Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre

York

The Bar Convent in York is the oldest living convent in England. The Convent is open to the public and as well as an 18th century ‘hidden’ Chapel has a cafe, guest house and museum.

This project saw the complete redesign of the existing museum, allowing the collection to be redisplayed and the stories of the Sisters to be told in a more cohesive way, with the aim of appealing to a new, younger audience of all faiths (and none). The redesign also allowed more of the Grade 1 listed building’s architecture to be revealed through sympathetic exhibition design as well as improving accessibility.

The story of Mary Ward, who founded the order, and the Sisters’ continuing work is a truly remarkable and strong women’s story.

The Convent and its Chapel were hidden for over a century following the Reformation and this inspired the key theme of “hidden and revealed” - the idea of a hidden purpose / story is used to drive the design approach so that visitors have to move through the space and interact with it to reveal the story, including an interactive ‘priest hole’ that was created under the stairs!

I was the 3D designer for the project, working closely with the project’s graphic designer, Kate Pettitt (Bivouac), and the build team at Leach Inspire to develop the overall look of the new exhibition including colours, the use of materials and illustrations. I also designed the object layouts for the new display cases.

This project was led by Leach Inspire. All images © Leach.