Do you remember your first cinema kiss? Or the first film your child ever saw on the big screen? A new Heritage Lottery funded project will soon be bringing these magical moments to life and everyone in St Albans will have the chance to contribute to this fantastic community project, awarded £32,200.
Recreating our most precious cinematic memories from the Art Deco splendour of St Albans Odeon cinema, Odeon Journey will begin this September by inviting contributions from across the area. The project will celebrate the building’s history by collecting stories from cinema-goers of all ages, culminating in a multimedia exhibition at St Albans Museum and the Odyssey cinema (building works permitting) in 2012.
“Our partners the St Albans Museum and the Odyssey are brilliant venues for Odeon Journey,” said Project Manager Anna Reynolds. “Thanks to them and to our other partners – St Albans Arts Sports and Health, and the two local primary schools, Camp and Mandeville – we know this project will be able to engage with the whole community.”
There has been a cinema on the site since 1908 until the Odeon closed in 1995. After a long campaign by the St Albans Civic Society, the Odeon has been bought and is about to be restored as the Odyssey, by entrepreneur James Hannaway. After renovating the Rex in Berkhamsted, Mr Hannaway can be credited with creating England’s most beautiful cinema to date.
Odeon Journey will begin in September 2011 by inviting people to share their own – and their parents’ and grandparents’ – memories of the cinema. And by visiting St Albans Market on the 10th September, you can make sure your own memories are part of the exhibition. The Odeon Journey stall will be open throughout the day, gathering and sharing recollections.
Up to 60 schoolchildren from local schools will also take part in the project by recreating famous film footage in a performance installation during 2012, bringing this cinematic heritage to life. Among other opportunities created by the project, there will be the chance for up to 15 volunteers to receive oral history training too.
“Cinema gives us some of our most magical experiences”, says Anna Reynolds. “We’re thrilled to get the grant, and the opportunity to celebrate this building’s heritage.” Marion Hammant of St Albans Civic Society adds, “We're delighted. The Civic Society campaigned long and hard to save the Odeon from demolition, and we're glad people's memories of this iconic St Albans building can now have the permanence they deserve.” Roy Swanston, Heritage Lottery Fund East of England Committee member, says, “Most people of my generation will remember going to the cinema every Saturday morning for the Children’s Cinema Club; it was wonderful to watch Roy Rogers and Laurel and Hardy on the big screen and thrill to the adventures in which they were involved. So it is great that the Odeon Journey being created in the old Odeon Cinema at St Albans will begin to usher in a new host of memories of the cinema as it was and lead people to see how cinema has developed over the years since then.”
So come along to the Odeon Journey stall at St Albans Market on September 10th to share your cinema memories, find out more, or even become a project volunteer.
More information about the project is available at www.odeonjourney.org.uk, or contact Anna Reynolds, Project Manager, St Albans Civic Society, on 07789 078348, or info@odeonjourney.org.uk
