STREETSTYLE SPORTSTYLE 89-09 Then & Now

The Richard Attenborough Centre

Lancaster Road, Leicester

18th July - 29th August 2009

Open daily except Sundays.

Having read some of the comments about volunteering, I decided to add a post about an exhibition I've been working on. It is a museums led exhibition but not held in a museum, its looking at identity, music and sport through fashion from 1989 and 2009, it celebrates the special olympics returning to Leicester after 20years of being in other venues.

I have been project support/community curator on this project which has involved talking to communities about their memories of 1989, recording these memories and collecting any items of clothing they have decided to loan. Its also had funding from the cultural olympiad as well as renaissance east midlands (I can't list all the funders, too many!) One of the aims of the project has been to target groups which would not normally visit a gallery.

This saturday was the community open day, and a coach full of visitors from Northampton arrived to spend 3 hours in a setting they are not necassarily comfortable with. They had a great time. They had a guided tour of the whole building, interactive parts of the exhibition, a mayors speech, felt making workshop (run by me, amazed that some of the kids didn't know where wool came from), ate their packed lunches and got back on the coach, happy that they had had a fun day out.

If only all experiences to galleries and museums could be so pleasant. If I have felt intimidated in galleries (I'll not mention being followed by a security guard in Newcastle museum & gallery) then I can't begin to imagine how someone daring to venture in for the first time would feel. Perhaps we need to start educating the museum & gallery assistants, invigilators and security staff that these big beautiful building belong to those communities who do not utilise them even thought they are funding them through public money.

I've enjoyed volunteering for this project, I've recieved good training, support and it has definately given me the confidence to applying for a project in Derbyshire (I'll keep you posted about that) I've made good contacts and I've made a whole new group of friends in my fellow volunteers, some of whom I'm going onto develop other ideas with.

Oh, and to finish off a really fun and exhilarating day, an email from Matt Roberts with the draft of the degrees issue of artartart, with a review of my degree show work, that I'm particularly pleased and proud of. Thank you Alan Armstrong, you completed my perfect day.