A brand new ‘pop-up’ museum is coming to Mansfield’s Four Seasons this month, as the shopping centre continues to mark its 40th anniversary year by celebrating the history and heritage of its life in the town.

“We really enjoyed our 40th birthday party earlier this year, and one of the highlights for us was our ‘memory wall’ where we invited people to share their recollections and reminiscences of the centre and the town,” said Rebekah O’Neill, Centre Manager at Four Seasons.

“We had an amazing response and it proved one of the most popular attractions with our visitors, so we thought it would be great to put even more of them on display.”

Now, the centre has teamed up with Mansfield Museum to create a special temporary museum, which as well as featuring these Mansfield memories will also be exhibiting archive photographs, and where visitors will be encouraged to share more of their own experiences. The museum will be open daily from Tuesday 19 July to Sunday 31 July, and admission will be free.

“There will also be a large, 8 metres long chalkboard in the museum, where we will be asking people to write down their favourite thing to do in Mansfield, their own fondest memory and what makes them and their town special,” said Rebekah. “We want the museum to be very interactive, and we’re hoping that the people of Mansfield will join in and help make this a special experience.”

Rebekah said she and the Four Seasons team would all be sharing their own memories, after discovering that eight colleagues had worked at the Mansfield centre for a combined period of more than a century.

“I knew I was in my 11th year at the centre and as we started talking within the team it became clear that there were a number of us who had all been here for more than a decade each,” she said.
The colleagues have all worked at the centre for between 10 and 22 years, adding up to a combined 110 years of service.

“I actually worked here as a teenager before going off to start my career, so I have a few memories I’ll be sharing,” said Rebekah. “With so much experience between us, we’re ideally placed to add our voices to the memory boards in the new museum.”

Charlotte Morgan, of Mansfield Museum, said the pop-up would also include an interactive art feature, ‘Measuring Mansfield’.

“This is inspired by a temporary exhibition at the Tate St Ives, and aims to create an artistic snapshot of the town,” said Charlotte.

“We will be measuring any willing visitor who comes to the pop-up, marking their height on a chalk board and asking them to write their name and date of visit next to the line. As the number of visitors increases, so too do the numbers and colours of marks on the board, forming a fantastic piece of ‘growing art’.”

The museum will also be a safe and enjoyable space where kids can have fun, enjoy colouring-in and building magnetic toy structures, as well as making their own marks on the chalkboards.

“More than 24 million customers have visited Four Seasons since it first opened its doors in 1976, and thousands of local people have worked at the centre over the last four decades,” said Rebekah.

“We’re sure there are an awful lot of stories still to share, and the pop-up museum is the perfect place to highlight the amazing changes we’ve seen in the centre and the town over the years.”

The pop-up Mansfield Museum at Four Seasons will be open every day from Tuesday 19 July to Sunday 31 July, from 9am to 5:30pm Monday to Saturday and from 10:30am to 4:30pm on Sunday. Admission is Free.

Pictured are Rebekah O’Neill, centre manager – 11 years; Craig Greenhill, security manager – 10 years; David Green, security supervisor – 13 years; Joanna Selby, customer service team member – 10 years; Matthew Rumsby, cleaning manager – 10 years; Dianne Williams, housekeeper – 22 years; Joan Beastall, housekeeper – 17 years; and Barbara Durose, housekeeper – 17 years.