Arbeia Roman Fort re-opens for the summer season with the unveiling of a new installation

The South Shields Roman Fort re-opens to the public for the summer season on Monday, 27 March with a new installation by community artist Rachel Eleanor Brook, Re-imagining Regina: Past and Present.

The installation represents the culmination of the community project Move Like A Hadrian, which took place during summer 2022 and explored Arbeia’s multicultural and multinational past through an interactive and engaging tour of the fort site. As well as enjoying food together, participants designed and wrote postcards to the past, asking questions to the people who built, worked, lived and died at Arbeia.

Re-imagining Regina: Past and Present examines community responses to the past and how Regina’s tombstone represents diversity and internationalism through its dual language, European clothing and styles from ancient Palmyra. Overall, the display explores how we respond to ideas of unearthing the past and what it means to us existentially.

The installation includes a display of Roman pottery of the type used in funeral ceremonies and placed in graves, as well as art pieces inspired by the project, some of which can be handled by visitors.

At the heart of the installation are two films. The first, made by Wycombe 89 Media, provides background on what led to the creation of the installation and features the participants from the project Move Like A Hadrian. The second film celebrates the memorial of Regina using experimental filmmaking, movement and a walk to the site where her tombstone was unearthed. It also features music from local musician Madeleine Smyth.

Visitors are invited to reflect on the themes of the installation and write their own postcards to the past. Brook will be leading an air dry clay sculpture activity on 30 April in which participants will have the opportunity to create an object that can be added to the installation.

Brook was commissioned in 2022 by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, in partnership with South Tyneside Council Cultural Development, to respond creatively to Arbeia and its collections.

She said: “It is a very special opportunity to have been able to explore Arbeia with so many interesting people and be inspired by their ideas and creative enquiry in order to be able to make an artwork for exhibition. Moving around Arbeia with a community group made me think about the artefacts and Regina in a very different way.”

Geoff Woodward, Manager of North & South Tyneside Museums for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, added: "This exciting project will explore with the community how those themes, evidenced in the archaeological finds at Arbeia, resonate and connect with modern society. We’re very much looking forward to seeing the resulting artwork on display at the World Heritage Site.”

Councillor Joan Atkinson, Deputy Leader of South Tyneside Council with responsibility for Culture, Leisure and the Visitor Economy, said: “South Tyneside has a rich and fascinating heritage, and this project is a fantastic example of how the local community has come together to work alongside an artist and cultural organisation to explore the everyday in the past, present and future. I’m looking forward to seeing the final work.”

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