Starchaser
Starchaser was a Christian exhibition, which was installed in the Alton Towers Chapel in 2000, to celebrate the Millennium anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.
The interactive audiovisual presentation included a variety of exhibits telling the story of Christianity, as well as the origins of the Christian faith in Staffordshire. The exhibition was a reasonably traditional endeavour that was more aimed at an adult audience wanting to discover more about the history of the faith in the county.
The exhibition also included the history of the chapel itself. At least one exhibit seemed to pay tribute to one of the most significant events to have occurred in the chapel - the funeral of the 16th Earl. A gold canopy at the heart of the chapel seemed to call back to the (much more grand) canopy that sheltered the Earl's coffin as he lay in state in 1852.
The project cost around £100,000 to install and was organised by Saltbox, a local Christian Resource Centre, in conjunction with local congregations and religious charities. The management of the exhibition was left to a number of stewards representing local churches from across Staffordshire.
Over its two-year run, over 150,000 people visited Starchaser, many calling in as they passed through Her Ladyship's Garden on the way out of the recently opened Hex.
After Starchaser was removed at the end of 2001, the chapel returned to its regular state for guests to explore during 2002.
The Crux
Following the success of Starchaser, the local churches in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire wanted to utilise the space for a new exhibition, but this time with more youth appeal, so they approached the religious movement, Youth for Christ to lead the project's development.
And so The Crux was created for the 2003 season, as a joint project between Alton Towers, the local churches and Youth for Christ
The new exhibition used technology to pose challenging questions to guests and encourage young people to think about faith. The entire concept was somewhat inspired by the then relatively new format of Big Brother, where guests were invited to enter a 'diary room' to video their own thoughts on the various questions posed. The videos made were then used as part of the exhibit.
At the time, The Crux's project manager summed the exhibition up as somewhere that people could “spend five minutes or so looking at the computers or watching the videos. They are free to engage with it at whatever level they want to.”
“The computers ask them questions like: ‘What makes you you?’ and ‘What makes you mad?’, and they can go into the Big Brother diary room and make a video from their own point of view, or watch videos that other people have made.”
The Crux had a two-year run at the park before it was removed at the end of 2004. It is reported that The Crux had around 60,000 visitors each year.
