Visually Documenting M Shed's Opening Weekend

Between 16th and 19th June 2011, M Shed, Bristol’s new £27million museum launched having been closed to the public for over eight years. Farrows Creative was brought in to visually document the opening weekend in its entirety. A team of professional photographers, filmmakers and editors were assembled and we documented all the numerous planned events and activities including a procession through Bristol city centre, a dramatic opening ceremony by Cirque Bijou, a performance by 100 schoolchildren, a multi-faith ceremony, an international meet and greet event, a contributor’s breakfast, numerous performances from a huge range of local musicians and performers, live drawings on M Shed’s windows and on the dockside, and countless displays of boats, trains, cranes and hot air balloons. Alongside the documentation of the launch events, Farrows Creative were also asked to take stock images of the museum’s architecture and exhibits and to keep M Shed’s website and blog updated with news and photos during the launch. Farrows Creative provided a huge range of photographs which are now being used throughout the museum, in the publicity material of numerous Bristol arts organisations and across M Shed’s website. We also provided a lot of recorded film of the weekend which was used hours later on BBC and ITV news television and Farrows Creative also produced three short films that documented the opening weekend events for people to watch for years to come.