Pitt Youth Action Team organise their first Takeover event!

On Saturday 14 October the Pitt Youth Action Team (Pitt YAT) hosted their first museum Takeover event from 7-9pm. The Pitt YAT is made up of twenty young people aged 14-19. It’s convened by Katherine Rose (Secondary and Young People Education Officer), supported by Andy McLellan (Head of Education), and meets once a month at the Museum on a Saturday morning. The young people come from all over Oxfordshire. Many have joined independently; some joined because a friend was in the group.

We decided through group discussion that the theme of our first Takeover event would be ‘Magical Soirée’, based on objects in the collection that interested members in the group and thinking about what would make an appealing event that we could market. We aimed to sell 150 tickets, and decided to price these at £4 per ticket.

Magical Soirée Takeover event © Pitt Rivers Museum

We planned that the event would involve specially designed light projections, an object trail that morphed into a tour, object handling, hands-on activities such as biscuit decorating and potion making, as well as face-painting. We divided up event planning roles, taking on different areas of responsibility such as production, marketing, collections research and activity planning. The group thought that Live Music was a key part of an appealing event, and one of the group asked the local four-piece band The Land Girls to play.

Live Music © Pitt Rivers Museum

The month before the event was hectic with everyone working hard to get everything ready. It was a big success162 people attended the event, including the Youth Panel from the Natural History Museum and Ashmolean Museum, as well as the National Gallery Young Producers.  The event generated an income of £553 which will be used towards the next Pitt YAT Takeover event.  

Object Handling © Pitt Rivers Museum

One visitor said: 'Thank you for a Marvellously Magical Soiree! There was magic everywhere:from the swirling constellations to the artefacts which seemed to feel the spirit and almost leap out of their glassed cabinets.  Thank you for sharing your energy, enthusiasm and knowledge with us and making the museum we love even more special!'

Attending the Takeover event © Pitt Rivers Museum

The Pitt YAT is supported by a Young Roots grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is run in partnership with OYAPTrust.  If you want to find out more or become involved in Pitt YAT then please contact Kelly Smith, the Secondary and Young People Education Officer (maternity).  Kelly can be contacted on kelly.smith@prm.ox.ac.uk