Local community groups create ‘cabinet of curiosities’ for Kensington

New display at the Enchanted Palace

Press release

December 2010

Local community groups create ‘cabinet of curiosities’ for Kensington Palace exhibition

Local community groups from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have created unique and personal exhibits for a new display as part of Kensington Palaces Enchanted Palace experience. The cabinet is filled with new installations, created by local community groups and schools who have been working with Historic Royal Palaces’ Outreach and Community Involvement team.

The theme for the cabinet is journeys undertaken by women, their mothers and grandmothers, from all over the world to reach London. Historic Royal Palaces and community arts organisation Stitches in Time have been working with a Bengali women's groups across the capital creating two textile ‘maps’ of Kensington, embroidered with stories describing their journeys from South Asia to London. Members of the John Scurr Community Centre and parents from the Portman Children’s Centre and Queens Park Children’s Centre have also helped to create the exhibits. Stitches in Time have also gathered personal items lent by women from London who’ve come from different countries that represent their journeys to be displayed in the cabinet of curiosities.

A 'dress of sorrows’ for Queen Caroline, specially created by textile artist Maria Theresa Fernandez based on her experiences of working with residents of women’s refuges, is also exhibited in the cabinet alongside twelve mini paper dresses crafted by a group of students from

Into-University. A series of ‘Journey Journals’ created by students from a number of schools in North Kensington working with artist Francis Kiernan in collaboration with the Prince's Drawing School, will complete the ‘curiosities’ displayed in the cabinet.

Notes to editors

For more information, factsheets, images or interviews, please contact Cat Steventon in the Historic Royal Palaces press office: +44 (0)20 3166 6302/6166 or email Catherine.steventon@hrp.org.uk

Enchanted Palace is open at Kensington Palace 7 days a week, 10am – 5pm. Please see http://www.hrp.org.uk/ for further information, including admission prices.

Independent charity Historic Royal Palaces is undertaking a £12 million major renovation project at Kensington Palace, to be completed in March 2012, in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. Whilst improvement works are underway, the immersive exhibition Enchanted Palace has cast a spell over Kensington’s magnificent State Apartments, creating a mysterious and atmospheric world for visitors to explore. Contemporary fashion installations inspired by the stories of the seven princesses who once lived at the palace - Mary, Anne, Caroline, Charlotte, Victoria, Margaret and Diana – are enhanced by live performance, storytelling, soundscapes and film projections, to reveal Kensington Palace in a magical new light.

As part of this evolving exhibition, a series of stunning new displays of courtly costume will be unveiled, created by leading British designers Paul Costelloe, Vivienne Westwood, Bruce Oldfield, and Zandra Rhodes. These vivid creations have been imaginatively presented in association with artists from Cornish theatre company WILDWORKS.

Historic Royal Palaces is the independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace. We help everyone explore the story of how monarchs and people have shaped society, in some of the greatest palaces ever built.

We receive no funding from the Government or the Crown, so we depend on the support of our visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors.

These palaces are owned by The Queen on behalf of the nation, and we manage them for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

We believe in four principles. Guardianship: giving these palaces a future as long and valuable as their past. Discovery: encouraging people to make links with their own lives and today’s world. Showmanship: doing everything with panache. Independence: having our own point of view and finding new ways to do our work. Registered charity number 1068852

Local community groups create ‘cabinet of curiosities’ for Kensington

Local community groups create ‘cabinet of curiosities’ for Kensington

New display at the Enchanted Palace

Press release

Notes to editors

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