Westgate Oxford Pop Up Museum

Abstract

ABSTRACTWestgate Oxford is a commercial redevelopment of a large shopping complex in the center of Oxford, with clients Westgate Oxford Alliance and principal contractor Laing O'Rourke. The excavations, carried out by Oxford Archaeology, between 2014 and 2016, were required as part of UK Planning Guidelines and were the largest ever undertaken in the city and principally focused on a large medieval suburban friary. The project won Best Archaeological Project 2016 at the prestigious national British Archaeological Awards, and the outreach program, which included an evolving pop-up museum, was a significant contributing factor. This essay will demonstrate how to set up a pop-up museum in eight steps. The essay will look at how to work with different partners of a project. It will discuss choosing a story to tell and how to deal with a changing narrative on an archaeological site in “real time.” It will show how the Pop Up museum became the principal location for dissemination for the Westgate Oxford project. The essay will conclude with how to keep the story alive and plans for the future of the Westgate Oxford Pop Up Museum.