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At £3.1M redevelopment

Southampton’s God’s House Tower’s £3.1 million launch this autumn as a leading South Coast arts and heritage venue includes an extensive programme of interactive learning activities.

Packed with an exciting mix of talks, tours, workshops and performances the inaugural Heritage:Live programme reflects the venue’s first year curatorial theme, ‘GHT: Beside the Sea’.

The theme aims to highlight the building’s historic location on Southampton’s iconic waterfront and the dramatic changes to the city’s coastline that now positions GHT inland.

Renowned historians, archaeologists, artists and tour guides will share their knowledge and expertise through talks, evening Tower tours, stargazing workshops, archaeological explorations and history lectures.

The initiative will also include topical and family activities, linked with seasonal and cultural events in the Southampton calendar.

Heritage:Live has been designed to complement and build on the venue’s opening exhibitions, which feature commissioned works by seven South of England-based artists. Their work will interpret the ‘GHT: Beside the Sea’ theme, and the building’s historically strategic position on Southampton’s iconic, and ever-changing, waterfront.

GHT exhibitions programme manager Tony Spencer said: “We want to share the adventures and stories of this fantastic 700-year-old building with all our visitors by presenting an interactive learning programme which reanimates the space for city residents and those from further afield.”

“Our programme will reveal the stories behind GHT, and provide an opportunity for the public to piece together the narratives this building has witnessed. Our creative community will offer imaginative interactive learning opportunities covering topics related to astronomy, spa town, pilgrims and prisoners, maritime worlds, gunpowder and fireworks, framed within the history of Southampton Old Town.

“It’s a really exciting interactive programme of activities which will bring our heritage to life for everyone”.

Headline events:

• Guided walk by GHT expert Dr Cheryl Butler on ‘Pilgrims, Powder and Prisoners’ – the story of GHT (part of Heritage Open Days)
• GHT director Dan Crow: ‘Transitions’ – a talk on the £3.1million refurbishment project (also part of Heritage Open Days)
• GHT exhibitions programme manager Tony Spencer, a behind-the-scenes talk about ‘GHT: Beside the Sea’ (also part of Heritage Open Days)
• Celestial Special from the Rooftop – stargazing and night-time photography led by experts from Southampton Astronomical Society
• Evening Tower Tours with expert guides – exploring the history of GHT
• Professor Steven Gunn gives a talk on: Life, Death and Water in Tudor England
• Star of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Stand Up for the Classics’ Natalie Haynes will give a talk on her new book, A
• Thousand Ships
• Talk by Tim Craven: The Romantic Thread in British Art

The GHT project has been funded by: The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England, Southampton City Council, The Wolfson Foundation, The Pilgrim Trust, The Garfield-Weston Foundation, Friends of Southampton Museums and Galleries, The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Barker-Mill Foundation.