Aims of the Arches Project

Over this two year project, ARCHES aims to imaginatively re-purpose an exciting range of materials on ancient Greece and Rome between three educational contexts (FE, HE, and an International Online Resource), three subject areas (Theatre Studies, Classics, VR Modelling) and seven modules. Using a variety of delivery modes in modules over a range of learning levels in FE and HE and beyond, creative use of these resources will transform aspects of traditional pedagogy and introduce innovative teaching practices.

Arising from research projects led by Professor Richard Beacham and Dr Hugh Denard in the School of Theatre Studies, the project will make available for national use a substantial new collection of Virtual Reality objects relating to Greece and Rome prepared by the University of Warwick over the course of five years. These objects will be of immense value to disciplines such as Classics, the Performing Arts, Art History, Architecture, IT Modelling, and others. No other VR objects of such high quality or pedagogical value currently freely exist in the public domain. Moreover, enabled by a number of recent grants from the University of Warwick, project members in Classics and Theatre Studies have created a collection of 1,500 original digital images of Roman artefacts. Through this project, these two collections will become freely available to FE, HE and international educational sectors for the first time.