During 2020, five Cornish museums are to benefit from almost £700k of Government funding following a successful bid to the Coastal Communities Fund to use virtual and augmented reality technology to bring Cornish heritage alive.
Behind this massive delivery of the wAVE (AVE = Augmented and Virtual Experiences) project, are three ladies with a passion for Cornwall, heritage and immersive tech.
The project is expected to boost footfall to participating museums by almost 25,000 people per year, create 17 new jobs and generate more than half a million pounds for the economy annually.
wAVE has been developed by Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, Cornwall Museums Partnership, and Falmouth University. It aims to use Cornwall’s distinctive heritage to support digital innovation and economic diversification in five coastal communities by maximising Cornwall’s digital infrastructure, skills, and heritage for the benefit of the local economy.
Emmie Kell
CEO, Cornwall Museums Partnership
Emmie is the CEO of Cornwall Museums Partnership, leading on strategic planning and fundraising. Emmie has over 25 years of experience within the museum sector including working at the V&A, Somerset House, MOSI Manchester, and Thinktank Birmingham. Emmie works part time at Cornwall Museums Partnership and as a consultant, providing strategic advice to museums across the UK. Emmie is a member of the Institute of Fundraising, a qualified coach and was the Arts Council England Museums Clore Fellow in 2014/15. She is also a board member of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.
Amy Shakespeare
wAVE community project manager, Cornwall Museums Partnership
Amy is the Project Manager for the wAVE Immersive Experiences in Museums Project, funded by the Coastal Communities Fund. Working in partnership with Falmouth University and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, the project will create augmented and virtual experiences at five museums in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
During her BA (Hons) History degree at the University of Exeter, Amy worked at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. After graduating, she went on to work for the National Trust in visitor experience at Godolphin, the Tin Coast, and the West Cornwall portfolio. She originally joined the CMP team in 2018 as our Marketing and Impact Officer.
Amy is a trustee for Kids in Museums and was a Clore Emerging Leader sponsored by a Historic England bursary in 2019. She graduated in January 2020 with an MA in Heritage and Interpretation from the University of Leicester, winning the Professor Susan Pearce Prize for her dissertation, ‘What If We Want to Give It Back? The Potential of Democratising the Repatriation Process in Britain’.
Tanya Krzywinska
Professor for digital economy, Falmouth University
Tanya Krzywinska is professor for Digital Economy at Falmouth University. She lectured in film and games at Brunel University, Uxbridge for 25 years before moving to Cornwall to set up the Games Academy and games research at Falmouth University.
Tanya is the author of many books and papers on games and related media, as well as the editor of the academic peer-reviewed journal Games and Culture (Sage). She is also an exhibiting artist, working mainly on the figure in oil. Over the past four years, she has led a team of researchers to provide immersive experiences for museums in the region, using Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality and has recently become a Trustee at Royal Cornwall Museum.
Tomorrow in the final part of this series, we will meet the dynamic females making waves in Falmouth
