Mystery on the Rails
Mystery on the Rails was a season of cultural programming at the National Railway Museum
featuring an exhibition, events and a learning programme.
Description
I led on the development of this seasonal programme, designed to explore the cultural impact of railways as a setting for a good mystery story. Running throughout the period was a co-curated exhibition called The Missing Passenger made in collaboration with artist Geraldine Pilgrim. Museum visitors were invited to uncover the special place railways have in mystery and detective fiction and discover a wealth of real-life tales of audacious robberies, petty thefts and notorious criminals.
I led a team to create family engagement events that ran alongside the exhibition and to engage families with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects using the museum’s archival material. The activities were focused around detecting and problem solving where families used codes and clues to catch criminals and find out more about the science of detection.
The project budget was £90,000. The programme ran for seven months and had a positive impact on satisfaction scores for families as well as school visits.