Celebrating the Launch of the Villiers Revealed Virtual Exhibition

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By Daniel H. Mutibwa

A Memorable Evening at Melton Carnegie Museum to Remember

On the afternoon of Friday 16 May 2025, we took up the invitation from Culture Leicestershire and Leicestershire Museum Collections to participate in the launch of the Villiers Revealed Virtual Exhibition (VRVE) at the Carnegie Museum in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. Comprising fourteen placement students, their nineteen invited peers, and a member of staff, our thirty-four member University of Nottingham delegation contributed strongly to creating the real buzz that characterised the launch event and programme activities.

Several weeks earlier in mid-March 2025, placement students had attended a design and ideation workshop led by Judi Alston and Andy Campbell from One-to-One Development Trust — an arts organisation that uses film, games and immersive storytelling for social change. During that workshop, placement students contributed brilliant ideas that informed the planning, design, co-curation and construction of the purpose-built Student Gallery within the VRVE.

At the launch event, Judi Alston and Andy Campbell delivered a brilliant talk on how they had worked with placement students' ideas and creative input to design, build, and curate the Student Gallery. It was amazing to see and hear about the fantastic and methodical work that went on behind the scenes.

Following the talk, placement students beta-tested live the functionality of the Student Gallery and the VRVE and provided some excellent feedback on their experience. During the live beta-testing exercise, placement students' excitement and enthusiasm were not only a joy to behold, but also contagious. It was excellent to see that placement students continued providing feedback even days following the live beta-testing session which is testament to the passion and admirable professionalism they invested in this venture.

Exhibition Launch and Exciting and Fun-filled Activities

The live beta-testing exercise was followed by the formal launch of the VRVE by a local Melton Mowbray dignatory and Franne Wills — Head of Culture Leicestershire.

The rest of the evening unfolded with even more enthusiasm — featuring the following exciting and fun-filled activities:

performance poetry;
a DJ;
refreshments;
exhibition viewing; and
a chance to meet and interact with several artists, other exhibition participants, and Leicestershire County Council staff in attendance.

By the end of the three hours (18:00-21:00), time appeared to have flown by so fast meaning we did have a great and memorable evening together.

We were very grateful to staff at Culture Leicestershire, Leicestershire Museum Collections, and Melton Carnegie Museum for being such extraordinarily fantastic hosts all round.

Special mention goes to Esther Shaw, Alison Clague, Pippa Vidal Davies, Amanda Hanton, Megan Wakefield and Bill Newsinger.

Below are some images from the event which, hopefully, tell the story of our evening in visual format.

Coach used for travel to and from Melton Carnegie Museum Coach used by the University of Nottingham delegation for travel to and from Melton — Courtesy of Culture Leicestershire.