Case Study
Mr Ordinary’s Prize – Illustrating
Manchester’s Heritage
Summary
We have developed Mr Ordinary’s Prize, a children's picture
book based on one of our interactive storytelling sessions for
under 5s. It tells the story of the symbolism behind the
Manchester Coat of Arms.
Background
The People’s History Museum (PHM) in
Manchester tells the dramatic story of the
British working class’s struggle for
democracy and social justice.
Illustration of the Manchester Coat of
Arms with the characters from Mr
Ordinary’s Prize, by Adam Pryce.
In 2009, the museum commissioned Emily
Capstick (an award-winning script-writer
and published children’s author) to devise a
performance for early years audiences. The
performance uses the symbols in the
Manchester Coat of Arms to create
characters with the qualities that the
symbols represent. In 2012 we received
£14.9k of funding from the Heritage Lottery
Fund (HLF) to transform the story into an
illustrated children's book to be distributed
free to schools and early years centres in
Greater Manchester. Workshops with
children, young people, museum staff and
volunteers were central to the project.
Challenge
 To make our storytelling performance accessible to a wider audience who are
unable to visit the museum
 To make the symbolism of the Manchester Coat of Arms accessible, memorable
and significant to an early years audience
Approach
We recruited a Museum Studies placement student to become part of the creative
team. Key Stage 1 school children helped choose an illustrator to work on the
project. The book itself was developed through meetings with the creative team
(PHM Learning Officer, placement student, author and illustrator) and close
People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER
0161 838 9190 [email protected] www.phm.org.uk/learning
Twitter: @PHMMcr Facebook: PHMMcr
collaboration between the author and
illustrator. The museum acted as
Editor. Workshops with Key Stage 3
school children explored the
relationship between word and image
and informed the creative process. The
book was, and continues to be,
distributed free of charge to schools
and Sure Start centres in Greater
Manchester and has been made
available online to increase
accessibility to the story.
Intended outcomes
 To explore the symbolism of the
Manchester Coat of Arms
 To increase accessibility of the story
to diverse communities in
Manchester
 To actively engage children and
young people in the process of
developing the book by delivering
workshops
 To develop staff and volunteer skills
Key Stage 1 school children helping to choose
an illustrator
Intended outputs
 To produce an illustrated children's
book with accompanying worksheet
Workshop with Key Stage 3 students
to be distributed free of charge to
schools & Sure Start centres in Greater Manchester
 To hold a book launch as part of Manchester Children's Book Festival (MCBF)
 To produce an exhibition of artwork and text from the book
Obstacles and issues
 Our original application to HLF was unsuccessful so we had to re-submit to a very
tight deadline
 We had originally intended to work with one Key Stage 3 and one Key Stage 4
group in the workshops exploring the relationship between word and image.
However, we were unable to work with a Key Stage 4 group due to exam
pressures, so we worked with an extra Key Stage 3 group instead
 We wanted to launch the book as part of MCBF to ‘piggyback’ on their marketing
so we were working to a very tight deadline in producing the book
People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER
0161 838 9190 [email protected] www.phm.org.uk/learning
Twitter: @PHMMcr Facebook: PHMMcr
Actual outcomes
We fulfilled all the intended outcomes and
an additional unforeseen outcome was just
how much the project developed the skills of
the whole creative team. For example the
illustrator developed practical skills for
designing book layouts and the museum
Learning Officer developed her project
management skills.
Actual outputs
Alongside the book, exhibition and book
Character development
launch we produced merchandise to
accompany the book which is for sale in the
museum shop. The costs of this were
covered by the museum and did not come
out of the project budget, but were thought
to be a great ‘extra’ to have for young
people and children to further connect with
the story and share their experiences with
others . The merchandise proved to be an
additional promotion tool for the book, story
and museum.
Lessons learned
 There is demand from illustrators to work
on a project like this, we had over 100 applications!
Secure interest from schools early in the project and
check exam timetables before planning dates of
sessions. It was difficult for secondary schools to come
the museum, even when offering a free session, this
was due to the sessions being close to exam time.
Factor in issues like staff time, holidays, etc when
planning training. We offered free training to our own
staff and volunteers, which didn’t get much take-up due
to these factors.
When working out the project budget allow for a lot more
administrative time than expected, we definitely didn’t
allow enough staff time in the budget!
Get children and young people involved! The children in
our focus group overwhelmingly chose the illustrator we
eventually selected and it was very useful to have their
opinions to feed into the process.
Creating a giant mural at the
Collaborate! The project benefited from a close
book launch
working relationship between the museum, author and
illustrator.
Exhibition
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People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER
0161 838 9190 [email protected] www.phm.org.uk/learning
Twitter: @PHMMcr Facebook: PHMMcr
Next steps
We will continue to promote and distribute the book to schools and early years
centres in Greater Manchester and evaluate the success of the project through
feedback forms sent out with the book. We also hope to reprint the book in the
future and sell it in the museum shop and at local bookshops to continue the legacy
of the project.
Further information
For more information, or to order a copy of the
book, please contact;
Catherine O’Donnell, Learning Officer,
People’s History Museum
[email protected]
0161 838 9190
Emily Capstick, author
[email protected]
www.emilycapstick.co.uk
Adam Pryce, illustrator
[email protected]
http://adampryce.com/
Adam, Catherine & Emily at the book launch
A pdf of the book can be found online:
http://www.phm.org.uk/learning/mr-ordinarys-prize-book/
To find out more about our storytelling sessions see our learning programme:
http://www.phm.org.uk/learning/
www.hlf.org.uk
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Emma O’Rourke, Broadfield Primary School, Early Learning
Childcare, Stretford High School and William Hulme’s Grammar School
This article was originally submitted for the November issue of GEM Case Studies
GEM (Group for Education in Museums) is for everyone concerned with the
importance of learning through museums and galleries, and represents more than
2,000 museum and gallery and other cultural organisational education, learning and
access professionals in the UK and worldwide.
www.gem.org.uk
People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER
0161 838 9190 [email protected] www.phm.org.uk/learning
Twitter: @PHMMcr Facebook: PHMMcr