Common Ground: Playtest

Connecting young people with heritage sites

Coney was invited by Norfolk & Norwich Festival to work with 13-18 year-olds to co-create a series of creative projects inspired by four heritage sites in East Anglia.

Coney was invited by Norfolk & Norwich Festival to create and deliver a series of creative, playful workshops for 13-18 year-olds across heritage sites in East Anglia over summer 2022. Young people learned about game-design, teamwork and interactive design, to dream up new ways for audiences to explore their local heritage sites.

Over August 2022, we landed in four different heritage sites and worked with dozens of teenagers across the region. Over four week-long workshops, we developed interactive experiences that allowed audiences to explore the heritage and natural sites in unique ways, guided by the interests and creativity of the young people involved.

Watch the Playtest film

As part of Playtest, local filmmaker Will Fielding was commissioned to create a short film capturing the fun, excitement and learning achieved during the four weeks of the project.

About the sites

In Peckover House (National Trust), we created an immersive smartphone adventure inviting the audience to the 300th birthday of the house. At Flag Fen Archeology Site, we developed a time-travel immersive experience that transported audiences 3000 years into the past. At Carlton Marshes (Suffolk Wildlife Trust), we developed ‘The Missing Egg’, an exciting mystery adventure exploring Carlton Marshes rich natural heritage for 6–12-year-olds. In Kings Lynn (Norfolk Wildlife Trust), we built an audio tour exploring the hidden natural spots of the town, guided by an old fox seeking green corridors.

Learn more about the sites Hear from a community artist

Image gallery

All photography by Will Fielding.

“Commissioning Coney to design and deliver Playtest as part of Common Ground was one of the best decisions we made in the project. Coney were brilliant collaborators and our partners felt inspired and included in the process – they really understood the brief and the stakeholders involved in this project.”

Georgia Jacob, Project Manager for Common Ground

Partners

Common Ground is a Norfolk & Norwich Festival 250 project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It is an action research project which connects young people in the East of England with their local natural and cultural heritage through the arts.

Common Ground is delivered in partnership with Colchester + Ipswich Museums, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, SHARE Museums East, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, The National Trust and The Prince’s Trust. The three-year funded project began in 2020 and finishes in March 2023.

Credits

Co-directors Toby Peach and Rhianna Ilube
Producers Marie Klimis and Nathan Charles
Programmer Suzannah Hurst
Sound Designer Jen Igiri
Community Artists Lil Woods, Jack Scott, Will Karenga and Maddie Exton
Common Ground Team Georgia Jacob, Leona Wilson, Ellen Harling and Lizzie Figura-Drane