Blog Post 2: Event Design
Face to Face: A Dialogue on the University of Edinburgh’s Skull Collection was designed to bring awareness to the collection through talks, a tour of the Anatomical Museum, and a creative workshop. The idea for all of this came from our desire to have a dialogue-based event where the audience could interact with the speakers in a way that would spark fruitful discussion.
The event format:
1pm: Talks with Zaki El-Salahi and Marenka Thompson-Odlum and discussion moderated by Gaia Duberti
2pm: Anatomical Museum tours with Malcolm MacCallum and Museum of Me creative workshop
3pm: Talks with Dr. Tobias Holton and Nicole Anderson and discussion moderated by Dr. Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani
4pm: Reception
The Anatomical Museum tours and creative workshop were held at the same time. We split the attendees into two groups. Half started at the Anatomical Museum and the other with the creative workshop, then we switched after 30 minutes. This allowed both groups time to explore the museum as well as get refreshments. It also gave people the ability to stretch their legs and take a break from the talks.
The creative event, called Museum of Me, was designed as a break from the heavy topics we were discussing throughout the day. It also provided guests a chance to think about themselves as a museum exhibit. In contrast to those in the Anatomical Museum who have no names, many with no faces either, this was a way to look at how we would like to be seen after death. We had a variety of creative responses to this question.
Originally we were unsure of the interest, so we settled on making this a half-day event. In the end, we sold out of tickets incredibly quickly. We sold 100 but only half of the ticket holders made the event.
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