Over the last five years, ICOM UK has run a series of interviews exploring museums across the globe. This autumn Catherine McDermott and Claire Messenger have been talking to museum and heritage colleagues about the challenges they have faced in the sector in the past six months. In this interview, Claire talks to Dr DeAnn Bell, Community and Education Officer at Amgueddfa ac Oriel Llandudno Museum and Gallery about their project Living History: Lockdown
Hello DeAnn. Thank you for speaking to ICOM UK members. Perhaps you could start by telling us about Amgueddfa ac Oriel Llandudno Museum and Gallery?
Amgueddfa ac Oriel Llandudno Museum and Gallery is responsible for a unique collection of art and artefacts which tells the story of Llandudno over the course of 340 million years. From the Neolithic, to the establishment of Llandudno as the Queen of Welsh resorts, to the effects of the recent Covid19 pandemic on the Conwy County Borough community, Llandudno Museum is dedicated to discovering, preserving, and sharing Llandudno’s rich history.
When did your museum decide to collect objects and stories that represent the pandemic?
On 26 May 2020 we sent out our first call to Conwy County Borough schools and began actively collecting COVID-19 stories.
How and why did you start this project? Please explain the project – what is your collecting criteria and what do you hope to achieve?
After reading an article about how the March 2020 Lockdown was negatively affecting children and noting that everyone interviewed for the article was an adult, we asked ourselves: what do young people really think about the lockdown? Do they have a place to share their thoughts?
The absence of childhood experiences in historical accounts of events is not uncommon. With that in mind we began to develop and share a series of creative and reflective exercises designed to allow young people to explore and share their thoughts about Lockdown.
Conscious that some emotions and experiences are beyond what can be easily organised into words, we expanded our project to include art, photography, poetry, collage, diorama, and sculpture. We invited young people to share their creative work with others in Llandudno Museum’s newly created temporary exhibition space. Our final project will include opportunities for our audience to respond and add to our exhibition and for audience members to explore a wider range of lockdown art with our exhibition community partners.
What objects/stories are you collecting and how are your collecting them?
Amgueddfa ac Oriel Llandudno Museum and Gallery is collecting young person’s creative and reflective experiences of lockdown in the Conwy County Borough area, but Living History: Lockdown is a community experience and as such, we have formed a partnership with other area venues to give the entire community an opportunity to share their experiences. Llandudno Museum’s exhibition will include eight primary schools, two secondary schools, some pieces from individuals, and there is an open invitation for submissions ending on 15 December 2020. Materials for the exhibition are being collected directly from the schools and participating venues. They can also be submitted to the museum by contacting me directly.
What is your favourite item from the Covid collection?
We have so many wonderful and heartfelt pieces that it is impossible to choose a favourite. From a heart-breaking primary school letter explaining that lockdown meant her parents were unemployed, to a full-length illustrated COVID poetry pamphlet, to a collage showing a family making the most of their time together, each piece is so personal it is like peeking through a private window into an unknown world. These pieces have been crafted with honesty and love. We are very proud to be able to give all of them the space and recognition they deserve.
Are you working with colleagues on this project? If yes, what have been the benefits to the project of working in partnership?
As a community, we understood that so many people had a story to tell that we banded together to make sure that everyone had a chance. This collection has enabled us to work across venues because there are so many layers of lockdown responses. Although Llandudno Museum’s collection deals primarily with young person’s lockdown experience we have partnered with Conwy Culture Working Group, Conwy County Fusion, Conwy Archives, Venue Cymru, Theatr Colwyn, Llandudno Library, and the Royal Cambrian Academy who have all set up spaces for a range of other lockdown centred exhibitions. From March to June 2021 locals and visitors can not only visit Llandudno Museum’s Living History: Lockdown exhibition but they can tour the town and visit our exhibition partners.
Individual businesses and community members have donated photos of the town during lockdown which often include the now famous and very cheeky Llandudno Goats, stories of smaller neighbourhoods banding together to organise an Easter Bunny drive-by-rather than and egg hunt-for kids, families hiding hand decorated stones with encouraging messages for each other, and setting up delivery services for elderly neighbours. Although confusion, fear, and isolation were also part of this experience, most people went out of their way to help each other.
How will the objects/stories you have collected be used both now and in the future?
All pieces submitted for the Living History: Lockdown exhibition will be displayed at Llandudno Museum and our partner venues. There will be opportunities to engage with the pieces whether that is to write a short message to the creator of the work, add to the display by leaving your own little story, or snap and share a photo of yourself with your favourite exhibition piece and post it on your social media site with the hashtag, #LHLockdown. We will invite the participating schools to come in to be photographed with their works and we will run a series of talks for all ages about how history is collected and created. All items submitted will be documented and the students will be free to reclaim the works after the exhibition. Some of the submitted works will be archived by Conwy Archives and Museum Wales so that future historians can research Llandudno’s lockdown though the eyes of our young people and from the eyes of our community.
Thank you so much DeAnn for talking to ICOM UK. It has been fascinating to learn more about Amgueddfa ac Oriel Llandudno Museum and Gallery, the work you are doing around COVID and lockdown and the impact on your local community.
If you would like to know more about Amgueddfa ac Oriel Llandudno Museum and Gallery or the Living History: Lockdown project discussed with DeAnn, you can contact her at deann@llandudnomuseum.co.uk – she would be very happy to hear from you.
