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Our City, Our Stories
Our City, Our Stories
Our City, Our Stories
What is Our City, Our Stories?
Our City, Our Stories is a Museum of Liverpool partnership programme. The programme enables local people to present their interpretation of the Museum’s themes and objects through working with the Museum of Liverpool team.
Our vision
The Museum of Liverpool will enable and support local people and groups to create content and displays through co-production. We will provide the resources and guidance to enable communities to respond to museum content and contemporary or topical issues. Local communities will have the opportunity to represent their interests, opinions and stories.
Our aims
Visitors will learn that their opinion, knowledge and stories are of interest to others. Through programming and co-production, local communities will have a strong sense of ownership of the museum. Through developing exhibition content individuals will develop their literacy and communication skills, knowledge of Liverpool’s history and the museum’s collections.
Our method
The Our City, Our Stories strategy puts into place a structure that enables community groups, individuals and visitors to contribute their own stories, messages, memories, objects and creative outputs to Museum of Liverpool. Input will vary from contributing artwork in response to an existing exhibition, to inputting directly into exhibition content, for example donating personal objects and images, selecting objects from NML collections or contributing an artwork or oral history. Throughout the delivery of Our City, Our Stories the Museum of Liverpool retains its role as editor with responsibility for the Museum’s messages.
Our spaces
Our City, Our Stories exhibitions can be housed in flexible exhibition/modular display units which will enable small, short exhibitions and displays to be exhibited on the main galleries adjacent to permanent or long-term exhibitions. In addition, special exhibitions and permanent galleries will all have aspects of co-produced work. The Museum of Liverpool will also host community exhibitions of artwork and photographs, as part of National Museums Liverpool’s wider strategy, in spaces designated to display two-dimensional material. Museum Curators and other museum staff, for example, conservators, designers and members of National Museums Liverpool’s education and communities team will support groups in the development of exhibition content. National Museums Liverpool will facilitate appropriate sessions to develop participant’s skills in generating exhibition content. Displays will be part of the Museum’s programme, giving community groups an opportunity to comment on topical subjects that are important to them and respond to the content of the Museum of Liverpool. Local visitors and harder to reach audiences will be informed and invited to contribute towards the programme through events, marketing and outreach programmes.
Our legacy
As part of Our City, Our Stories, local people have also already contributed content for the Museum’s permanent exhibitions through giving or lending objects, oral history and their time to co-produce interpretation. Content generated as part of the programme will continue to be accessible to the public via the web and the museum’s Mapping Interactive, where all place specific information generated will be accessible even if a display or project may be finished. The Museum of Liverpool is also committed to developing local people’s skills to help them create their own exhibitions, either within a museum or gallery space or in a community setting. The Our City, Our Stories Toolkit will accompany the programme. Consisting of a written resource and training session that can be provided to community groups, education providers and local people, it will give participants the resources and knowledge they need get their own exhibitions off the ground.
The story so far… The following pages give an outline of some of the projects completed during the development phase of the Museum of Liverpool as we look forward to our first public opening in 2011.
The Welsh Nation in Liverpool What Display
Where Faith and Community display space, People’s Republic gallery
Who
The Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society and the Museum of Liverpool
How
The Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society (MWHS) worked in partnership with the Museum of Liverpool (MoL) team to develop a display about the history of the Liverpool Welsh community. The display is the first in a series exploring the story of Liverpool’s communities. Over 12 months the MoL team worked with members of MWHS to identify objects in Allerton’s Bethel Chapel that could be displayed in the Museum to tell the story of the Welsh community in the city. The MoL team worked with the group to enable them to curate the display themselves. The group were guided through the process of creating a display and they identified a storyline for the display, chose the objects, and wrote explanatory text and object labels. The result is a display showcasing the important role of the Liverpool Welsh community since the middle of the 18th century through the voices of their successors. In the group’s words “The display showcases the vast and intriguing way of life which, because it was conducted through the Welsh language, was often invisible to other Liverpudlians. “
20 Stories High What In Focus Display
Where Writing Liverpool display space, Wondrous Place gallery
Who Young People from 20 Stories High Theatre Company, Artists Gavin Wood and Liz Harry, and the Museum of Liverpool.
How
20 Stories High are a theatre company that create dynamic, challenging theatre which attracts new audiences. They run a vibrant, diverse and exciting youth theatre for people between 14 and 21. 20 Stories High motto is ‘everyone has a story to tell’ so when the MoL team were looking for a group that represented the cutting edge of Liverpool’s vibrant writing and performance scene, 20 Stories High were a perfect match.
Connecting ideas around writing and performing with objects and possessions, 20 Stories High Youth Theatre members were asked to select an object that was precious to them. The participants then worked together to create performance pieces around these objects, later working in collaboration with a filmmaker to film and animate their work.
The film will be shown as part of the Writing Liverpool special exhibition alongside an art installation based around the young people’s precious objects.
Taking Liberties Women’s Suffrage in Liverpool
What Display
Where Politics and Community Activism display space, People’s Republic gallery
Who The 1918 Club and the Museum of Liverpool
How
The 1918 Club is a discussion forum for women that meets twice monthly in Liverpool and was established by Eleanor Rathbone in 1918. Museum of Liverpool has a small collection of items relating to women’s suffrage. The goal of this project was to work with the 1918 club and the museum’s collections to create a display. From 2008-2010 the MoL team met with representatives of the Club every quarter. Most of the group already had some knowledge of the campaign for women’s suffrage - to build on this the group received presentations on the subject and then moved on to choose a storyline for their display, viewing the objects in the museum’s collections and choosing which ones would best illustrate the story. Participants then worked in groups to write object labels that explained why these objects were important and what they tell us about the campaign in Liverpool. The result is a display curated by the 1918 club with objects from National Museums Liverpool’s collections. The display is the first in a series focused on politics and community activism in the city.
Far right: Members of the 1918 Club during a site visit to the new Museum of Liverpool. Right: Women outside the Liverpool WSPU shop. The 1918 club were fascinated by the idea of the women making their own merchandise to raise funds for the cause and wanted to represent this in their display.
“I am helping to curate a small exhibition of the Liverpool Suffragettes movement …the discussions that emerge from
looking and handling these items are fantastic….I am soooooooo enjoying this project and learning a huge amount about our local social history. cant wait for our next session.” Anne, Birkenhead
West Everton Model
What Model of 1km of West Everton
Where Homes and Neighbourhoods special exhibition, People’s Republic gallery
Who
West Everton residents, West Everton Community Council, Shewsbury Youth and Community Centre and the Museum of Liverpool
How
From 2008 onwards the MoL team worked with a group from West Everton Community Centre (WECC) to create a large interactive model for the museum that shows how the area has changed through time. The project was delivered in three phases. Phase one began in 2008 with 8 weekly sessions at WECC to create a ‘memory map’ of West Everton. Using a giant map of the immediate neighbourhood of the club, local residents annotated the map to reflect their memories of the neighbourhood. During phase two, the MoL team continued to meet with a small steering group from the community. The group worked as design consultants, working with the MoL team to choose and refine the content, as well as undertaking research at Liverpool Records Office to choose pictures to accompany the display, contributing oral history and being photographed. In the final phase of the project the steering group and the museum team worked collaboratively with professional model makers, Paragon Creative, to specify and create the model.
First World War Remembrance Project
What Commemorative Banner
Where Remembrance Space, From Waterfront to Western Front exhibition, People’s Republic gallery
Who
Museum Visitors, BBC Remembrance 90, Guild of Embroiderers, Ticky Lowe (artist), Museum of Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum, NML’s Education and Communities Team
How
Between 2008 and 2010 public workshops were held at Merseyside Maritime Museum to create a commemorative banner for the Remembrance Space in the From Waterfront to Western Front exhibition of the People’s Republic Gallery. Participants were invited to design and create their own ‘First World War Silk’ - ornate embroidered postcards that were sent from the front by the troops during the First World War. The workshops were run alongside the BBC’s Remembrance 90 event at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in 2008, which more than 1,000 visitors attended, and NML’s annual King’s Regiment family history day in 2009. This gave participants of all ages the opportunity to research their own family’s military history, finding out about their past and commemorating a family member in a public way. All the contributions will be sewn together to create a large banner that will be hung in the remembrance area of the gallery as a poignant reminder of the loss of thousands of lives through armed conflict in the 20th century.
Touchy Models
What Touchable models of the view from the windows
Where Window views, Wondrous Place and People’s Republic galleries
Who Liverpool Mencap’s Access to Heritage Forum, Museum of Liverpool Team, Paragon Creative
How
The Access to Heritage forum is a group of people with learning disabilities from Liverpool who work to help heritage venues improve access to interpretation and the ‘visitor experience’ for the benefit of all visitors. The forum worked with the Museum of Liverpool team to design a model of the Albert Dock and Pier Head. The model is designed to help describe the view outside of the window to people who cannot see it very well or want to understand better what they are looking at. Visitors will be able to touch and feel the model and the model will make sounds when you touch it. The forum group acted as design consultants from start to finish, meeting every month for over two years. Activities included a trip to the Pier Head, photography, building their own models, and sound recording. All of this work came together as a ‘3D brief’ to the designers, Haley Sharpe Design. Professional model makers Paragon Creative were then contracted to produce the models. They took part in consultation workshops, presenting samples to the group who gave feedback on what they did and didn’t like.
This project was profiled in the winter 2010 edition of GEM Case Studies
Strawberry Fields Forever: Looked After Children project
What An object for the museum’s collection
Where
Growing Up and Growing Older display in the People’s Republic gallery
Who
Liverpool City Council Looked After Children Education Service (LACES), Selina Dunne (artist), Museum of Liverpool and NML’s Education and Communities Team.
How
The Growing Up and Growing Older display in the Museum of Liverpool addresses the experience of children growing up in residential care homes in the past. Working in conjunction with LACES, a group of children were invited to morning sessions at the Merseyside Maritime Museum throughout February half term 2010, with the aim of creating an object to represent looked after children today. The project was introduced to the children around the concept of toys and games and the participants took part in activities such as a visit to the new museum site, game playing, object handling and drama workshops. Discussion about looked after children in the past was stimulated through a discussion workshop using pictures of looked after children in the past from National Museums Liverpool’s collections. NML engaged an artist with a background in art therapy to work with the participants during the last three sessions to create an object for the museum. The children worked together to create a story about a group of children in residential care and a dolls house that illustrates their story. These will be shown as part of the Growing Up and Growing Older display when the Museum of Liverpool opens in 2011.
Community Art Commission
What Graffiti Artwork
Where Visual Arts Space, Wondrous Place gallery
Who
Young People from the Shaftesbury and Norris Green Youth Clubs, Banardoes Young Carers, Zap Graffiti Arts, NML’s Education and Communities Team, Museum of Liverpool Team
How
Over 12 weeks young people from the east and west of the city worked together to create a massive piece of artwork for a high profile spot in the Wondrous Place gallery of Museum of Liverpool. Paired up with ZAP graffiti Arts, the group were given a question to address through their artwork: ‘Is Liverpool Creative?’ and a theme: ‘Ripples of Creativity’. This meant the work was based on the key concepts of the Wondrous Place gallery, drawing on the city’s creativity, as well as its place by the water. The group worked together to come up with ideas and spray the work. The final artwork brings together Liverpool’s creativity with its wider culture, including Liverpool icons such as scouse, the Mersey Tunnel, ‘La Machine’ spider, music and theatre and the people of Merseyside.
Story Tent
What Textile Artwork for the Story Tent
Where Writing Liverpool special exhibition, Wondrous Place gallery
Who
Young People from the Liverpool Teenage Pregnancy Support Service, Liverpool City Council, Charlotte Brown (artist), Museum of Liverpool Team, NML’s Education and Communities Team.
How
Young mums from the Liverpool Teenage Pregnancy Support Service worked with us for 10 weeks in winter 2009. Working with textile artist Charlotte Brown, the participants created decorative panels that will be included in the parent and child ‘story tent’ area in the Wondrous Place gallery. The concept for the work was ‘My life as a…’ and the participants were challenged to come up with a theme of their own. Choices included ‘My life in the yellow submarine’ ‘My life as a builder on the new museum’ and ‘My life as a Mersey mermaid’. The participants then used an appliqué method to create one ‘panel’ each. Their work reflects their aspirations for their children and will give a homely and individual feel to this important area of the gallery.
Liverpool’s Chinese Family Tree
What Chinese Family Tree Stories
Where China, Shanghai and Liverpool special exhibition, Global City gallery
Who Ming, Ngau and Loo families and Museum of Liverpool
How
The Museum of Liverpool reached out to the Liverpool Chinese community to find families who wanted to research and showcase their family history as part of the ‘building community’ section of the upcoming China, Shanghai and Liverpool special exhibition, in an aim to show the fascinating migration and community foundation stories associated with Liverpool’s Chinese community. Three families came forward to take part, and the museum team worked with them to gather together and research their family tree and history. Research sessions took place at World Museum Liverpool and Liverpool Record Office where the families were supported in their research. Further research was also undertaken by a researcher in Shanghai and by museum curators. The participants all contributed photos, family documents and oral histories. Not only will this provide a vital resource for the museum in explaining migration stories to other visitors, but the participants themselves have built up an amazing wealth of resources that enhances their own understanding of their family history and heritage.
The Secret Life of Smithdown Road
What The Secret Life of Smithdown Road
Where Homes and Neighbourhoods special exhibition, People’s Republic gallery
Who
21 Shopkeepers on Smithdown Road, Smithdown Residents, Entrepreneurial Cultures in European Cities Project team, Museum of Liverpool Team, Dr. Joanne Lacey (researcher)
How
Smithdown Road in South Liverpool links the vibrant, diverse areas of Toxteth, Wavertree and Allerton. The road has changed considerably over time, and still continues to change today. Many different people live and shop along it, including students at Liverpool's three universities. 'The Secret Life of Smithdown' is an exciting project exploring a neighbourhood in Liverpool. The project aims to discover how local shop keepers and shops have helped shape the area and the diverse lives of local residents past and present. Linking in with an EU funded European museum project, ‘Entrepreneurial Cultures in European Cities’, there was a long research phase at the beginning of the project. An extensive history of the Road was compiled and 21 local shopkeepers were interviewed and photographed. The community engagement strand of the project encouraged local people to share their memories of Smithdown Road. This was accomplished by setting up and staffing a mini exhibition of our findings in Oomoo Café, a coffee shop in the neighbourhood, where people were invited to contribute. Two months of events included drop-in sessions and local history talks. Local residents could also leave messages on the accompanying facebook website and a display. More than 200 people attended the exhibition and 2,400 people are friends of the website with around 420 active users per month.
Three Sides of the Mersey
What Three In Focus Displays
Where Wondrous Place Gallery
Who
Football fans from fanzines Red All Over The Land (Liverpool), When Skies Are Grey (Everton) and The Northern Boys Club (Tranmere), and the Museum of Liverpool Team.
How
Merseyside has three different football teams, with three different colours, and three different states of mind. The teams may be different, they may all have their ups and downs, but they all boast a core of supporters whose lives are intertwined with that of their club. Being a supporter is not just about being a spectator; you have to live it, experience every moment, the passion, excitement and exhilaration - the devotion, disappointment and despair. We asked fans of the three Merseyside clubs what it meant to them. They worked with the Museum team to co-curate an exhibition about their experiences of being a fan. Using loaned and donated objects, along with items from their own collections, the participants worked with the museum team to choose objects, write text and commission and choose images for their displays. The result - three deeply personal yet relatable displays that tell the visitor what life as a supporter is really like.
Spotlight on Bootle
What Spotlight Display
Where History Detectives gallery
Who
Bootle Residents, Safe Productions, Brunswick Youth Club and the Museum of Liverpool
How
Building on the success of the Marsh Lane local history project (in which National Museum Liverpool was a delivery partner in 2009-2009), the Museum of Liverpool team are currently worked with a group of Bootle residents to produce a display about Bootle during the Second World War. A group of residents were invited to the collections store to view the museum’s collections and then reinterpreted the objects by telling us their memories of similar items and sharing their experiences of Bootle during the war as part of a memory sharing workshop. Their memories will be used as object labels to educate visitors about the reality of life during the war. In early 2011 we will be working with the same group to incorporate existing materials from the Marsh Lane project into the design. We will also create a banner and a piece of artwork to be shown as part of the Spotlight display.
Our City
What Artwork and content for the Mapping Interactive digital touch-screen
Where History Detectives gallery
Who People from across Merseyside, Museum of Liverpool Team, Walker Art Gallery, NML’s Education and Communities Team
How
Our City is an ongoing project that celebrates special and little-known places on Merseyside. National Museums Liverpool invites members of the public to submit a piece of artwork or a photograph that illustrates and tells us something about a place in Merseyside that is important to them.
Local people are asked to showcase special places across the region in a creative and dynamic light, using a variety of mediums, such as drawing, painting, photography and digital art. The place they choose should be somewhere of significance for them for example a place that they know from childhood, or go to relax, explore or think, or somewhere that they want to tell other people about. Taking part is simple: Participants create a representation of their chosen place, using the medium of their choice and upload their work to the Flickr website, including in the description field a short piece of writing about why they chose the place.
Art workshops in schools and public places have also been held are as part of events such as the Big Draw. The project will run from October 2008 until 2011, when the work will be shown within a digital interactive map in the History Detectives gallery of the new Museum of Liverpool.
The Liverpool Map
What The Liverpool Map community layer, within the Liverpool Map commission
Where People’s Republic gallery
Who
The People of Merseyside, Open Culture, Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool Culture Company, BBC Radio Merseyside and the Museum of Liverpool, sponsored by Prof. Phil and Alexis Redmond
How
Researched and developed in conjunction with the people of Merseyside, the Liverpool Map is a piece of artwork that highlights Liverpool's local, national and global significance, depicting the city as a place defined by culture and heritage rather than geographical lines. International glasswork artists Inge Panneels and Jeffrey Sarmiento won the commission to produce the Liverpool Map, using pioneering techniques to create a multi-layered glass monolith. Their 3D design features many layers of sheet glass, each printed with different imagery and designs, fused together into a solid block. As the viewer moves around the map different aspects of the city will be revealed. The people of Liverpool have been involved in the research and development of the map from the outset. In April 2009 workshops were held in which people came to meet the Museum of Liverpool Team and contributed handwritten pieces about the city. These pieces were converted into glasswork by the artists to make up a ‘community layer’. The Liverpool Map will be on show in the People’s Republic gallery of Museum of Liverpool.
The Spiral of Life – Atrium Artists
What The Spiral of Life sculpture
Where Museum of Liverpool Atrium
Who
Amy, Charlotte, Deanna, Debbie, Emma, Megan, Lizzie, Robyn, Sarah, Sian, Sophie, and leaders Hannah and Paul from Redi Xtra, and the Museum of Liverpool
How
The Spiral of Life “We are Redi Extra and we are based in Bootle. This ‘culture sculpture’ is about our city and our lives, and the lives of people before us. Thank you to artist Faith Bebbington who helped us design and make it”.
The Spiral of Life in progress
Made Up: The Liverpool Look
What In Focus Display
Where Identity display space, People’s Republic gallery
Who
People from across Merseyside, students at Liverpool John Moores University and Holly Lodge Girls School, local designer Kirsty Doyle and the Museum of Liverpool, Anfield Breckside Community Council Youth Group and filmmaker Richard Shaw.
How
Clothes, hairstyles and makeup are all ways of expressing yourself and your identity. How we present ourselves effects how other people see us, not only as individuals, but also as groups. Many people have ideas about what a ‘typical’ Liverpudlian or Scouser looks like, but there is often more to the story. To showcase this, local people were invited to create an outfit in miniature on a fashion doll to illustrate a ‘Liverpool Look’. The work they created represents the maker’s personal style, a particular Liverpool style or fashion, or are replicas of outfits seen on the streets of the city. To empower local people to take part, local fashion designer Kirsty Doyle was commissioned to run open-access design workshops at World Museum to help people create an entry. Everyone who took part was asked about their influences and the Liverpool Look that inspired their work, and this information will accompany the dolls when they go on display. 31 of the dolls will go on show in the People’s Republic gallery, as part of a display exploring personal identity and the image of the city. Young People from Anfield Breckside Community Council Youth Group are also in the process of creating a film - ‘My Liverpool Style’ to accompany the display.
Grand National inspired
Barbies
Museum of Liverpool Curator Kay Jones judges the public competition, which received over 70 entries.
Seeing Shanghai
What Film
Where Part of the East meets West – The Story of Shanghai and Liverpool exhibition, Global City Gallery
Who
Young Shanghai Ambassadors, Liverpool City Council, filmmaker Jo Kushner and the Museum of Liverpool.
How
In 2010 Shanghai hosted the World Expo, a huge site where countries from across the world created exhibitions exploring the idea of Better City, Better Life. Liverpool was the only UK city to be represented at the Expo, which attracted an estimated 73 million people. As part of a Liverpool City Council initiative, 50 young people from Liverpool visited Shanghai, to work as ambassadors in the Liverpool Pavilion. Before they left Liverpool the Museum of Liverpool team worked with them, teaching them basic filmmaking skills. They were asked to film their trip, including their experiences and thoughts about Shanghai and how it was similar and different to Liverpool. Their work was edited to create one film: Seeing Shanghai, which will be included in the East meets West – The Story of Shanghai and Liverpool exhibition, in the Global City Gallery.
Chinese Culture Box
What Display
Where Part of the East meets West – The Story of Shanghai and Liverpool exhibition, Global City Gallery
Who
Liverpool City council, Cardinal Heenan School (Liverpool) Bile Middle School, (China), Museum of Liverpool team.
How
Young People from Cardinal Heenan School and Bile School in China teamed up to exchange letters, pictures and ‘culture boxes’ packed full of items that illustrate day to day life in their city. The culture boxes will go on show as part of the East meets West – The Story of Shanghai and Liverpool exhibition, Global City Gallery “Many thanks for today. Well organised, well executed. Students loved it.
Staff loved it. I will be sending the photos I took of the Parallel Lives
exhibit to Bile High School. I know they will be thrilled. Thanks again.
Let's look at another project...................”
Cultural Cargo
What Film
Where Gateway to the World Exhibition
Who
Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, Liverpool NHS Primary Health Trust, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Batala Liverpool, Movema Dance Company, Kof, Museum of Liverpool Team.
How
Traditional trade between Liverpool and South America has declined but new technology means that ideas and cultural influences still flow between the continents. Over the years South American art forms have grown in popularity in Liverpool, with organisations such as Batala, Liverpool Samba School and Brouhaha International helping people share their love of music and performance.
During Summer 2010, 9 artists from Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, an innovative group of international performance artists from Rio de Janeiro, worked with young people across Liverpool. Forged out of the police massacre of 21 people in their local community in 1993, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae have gone on to establish an international profile for their pioneering work in taking young people out of the drug/gang culture of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (shantytowns). Their visit to Liverpool included an intensive programme of workshops, community events and performances.
When AfroReggae returned to Liverpool in 2011, they worked with the Museum of Liverpool and local organisations involved with Afro-Brazilian art forms, such as Batala Liverpool and Movema Dance Company, to deliver a very special event at World Museum.
Based on the idea of ‘Cultural Cargo’, 30 young people who had been involved with working with AfroReggae in 2010 took part in workshops at the museum. Looking at the museum’s Brazilian and Amazonian collections, they used their knowledge of Brazil and Liverpool to work together to create drumming, rap and dance performances. These performances were filmed and will be displayed in the Gateway to the World Exhibition in the Global City Gallery.
Opportunities for Participation
Our City, Our Stories community exhibitions
strategy
Museum led
Our City, Our Stories, a community exhibitions strategy for the Museum of Liverpool, aims to put into place a structure that enables community groups, individuals and visitors to contribute their own stories, messages, memories, objects and creative outputs to Museum of Liverpool. Input can vary from contributing artwork in response to an existing exhibition, to inputting directly into exhibition content by e.g. donating personal objects and images, selecting objects from NML collections or contributing artwork or oral history.
Community Exhibition Hosting (Audience Defined) A group independently creates an exhibition and wishes to show it in Museum of Liverpool. The group are provided with an exhibitions ‘toolkit’ and a contact member of staff to facilitate installation. Work will be hosted in an In Focus space on one of the main galleries, or in an alternative space such as the Learning/Community space or Atrium.
Community Contribution (Co-interpretation) Individuals or groups contribute to the development to exhibitions or displays in a variety of ways, for example by contributing objects, oral histories, or giving their own interpretation of objects on display. The process is mostly led by museum staff, with the form of the outputs likely to have been pre-determined at the start of the project.
Community Curator (Co-production) A group works with the Museum of Liverpool to co-produce a small exhibition. The group take the creative lead, but this is supported and facilitated by NML, working with loaned and NML objects. The group are given broad themes and parameters, but have the creative license to choose objects, storylines, and choose the look and feel of their display.
Community Consultation Individuals or groups contribute to the development of the Museum of Liverpool’s galleries by contributing their views. The Museum leads on what happens next and provides feedback.
Community Exhibition Hosting (Audience Defined) A group independently creates an exhibition and wishes to show it in Museum of Liverpool. The group are provided with an exhibitions ‘toolkit’ and a contact member of staff to facilitate installation. Work will be hosted in an Our City, Our Stories space on one of the main galleries, or in an alternative space designated for 2D work in the activity rooms, Atrium or Skylight Gallery.
Audience Led
Key Messages The museum has a close working relationship with local community groups and
individuals.
The museum will provide the resources and guidance to enable communities’ to respond to museum content and contemporary/topical issues.
Local communities will have the opportunity to have a presence in the museum and represent their interests, opinions and stories.
Learning outcomes Through developing exhibition content individuals will develop their literacy
and communication skills, knowledge of Liverpool’s history and the museums’ collections.
Visitors will learn that their opinion, knowledge and stories are of interest to others.
Local communities will have a strong sense of ownership of the museum.
Displays will be housed in flexible exhibition/modular display units and will enable small, short exhibitions and displays to be exhibited on the main galleries next to permanent or long-term exhibitions. Museum curators and other museum staff such as conservators, designers and NML’s communities team will support groups in the development of exhibition content.
NML will facilitate appropriate sessions to empower participants with skills to generate exhibition content. Displays will exist within a rolling programme giving community groups an opportunity to comment on topical subjects that are important to them and respond to the content of the Museum of Liverpool. Local visitors and harder to reach audiences will be informed and invited to contribute towards the programme through public programmes, marketing and outreach programmes.
