Uncovering Letchworth

Introduction to the Project

Uncovering Letchworth is a 21-month project led by Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation’s Museum Services Team who are working to collaboratively explore The Garden City Collection with new audiences.

We thank the National Lottery Heritage fund, ‘Dynamic Collections’ Grant for the funding to make this possible.

This project will enrich The Garden City Collection by discovering unrepresented local stories, celebrating them via a series of co-created engagement projects, community-led exhibitions and special events.

Meet the Team

Amandeep Dhillon (left) grew up in Letchworth Garden City and has a background in film curation and programming, working with different communities on a wide range of projects. In 2023, she helped put together some displays at the Museum at One Garden City celebrating the South Asian community and their contribution in different sectors across Letchworth Garden City for South Asian Heritage Month.

Kava (pronounced Ava- soft ‘A’) Johnson (right) is a local artist and Cahir of North Herts African & Caribbean Community. In 2023 she was engaged with the museum team as the artist-facilitator in a project funded by AIM/NLHF called ‘Forging A Family’ working with the Letchworth Caribbean Harmony Group. She has a professional background in social care.

About the Project

Uncovering Letchworth is comprised of the following strands:

Collections Review

The first task of the project was for the Collections Officers to conduct a comprehensive review of the collections and archives held by the Garden City Collection. This was to ensure that we were basing the project on fact and data rather than anecdotal knowledge or biases.

During this formal audit of the museum’s holdings, the team have worked to identify gaps in how well the collections represent the town’s demographics. As part of the review, the Collections Officers have worked with the Heritage Foundation’s Research and Evaluation Manager to analyse demographic data relating to the town to provide a benchmark against which to compare. The report with our findings will be published shortly.

Community Curators

As part of a new co-creation practice, we will be recruiting a new team of ‘Community Curators’ from different areas of the community to share their stories and objects and to help us shape the museum’s outputs, programming and future direction. We will be reaching out to find people who will help us make the collection more diverse and representative, moving away from being gatekeepers of the town’s history and heritage and towards facilitating the stories people want to tell and see.

Get Involved and record your story in your town’s history!

We are particularly interested in hearing from Letchworth Garden City residents from the Jackmans and Grange areas and those that have migrated to the area in the last 50 years. Get in touch via the Get In Touch form below to hear more about the project and how you can be involved.

Junior Curators

Earlier this year we piloted a project called ‘Marvellous Me’, working with Year 6 classes from two Letchworth schools, exploring students’ background and identity, how they feel about Letchworth, and their hopes for the future, at this moment of transition in their lives before moving to ‘secondary school, working with an artist-facilitator to help draw out their stories and feelings. Their work was displayed at Broadway Gallery as part of the summer Play! Discover! Share! Exhibition.

Young Curators

We will recruit four, local, 16-25 year olds from a range of different backgrounds, bringing a younger voice and fresh perspectives to our collection.
These Young Curators will gain skills in curation, video editing and production, before researching and co-producing responses around a proposed theme drawing on items from the collection, contributions from the community, and their own personal reflections and experiences.
We will then share the videos across existing and new social media channels, with a physical event to ‘premiere’ the work.

To ensure this opportunity is accessible to everyone, this is a paid opportubnity, with twelve sessions paid at £90 per day.

If you’re interested in applying to be a Young Curator, please fill in the Get In Touch form below, before the deadline 29^th November 2024.

How you can help?

Get involved and have a say in future town heritage projects
Could you be one of our Community Curators or Young Curators?
Do you know someone who could?

Share your stories and objects to be a part of Letchworth Garden City history
There are lots of ways you can help us grow the collection – please get in touch with us via the Get In Touch form below or attend one of our events.

Keep up to date with the project
Follow us on Facebook, to keep up to date with what we’re doing, our social handle is @gardencitycollection.

Why not share your Letchworth Garden City Story online or reshare our posts for the project, don’t forget to tag us @gardencitycollection #uncoveringletchworth

Get in touch

What is The Garden City Collection?

The Garden City Collection is an ACE accredited museum service, located in Letchworth Garden City. It cares for 250,000 objects in a purpose-converted facility and shares those objects both online (through a website and social media), and physically (at the collection& study centre itself and at our micro museum, The Museum at One Garden City). Our museum service is part of a wider organisation, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation (LGCHF). The LGCHF has its origins in First Garden City Ltd, the company which was founded in 1903 to manage and develop the world’s first garden city at Letchworth, investing – as we do to this day – the income from owning a property portfolio in the town into local community benefit.

Visit the Garden City Collection Website

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