News February 2012

Curious – Exploring Stories, Culture and Ideas
in a Changing City

Over the next few months I’ll be working with the Learning Team at St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow. The Museum in Cathedral Square, is on the site of the medieval castle complex of the Archbishops of the diocese of Glasgow and overlooked by the famous Necropolis.  The year long Curious exhibition was developed in collaboration a wide range of community groups from across the city. The many objects in Glasgow Museums’ vast collection – from jewellery and paintings to games and musical instruments – have different stories to tell and the exhibition tells some of these stories through the eyes of local people.  The Learning Team engages with groups ‘in defining culture, interpreting cultural objects, challenging assumptions and exploring strategies for intercultural dialogue’. Together we’ll be developing a series of intercultural events, platforms for dialogue inspired by objects in the museum collections.

Visit The Scotlands
The Scotlands estate in north Wolverhampton was developed as council housing during slum clearance programmes of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The estate has a population around 3000 residents and has a longstanding image of negativity, a high crime rate and multiple indicators of deprivation. Here, 54% of residents do not have a qualification, and 60% of women are economically inactive (with 34% of the men also economically inactive). However, it has a strong sense of history with generations of families living in the area, with some families occupying one street. It is a priority regeneration area for the local authority and is the