iOpener in Reading

Reading Borough Council’s Cultural Partnership awarded iOpener £1,090 to extend our trial trail making idea to everyone visiting Reading town centre. See the special project website iopener.org.uk

iOpener runs events to encourage people to look at their town in a different way by making trails around town.

iOpener at #OpenForArt

iOpener is taking part alongside our sister project, iMuse, in the 4-6 July 2014 OpenForArt pop-up artist exhibition and events.

We’ll be trialling making a trail around 5 iconic Reading landmarks using our mobile phones and tablets like iPads. Meet us in the Oracle, old Crabtree and Evelyn shop, HolyBrook entrance.

iOpener Project starts up

We are starting a new project in January 2014. Here’s the initial project brief.

AACT, through its iMuse programme, has experimented with introducing iPad and smartphone usage in some small museums and has been encouraged by the response from 16-18 year olds when they are involved in creating material themselves (videos, drawings, animations, photos, stories etc).

As a charity whose object is to benefit those with communication disabilities through the use of IT, AACT wants to build on this work outside of a museum context, initially by running a pilot project of six workshops in the centre of Reading [probably Highbridge House, with trips around the surrounding area to take photos/interview etc] during Spring/Summer 2014. These will be primarily for 16-25 year olds with communication and/or learning disabilities plus their carers where needed and with the aid of volunteers. Participants will be encouraged to collect material about the town and aided to put these online so that town trails can be created. There are two main aims for this pilot.

  • To give the young people, their carers and the volunteers a series of interesting experiences which will encourage communication between different groups of people and increase inclusion through furthering their engagement with their town
  • To help AACT find ways of running the workshops (especially technology) that are sustainable beyond the end of the pilot so that they and others may use the same methods again