What was Citizen Curators?
Between 2022 and 2024 the three groups collected the oral history of 40 people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
, family members or others with a connection to the groups.
Alongside oral histories, each group co-created an exhibition that was held in their area.
Find out more below.
Chepstow Mencap
Celebrating 50 years of history, Chepstow Mencap had a particular focus for their project. Formed by a group of local parents, they are now the third generation of the same family at the group's heart. Celebrating their move into their new home at the heart of Chepstow, they’ve always been at the heart of the
community
A community is the people and places in an area.
, and the exhibition put together reflected that. It was held in their new building, The Board School in October 2023.
Mencap Ceredigion
The group decided to partner with Aberystwyth Museum to host their exhibition. This meant they had a dedicated space to hold the exhibition and the museum's support and resources. It also meant that the people who had shared their stories and contributed artwork and artefacts for the exhibition could see themselves in a museum exhibition- something many people with a learning disability wouldn’t think was possible. Many brought multiple friends and family members to visit during the exhibition.
Pembrokeshire Mencap (Stackpole Walled Gardens)
Pembrokeshire Mencap run Stackpole Walled Gardens which is open to visitors. It made sense for them to have their exhibition in their cafe, and around the grounds.
They interviewed a range of people supported by the group. The volunteers found that when talking about gardening, they learned a great deal about the interviewees. Often, those who struggled with emotions could express themselves better when talking about the gardens. In addition, the volunteers interviewed a range of trustees to piece together the history of the gardens and the Mencap group.
The exhibition was made a permanent part of the cafe/shop space and is already generating interest and conversation about what the group does from visitors.
Citizen Curators Toolkit
As part of the Citizen Curators project, we developed a toolkit to help other local community groups to run their own heritage projects.
You can download a bilingual PDF copy of the toolkit here:
We have also developed this short video with our top tips, from ten years of delivering heritage projects.
To view the toolkit online see below.
Citizen Curators Video Toolkit
The Citizen Curators team have created a toolkit to help other groups run their heritage projects. This video gives some things to consider when running an oral history project.