Students support Maker Memories

Our students gained an insight into the history and creativity of our local communities and engaged with people from a range of different backgrounds

In BA (Hons) Media Arts, collaborative working is integral to how our students can choose to work. More and more in today's cultural climate there is a need for creatives to engage with people from a whole range of different backgrounds. The opportunity to work with Maker Memories has given all the students involved an insight into the history and creativity of our local communities and a chance to gain confidence working alongside arts professionals, musicians, curators and community groups.

Ines Rae
Lecturer in BA (Hons) Media Arts

Maker Memories is a community-led project designed to capture the diverse histories and socio-cultural value of Maker Heights, a music venue and campsite in South East Cornwall. The project is led by Maker with Rame CIC, supported by The Box and working in collaboration with BA (Hons) Media Arts and BSc (Hons) Sociology at the University of Plymouth.

In 2017, Maker Memories collaborated with 2nd year BA (Hons) Media Arts students and Fotonow CIC to develop a number of responses to Maker. The students produced a series of short documentaries, films and still photography which were shown on Plymouth's Big Screen on 17 May 2017 during a special event organised and produced by the students – 'A Journey to Rural Nostalgia'.

The work of our students is key to the project, and their work is exhibited on the Maker Memories website and YouTube channel.

Student feedback

Grace Roberts

It was a brilliant project that enabled us to learn about the fantastic community that is Maker. Among other things in the project, I was involved in interviewing people who went to Maker when it was a school activity camp. It was really interesting to hear the history of such a beautiful place that was, and still is, held so dearly in the hearts of many. We met so many people who were, and are currently, involved with Maker and we felt very welcomed.

The actual event was a fun filled day, despite the weather. We had bands and dancing to represent what Maker means to people now and tents with crafts in that replicated some of the activities they would have done there in the past.

Some of us created films to document various aspects of Maker and its history and others archived it in different ways, through still images and booklets.

We thoroughly enjoyed this project, it allowed us to work on skills such as communication and team work whilst simultaneously provided a fun day out in the centre of Plymouth.