Heritage Open Days

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Bath Spa and Bath Assembly Rooms team up to take young adults back in time to explore history of gaming

Thursday, 26 October, 2023

Bath Spa University students recently teamed up with the National Trust team at Bath Assembly Rooms to design and deliver an event exploring the history of gaming as part of Heritage Open Days - England’s largest festival of history and culture. 

The project was part of New Wave, a programme focused on working with young adults to develop new, innovative Heritage Open Days events.  

Seeking to push the boundaries of what is expected from traditional heritage events and branch out to new audiences, New Wave creates dynamic, forward-thinking events led by communities of young adults, for young adults.  

A cohort of Bath Spa students from various disciplines signed up to become National Trust volunteers at Bath Assembly Rooms for New Wave. The team had 12 weeks to design, plan and deliver an event with the aim of attracting younger visitors to Bath Assembly Rooms. 

Taking the challenge in their stride, the team developed a unique Heritage Open Day event, bringing a gaming exhibition to life by asking visitors to step back in time and explore the history of gaming from the 18th century to the modern day. 

Surrounded by the historic backdrop of Bath Assembly Rooms, the students delved into an interactive experience, immersing themselves in spaces where, hundreds of years ago, the Georgians themselves played games.  

The exhibition was split into three rooms: the Card Room, Great Octagon and Tea Room. Visitors could learn about gaming through the ages from exhibition boards, researched and designed by the students, and have a go playing a selection of modern and historic games chosen by the students. 

After working closely with the student volunteers, Katie Mehlig, Senior Volunteering and Community Officer at Bath Assembly Rooms said: 

“It was a pleasure to work alongside a group of such engaged, enthusiastic and creative students from Bath Spa University. The students brought a wealth of different perspectives and skills with them to the project and put these to great effect, including through research, design, project management and engaging with visitors. Working in a collaborative and inclusive way was key to the success of this project, where the students led on creating the event and were supported by National Trust and Bath Spa University staff. Therefore, getting the process right for working together was as important as the end product.” 

By taking a small cohort of students through a structured programme, Katie and her Joint Project Coordinator and Bath Spa PhD candidate, Thomas Rolfe, were able to guide the students as they assigned themselves roles and brought their ideas to life.  

Speaking about his experience, Thomas said:  

“This was a fantastic opportunity in collaboration with Bath Assembly Rooms to explore how young people can be at the centre of the development, creation and opening of an exhibition ready for the public. By placing young people at the centre of this process, we were able to make them feel empowered by giving them ownership of Bath Assembly Rooms and to create an exhibition and event for their community. 

“It created a great learning and development experience for both Bath Spa and the Trust in how to facilitate and conduct a community-oriented heritage project, allowing for learning and development in community engagement practice and knowledge exchange between the two organisations. It is hoped by what is learnt through the project, that similar opportunities can take place for future students at the University and for other community groups that live and work in Bath.”

During the event, the team also hosted a games night, with second year BA (Hons) Music student, Eleanor Merryman, entertaining attendees with a saxophone performance. 

The event was a huge success, attracting nearly 400 visitors from Bath and surrounding areas. Reflecting on his experience, Callum Leaver, volunteer and third year BA History student at Bath Spa University said: 

“Everyone's different skill sets all seemed to complement each other. After lots of sessions throughout the summer, this eventually culminated in a very successful event attracting nearly 400 visitors and a lot of them were between ages 18-25, our main target audience. We were really pleased with the outcome.”