The Imaginarium’s Missing Museum is gone, it’s history, it has passed. But isn’t that what history is about. A scripted record of times gone by. What if we could revisit history and take notes, make observations? Use our hindsight to say ‘that wasn’t right’.
We did.
For me, the missing Museum left an indelible impression. It also left a sprinkle of margin notes in the history books, because, although over, it brought something back from annals of time, and with it gave something to the present, and even the future. It reminded us of what shaped and forged our today. The Missing Museum cryptically gave us what the museum is missing. Detail. Life. Breath.
It wasn’t a museum of dusty objects encased in glass and yellowed with age, it was a living, breathing drop-kick into the past, I saw Isobel Gowdie bow her head as she was sent down for witchcraft, but I also saw for real she was no more a witch than those who gathered to watch her demise. I heard as she was convicted. We didn’t gasp, because we knew the ending, but I felt her pain as she awaited punishment. I wanted to jump up and fling open the doors and watch her run out past the Mercat Cross, but then I remembered we were actually in 2020s, not the 17th century.
The performance also gave us a seismic tour of the ancient Tolbooth. Seismic because it shifted us not only through the building, but through the ages, spiralling up the interior, with stops in the the courtroom, the Mackenzie room, the clocktower, and back down to earth to literally unwind.
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A space for imagining possibilities
Findhorn Bay Arts has reported on the success of The Imaginarium’s Missing Museum at the Forres Tolbooth on Friday 28 and Saturday 28 March.
The project was delivered in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway’s The Stove Network, What We Do Now Network, artist DJ McDowell (founder of The Imaginarium) and in collaboration with local artist and storyteller Margot Henderson. Produced by Findhorn Bay Arts The Imaginarium’s Missing Museum was a space for imagining possibilities and was supported by seven professional artists and five production freelancers and four volunteers supported front-of-house over the two days.
Twenty-nine local people participated by taking part in a programme of creative learning and workshops, which included 11 adults participating as performers/players and 18 young people from the Gaff and Forres Academy making artefacts for the displays.
Over the two days, 78 people attended The Missing Museum Interactive Workshops and Events.
Creative Director of Findhorn Bay Arts Kresanna Aigner said: “Findhorn Bay Arts have the mission of connecting, engaging and celebrating people and places through exceptional and diverse creative opportunities. We want to act as a conduit for dialogue between residents and artists in order to explore how creativity can amplify voices.”
“More than a museum, this project was an invitation to experience history differently, an open call to explore, question, and (re)claim historical narratives that have long been under-represented, misrepresented or erased.”
As part of the initial research and development for The Missing Museum, the artists met with local organisations including FACT, Forres Heritage Trust, and the Friends of the Falconer Museum. Local storykeepers, Ray Mills and Norman Thomson, brought to the project the story of Madeline MacPherson and her salon and the story of the Rev. Keith’s Herbarium celebrating Forres’ natural heritage.
Refreshingly different
Visiting Artist and founder of The Imaginarium DJ McDowell said: “The Missing Museum offered something refreshingly different — a space where people of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences could see themselves reflected in the story of their local heritage. From curious children to long-time residents, it encouraged its community co-curators to question who and what gets remembered. By opening up conversations and inviting participation, it transformed heritage from something static and distant into something living, shared, and deeply personal.”
She added: “Local people welcomed us with open arms and wholeheartedly embraced the experience. People were ready to have these difficult conversations, help us collectively to understand now and learn from their history to help positively impact our shared futures. We’re still blown away by the breadth of community support and the astonishing response we received.Thank you for your support and trust and all you’ve gifted us in return, it was beyond expectations.”
Local storyteller and artist Margot Henderson said: “It was wonderful to see how naturally and enthusiastically the players took on their character roles. From the apple seller on the steps to the apothecaries in the entrance to the ‘Queen of Forres’, their rendering of the stories brought them to life in such vivid and nuanced ways.”
“It was a joy to see the Tolbooth come alive as we were led through the many rooms and ruminations by the ingenious Time Traveller Guides. Perhaps the most touching element for me was sitting in on the ‘parlour’ reflections at the end. It was a real testimony to the power of art and enactment to engage, enchant, illuminate and educate in meaningful ways.”
Retired lawyer, Peter Taylor, who played the judge said: “Having worked with Findhorn Bay Arts on Macbeth, I was asked if I would like to take part. It brought home the things you don’t appreciate if you simply visit a museum and look at the exhibits. It made the backstories more accessible”.
All pics: © Marc Hindley
