Rolvenden Layne Sound Museum
The UK’s first permanent Sound Museum opens – in a phone box in Rolvenden Layne, Kent. Launch date: 19 March 2022
Like many villages, Rolvenden Layne had a phone box that was no longer used. A popular local landmark, it had become neglected and was at risk of becoming an eyesore. But now, with assistance from Ashford Borough Council, Rolvenden Parish Council, Kent County Council and Persimmon Homes, Skep Arts has transformed the phone box into Kent’s smallest museum.
On the back wall, where the phone apparatus used to be, there is a new box that contains an MP3 player. When visitors to the museum crank the handle on the side of the box, they will generate enough power to activate the sound files within. What will they hear?
There will be a series of exhibitions. The first one, ‘I Remember’, presents the voices of the oldest generation of village residents, describing village life in the 1930s and 40s. The incidents they narrate took place only yards from the phone box itself. Recorded by a local historian, they are moving and valuable records of a way of life that could very easily be forgotten.
Future exhibitions will celebrate other local voices, sound artists and poets. The Rolvenden Layne Sound Museum is physically tiny, but there is an almost infinite number of potential exhibits it can present, stored on the MP3 player at its heart. An associated website https://soundmuseum.co.uk/ will act as a permanent archive.
When an exhibition is replaced, the sound files will be made available here. The Sound Museum is a celebration of communication and of the human voice. With the restoration of a much-loved local phone booth, its original function as a place where voices can be heard is celebrated and re-invented.
The Sound Museum is curated by Skep Arts and maintained by Rolvenden Parish Council. Entry to the Sound Museum will be free of charge. You are invited to the launch of the Sound Museum at 11am on 19 March. Please RSVP to meet@theskep.uk We look forward to seeing you in Rolvenden Layne.
