Impact case study database

Murjas’s multi-media and digital approaches to under-utilised, intangible collections of cultural heritage and personal archives have allowed local museums and archives to rethink how they present these collections to their audiences and the emotional responses that can be elicited from such collections. Her work, recognised by national institutions including TNA and RLUK as an example of best practice, has enabled a step-change in curating practices.

A. Influencing practice within the creative professions

Clamorous Objects has provided the opportunity for collaboration across the arts and heritage sectors and between creative practitioners. Murjas, a theatre practitioner, has presented her work to librarians, archivists and curators and influenced their practice. For example, WCMA was presented at two events during the 2018 Being Human Festival and at a joint keynote lecture with Kate Arnold-Forster, Director of the MERL, at the Universeum Conference in Glasgow (2018). In 2020 Murjas was invited to speak about WCMA at an OKRE event which brought together archivists, curators and members of the entertainment industries (E1).

The cross-sector, collaborative approach developed through Clamorous Objects has enabled the participating archives and museums to work for the first time with creative practitioners. ATW and POWG have also facilitated interpreters, creative practitioners and medical professionals to collaborate on devised public performances. This has further informed their own practice and led to wider reflections on how family histories and personal archives provide powerful narratives to convey messages around migration and identity. One member of POWG commented that: ‘The support given – creative, technical and emotional – through the collaborative nature of the [POWG] collective and its projects has been key in helping me to develop and to produce artworks which link the “micro” of the subject matter to the “macro” of related themes. It has helped me to apply a level of intellectual and academic rigour to the work and has also helped that work develop in ways I had not envisaged […]’ (E2).

The film poem I, Sheep was the first of its kind and engaged with audiences in new ways, receiving coverage in The Countryman magazine (monthly circulation 10,000) and 2,700 views on YouTube. Jack Thacker, the poet who collaborated with Murjas on I, Sheep, commented that: ‘This project turned out to mark a key moment in my development as a creative writer. The launch of I, Sheep has undoubtedly raised my profile and has provided access to audiences I otherwise would not have reached. More importantly, it has reinforced for me the importance of my rural upbringing for my creative practice’ (E3).

1. New ways for audiences to engage with archival and museum collections

Murjas’s research using multi-media approaches to interpreting personal archives has engaged audiences in new ways. The archivist behind WCMA commented that through collaborating with Murjas it ‘became apparent that the information contained in the letters, artefacts and ephemera and the insight they provided into the daily life of these people during difficult times, could be better expressed in the performing and visual arts than it could by simply using the same research materials in textbooks and academic papers […] It added a different dimension to [people’s] understanding of the archive as well. It was not simply countless bundles of abstract and non-attributable letters; each had a story to tell and there was an actual person responsible for each one’ (E4).

Changing how these stories, objects and collections were presented to the public enabled a change in attitudes towards the role of interpreters, as demonstrated by the performances of Between. Audience members commented that after watching the play they had a ‘new way of understanding interpreting’, and that they were able to ‘understand and consider the different situations and viewpoints of patients, interpreters and medical practitioners’. Audience members who were interpreters themselves also commented that the experience had made them feel less alone in a challenging sector (E5). A review of Between by the Institute of Translating and Interpreting stated that there was ‘a clear consensus that this material […] deserved to be shared with a much broader audience’ as ‘audience members witnessing [it] found themselves sharing in the challenges and ethical quandaries of interpreting for people in delicate situations’ (E5).

1. Changing how archives and museums perceive and use their objects:

The impact of Murjas’s work in eliciting emotional responses from audiences using personal archives and overlooked collections has helped several small archives and museums change their approach to the curation and display of these items. Following on from the success of FWWIB, Reading Museum moved the Huntley & Palmers’ artefacts which were used as part of the project out of the museum’s storage facility and into its permanent exhibition space. The project also led to a ‘step-change’ in how the museum puts on exhibitions (E6). Murjas’s research has also influenced the development of policy and best practice guidance for local museums and archives through the MERL’s Museum of the Intangible. This project provides guidance on how to preserve and curate intangible cultural heritage and produced a toolkit which features exhibits or installations produced by creative practitioners in response to the MERL’s collections (including Murjas’s piece I, Sheep). This toolkit is freely available and has received 951 views since its publication in 2019; the average dwell time for this webpage is up 111% on the MERL’s average, demonstrating clear engagement with the toolkit (E7).

The impact of Murjas’s research in the local archive and museum sector has influenced sector leaders, including TNA. As part of ‘Explore Your Archives’ week, TNA focused their Tuesday theme on #EdibleArchives, a concept which came directly out of Murjas’s research project FWWIB. Representatives from TNA and Miranda Gore-Brown (Great British Bake Off finalist – series 1) were invited to see Murjas’s research, the Reading Museum collection and the Huntley & Palmers’ archive at the University of Reading’s Special Collections. As a result of this visit, Gore-Brown wrote an article for the Who Do You Think You Are Magazine, which has a print circulation of 17,500, and FWWIB was used as the headline story by TNA to launch the #ExploreArchives week on BBC Breakfast on 17^th November 2018 (1,400,000 viewers). Murjas’s research and work with TNA was highly valued, particularly for how it engaged new audiences with the archive sector using multi-media and performative methods: ‘It proved a significant talking point. The history of food and material culture was such an engaging topic for the First World War, and the work undertaken at Reading to promote the Huntley & Palmer collections has been interesting and valuable’ (E8).

Murjas’s approach to working with archives and special collections has resulted in her involvement in RLUK’s Special Collections Programme (SCP), which created a free-to-use survey toolkit for assessing the content, condition and significance of special collections which currently have no finding aids to make them discoverable. The toolkit is part of SCP’s consortium-wide initiative to develop an audience-focused strategy for special collections which will increase their use and audience engagement with them. Murjas’s approach and the resulting mixed-media practice-led output WCMA was used as an exemplar of how this could be achieved through transforming special collections from ‘closed spaces to hubs of creativity and innovation’ using mixed media approaches. WCMA’s inclusion in this toolkit shows how Murjas’s work, which is centred on increasing the discoverability of special collections through digital means, is having an impact in the wider archive sector (E9, E10).