
- We would work in partnership (David representing the Haywood Society and myself the Library Service) to develop a £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application for a touring exhibition that would visit libraries and museums. We would develop a style palette and publicity plan to engage people of all ages and offer them an understanding and appreciation of the 'Tolkien in Staffordshire' story, as part of the County's Great War history, and their communities heritage. The aim of the publicity plan was to: Raise Awareness of the ‘Tolkien in Staffordshire’ Story and put it on public record to secure a lasting legacy Promote the tour dates, venues and accompanying events and activities Share news items relevant to the project Share the project’s outcomes and ongoing feedback
- We also had a set of additional objectives that met Library Service aims to contribute to Great War commemoration plans: To create and promote a heritage offer in smaller communities where there is traditionally less opportunity to access museum quality exhibitions and activities. To promote the opportunity for people to get 'hands-on' history with artefacts, to participate in art and craft activities and to offer a chance to interact with re-enactors, historians and enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff and volunteers. To engage with volunteers and offer them an opportunity to support a heritage project relevant to their own community To use this project as an opportunity to engage with traditional library users, but also to attract new visitors to libraries as part of our service’s contribution to the Staffordshire County Council Great War Centenary plan. To investigate and develop new partnership opportunities.
- Development of Heritage Lottery Fund application David and myself developed the Heritage Lottery Fund application in 2015 . Staffordshire Library and Arts and the Museum of Cannock Chase would act as partners who would offer ‘support in kind’. The bid was successful and funds were made available from December 2015 for a March 2016 launch at The Museum of Cannock Chase. We needed to develop a tour plan It was felt that locations close to the ‘Tolkien in Staffordshire’ story would support the promotion of the tour so these were part of the initial plan that had 9 key locations around Cannock Chase. The tour plan was soon expanded to include 21 venues up until end of 2018. Plan for recruitment of volunteers Press releases, posters and social media were used to recruit volunteers locally to support the project and from amongst existing library and museum volunteers. We also used the University of Leicester’s free advertising facility to engage those with a professional interest. We recruited several Museum subject related students and graduates who have supported the exhibition with installation, curating at larger or unsupervised venues and other aspects of the project. Publicity plan To avoid the confusions of the past, consistency was critical to our publicity plan for the exhibition to ensure that the same message and information about Tolkien in Staffordshire was shared by everyone I supplied each venue and the Staffordshire County Council Communications Team with a package of materials for use in their own local publicity. Generic publicity materials supplied included: Press Releases Imagery and logos Empty belly style posters and flyers Exhibition guide Social media guidelines A YouTube video was also created as part of the promotional programme in Jan 2017 by the Communications Team with David and my input. The video was shared widely online.
- Design of the exhibition contents In planning the palette of the exhibition we worked with a graphic designer who was able to transform the content we created and blend with images and art to create an attractive dark green background colour with white ‘Arial font’ text, which would be used across the banners, promotional materials and posters to offer continuity and a professional appearance. We also used this on the Tolkien Trail booklet. Use of images was critical to our plan for a highly visual exhibition and permissions to use photographs, art work, quotes & book covers were sought. Many images were free to use, or available for a fee, so long as permission was sought and proper referencing guidelines followed to ensure copyright was respected. You can see an example of an IWM image here. HarperCollins Publishers were very helpful and allowed us use of Tolkien book cover images and quotes, again with specific referencing. The Tolkien Estate were also very gracious and allowed use of several key photographs and original sketches, made by Tolkien while in Staffordshire in 1918, that were essential to the exhibition. Again, the exact wording for referencing was agreed upon with their legal team. These were supplied by the Tolkien Estate archivist at The Bodleian Library. Logos and acknowledgements of key partners to be used were agreed and their positioning on all template promotional material and exhibition contents was standardised. A vinyl banner for external use at tour venues was also designed using the same palette to attract visitors to the venues. All major contributors are acknowledged on a panel that accompanies the exhibition.
- Images of the exhibition at a variety of venues showing banners, exterior vinyl sign, library promotion.
- Clockwise from top left – Visiting Tolkien scholars on a tour of Great Haywood as part of a Tolkien Weekend in 2016 Former Staffordshire Poet Laureate Tom Wyre reading Tolkien’s poetry on Cannock Chase Visitors to the Tolkien Exhibition included fans (photo 3) and Gandalf (Photo 4) who had actually travelled from Germany. Children enjoying the exhibition handling items and the art and craft events.
- Facebook and Twitter: I also managed the social media for the project to ensure consistency and briefed local staff/volunteers at other venues with their own accounts. We decided to use the hashtag phrase #Tolkien in #Staffordshire on all social media and link to key accounts that might retweet to followers. To keep the social media fresh opportunities for new photographic images or news stories would be taken to evidence engagement. This often included anecdotal/fun images such as of the Tolkien mannequin being carried into a venue, the exhibition mid-assembly or the arrival of the original Tolkien sketches from the Bodleian Library We also planned to link with The Staffordshire Great War website, managed by our Archives and Heritage Team. The website promoted the exhibition tour, events and additional information and news stories. The site will be archived with the British Library digital archive, thus preserving the contents as part of the legacy of the project.
- The Social media response has been huge and the exhibition has generated some of Staffordshire Libraries top Facebook and Twitter posts. Local interest, history, tourism and Great War themed accounts were key supporters, sharing and retweeting our posts. The Tolkien Society became a notable supporter of the exhibition, often sharing postings with their international audience through their Facebook account. Many other Tolkien enthusiasts and online groups discovered and shared our postings. A search of #Tolkien in #Staffordshire on Twitter gives an example of the extent of engagement Example - Facebook post concerning our exhibition artist, Hannah Reynolds, producing the Tolkien Society 2016 Christmas card reached 3201 people.
- We traced Tolkien’s movements with ‘On this Day’ type social media posts The visit from renowned Tolkien scholar John Garth to Staffordshire, here linking in with the BBC #Loveto Read campaign and our Penkridge Library Reading Hack volunteer Mikey.
- The exhibition launched in March 2016 and up to now has had in excess of 200,000 visitors at 16 venues, including libraries, 2 museums, the village hall in Great Haywood and an Art Gallery. 13 Staffordshire schools have engaged with the project in heritage/arts sessions involving historians/artists/re-enactors 12 art/craft workshops have taken place offering children/families a chance to engage with ‘Tolkien in Staffordshire’ in a creative way David Robbie has delivered a talk at most venues to promote the exhibition, reaching in excess of 320 people. 7 Tolkien Trail walks and a mini bus tour have taken place engaging over 180 people 25 volunteers have been engaged and 679 volunteering hours have been given in support of the project so far. Opportunity to work with Friends of Cannock Chase on a HLF funded project on the Great War linking with New Zealand author, Peter Millett Opportunity to work with Imagineer Productions on an Arts Council funded project called War Bride, linking with the war time experience of Edith Tolkien. We have raised the profile of ‘Tolkien in Staffordshire’ Story by hosting visits from important Tolkien scholars, Professor Nils Ivar Agoy, Magne Bergland from Norway, John Garth, Tolkien’s key biographer of the Great War period and Michael Flowers, researcher into Tolkien’s time in Yorkshire in 1917. David has also spoken at seminars and conferences in UK and Germany demonstrating the interest in this project. Over 1000 forms of positive feedback have been received, many with ‘I never knew that…’ type comments, which was exactly the outcome we were looking for. “What a thought-provoking exhibition – informative, touching, and rich with evocative images. I love the sense of passion and craft behind it all! “ John Garth, Tolkien biographer and author of Tolkien and the Great War I am very impressed with the success of the project and this is clearly in no small part down to the hard work of yourself and the other volunteers on your team. It goes to show that a relatively small grant award can go a long way and reach a large number of people engaging them with heritage. It also came across how much people enjoyed themselves along the way (both project team and exhibition visitors) which is lovely to see. Well done to all involved! – Simon Lewis HLF
- The 2 minute YouTube promotional video – You can find this on the Staffordshire County Council YouTube channel