Telephone Box Micro Museums
Sidmouth's town square is home to two iconic red telephone boxes. Both will be repurposed to add a new cultural dimension to this busy part of town. They will become ying and yang art spaces for 'old' objects of curiosity and 'new' mini contemporary artworks. Artist David Shrigley and local historian Barbara Farquharson will curate the first museum exhibitions.
Each telephone box will be repaired, repainted and fitted out with flexible display mechanisms and lighting to create the Micro Museum of Contemporary Art curated by David Shrigley and the Micro Museum of Antiquities curated by Barbara Farquharson. Working with Sidmouth Toy Museum and Sidmouth Museum and others, curios and artworks will be sourced for installation to establish a rolling programme of themed exhibitions.
David Shrigley
Artist (Founding Trustee)Studied at Glasgow School of Art, best known for his drawings: often witty, funny, sarcastic, in tune observations about life and the universe that help to make us feel better. His sculpture Really Good was installed on Trafalgar Square's Fourth plinth 2016-2018. David received an OBE in 2020.
Barbara Farquharson
CuratorBarbara was a Professor of Anthropology at University College London. Over the last 30 years her work with the Branscombe Project - a community project "Where history meets memory" has included, making recordings, writing books and lately she has created "The Smallest Museum in the Southwest" featuring a dozen boxes telling the story of Branscombe.
Witches Away!
The first Micro Museum of Antiquities will seek to cast a thought provoking spell on us all as it sparks our curiosity about witches. It will lead us to question our thoughts about the stories we know and have yet to discover about people's belief in witches and evil spirits as well as their role to protect and bring good fortune.
The phone box itself will evoke a sense of the past meets the present and how we may reimagine what we once thought about witchcraft. Turning on their head some of the powerful concepts of what and who and why witches may be part of meeting very human needs.