The purpleSTARS were invited by the University of Reading to create a Pop Up Museum at the Tate Exchange, London, on Friday 1st March. In a space designed like an airport waiting room, the purpleSTARS group collected stories from people about travel and movement and added them to their Pop Up Museum. Members of the public and school children from Reading could listen to other people’s stories and contribute their own to the museum.

Suitcase with sensory postcards in the airport lounge space

The purpleSTARS are a group of artists and technologists, with and without learning disabilities who are working to make museums more accessible for everyone. A partnership between Rix Inclusive Research, the University of Reading and The Tower Project’s Jobs Enterprise and Training (JET), the purpleSTARS have been working with museums in the UK since their launch in 2018. The Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, runs an ever changing program of collaborative, participatory art works and workshops which are open to anyone. This year, the space is exploring the theme of movement, based on the work of artist Tania Brughera who was recently featured in The Turbine Hall.

Inspired by the movement theme, the Tate Exchange space was set up like an airport lounge complete with a waiting room and, colour coded, floor markings which guide you to the different activities on offer. In the waiting room is where the purpleSTARS hosted their pop up museum with some help from students from the University of Reading. The purpleSTARS had their usual kit of talking postcards and were on hand to help you record your own story, and illustrate it with pictures, textures and smells. The postcard was then added to the suitcase display, ready to share with the next visitor to the pop up museum.
Listen to some of the stories that were collected by the purpleSTARS on SoundCloud below:

The purpleSTARS collect and share stories about movement

purpleSTARS Rufaro, Paul and Santino also delivered a Tate Ten Minute Talk to members of the public in front of Barthélémy Toguo’s “Purification”. In the artwork an array of human figures are intertwined with words from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The purpose of the talk was to share their thoughts about movement and identity, and invite people to visit us at the Tate Exchange. The purpleSTARS did excellently to articulate their message and recruit visitors!

Rufaro, Paul and Santino presenting the Ten Minute Talk. Picture from Tate Exchange Twitter.

The purpleSTARS met students from primary schools in Reading who travelled into London to view the exhibition. The students took part in different workshops around the space about making art with technology. We have made an interactive 360 degree picture which shows all the activities on offer to visitors at the Tate Exchange. Drag the picture to move around, and click on the bubbles to see pictures and videos from the event.

To find out more about the work of the purpleSTARS visit their website: www.purplestars.org.uk

Happy New Year and welcome to the latest edition of the Rix Research & Media newsletter. Our newsletter is designed to keep our friends and colleagues up to date and give new readers a snapshot of our work at the Rix Centre at the University of East London.

Some of the highlights in this edition are our plans for the Rix Wiki and the pursuit of our new EasySurvey tool in partnership with KIM Software. We are very excited and optimistic about what we can achieve through the course of 2019. We hope you will enjoy the inspiring stories captured and share our positivity about the exciting ways in which new digital tools can transform peoples’ lives.