Corn Exchange Newbury, South East

Caroline Horton

The Museum of Listening

For this artist-led project, award-winning theatre maker Caroline Horton and filmmaker Rachel Bunce worked with students from Newbury College to present The Museum of Listening (The Work Edition), an exploration of work and careers. It was originally conceived as a live performance combined with film and an installation but, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the project was adapted to be delivered online with a film created to share virtually.

In November 2020 the six students collaborated with Caroline Horton and Rachel Bunce to create a film that explored the theme of work, asking what it means to work and what it might be like to live without it. Through a series of digital workshops that took place, the students developed their interview and technical skills before gathering lived experiences and recording home-filmed testimonials from one another, staff members and their families. The young people involved were studying a wide range of vocational programmes at the college including foundation learning, film studies, art and creative media, and the project formed part of their work experience.

The footage was self-filmed by the students and was edited by Caroline and Rachel to create a final film which was shared in a private online screening on Wednesday 27 January and was available on the Corn Exchange website until the end of February 2021.

‘The participants were amazing, despite all the change going on around them, the huge disruption to their education and the restrictions on their activities. Rachel and I were particularly grateful for the personal and thoughtful accounts people offered and – of course – for the moments of humour. We’re so glad that even in this challenging and uncertain time we were able to collaborate with some inspiring young people on the project. We hope that work – and everything else in their lives – starts to feel less unsettled soon.’

– Caroline Horton

Corn Exchange Newbury

Market Pl, Newbury RG14 5BD

Website
Caroline Horton

Caroline Horton

Caroline spends most of her time creating her own theatre projects as a writer/performer in collaboration with directors, designers and other performers. The work she makes is funny, stupid and profound – often wild – often personal – sometimes political. Caroline was BBC Birmingham’s first Writer in Residence, working across radio and TV dramas produced in the city.