Happy New Year – but what about the next three years?!
As we look forward to a new year, here at Gloucestershire Archives we’re looking ahead 3 years! We have recently agreed a programme of activities for 2021, 2022 and 2023. We don’t usually work so far ahead but, for a number of reasons, we had the opportunity to look three years ahead (as part of a wider ten year development plan we’ve been working on), and grasped it with both hands.
So, our 3-year plan is all about our outreach and collections development work. To be specific, it’s to do with partnerships, learning and outreach, with events and activities to appeal to young and old alike. The public programme is designed to increase our audiences, deepen our relationships with existing audiences, plus, of course to develop our archives collections, particularly in under-represented areas.
Starting in March 2021 right through until March 2024, we’ve allocated a broad “theme” to each month, which we’d like our activities and events to reflect. So we have themes for the next three years, some of which are repeated each year (such as the Local History Month, in May each year, or Black History Month, in October, and the Gloucester History Festival, every September). We plan to schedule events on Wednesdays during the month.
As the next 10 year census is planned to take place on 21 March 2021 (pandemic permitting), we felt it appropriate to start our new public programme with this theme. And even more significant for those of us interested in archives, the 1921 census is due to be released and published online next January 2022 (when its 100 closure period expires). I wonder what fascinating stories it will tell us?
The themes in 2021 are as follows:
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March
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The Census
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April
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Schools, school log-books, childhood
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May
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Newspapers & Local History Month
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June
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Unheard Voices
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July
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Codrington of Dodington (South Gloucestershire)
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August
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Focus on Kingsholm
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September
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Gloucester History Festival
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October
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Black History Month
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November
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Celebrations
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December
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Celebrations
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All of these themes, and the activities and events tied in to them, will be publicised on our social media feeds. So, if there’s a subject you don’t know much about – or a theme you’d like to find out more about – why not join us at some of our events?
Sally Middleton – sally.middleton@Gloucestershire.gov.uk
A Life in Lockdown
The Museum of Gloucester invited everyone in the county to capture their memories of #Gloucestershire during the period of #lockdown, for an exhibition titled ‘A Life in Lockdown’…
Unable to display these memories in an exhibition at the museum, the decision was taken to launch the exhibition online as well as a producing a permanent record of this period in the museum's digital collection.
Launched online on Thursday December 3, the exhibition is comprised of submissions from the public around the county, recording people’s experiences in what has proven to be an unprecedented year. Submissions to the ‘A Life in Lockdown’ digital exhibition include everything from beautiful images of the countryside and the county's crowd-free towns, to empty supermarket shelves and playgrounds, really representing the period from March - August 2020.
The exhibition was put together following a call out from the museum to the people of Gloucestershire, to share the different ways that they coped with the measures designed to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. It captured people’s imaginations and organisers at the museum received hundreds of entries from all age groups and they are delighted to be able to share all entries submitted in the new exhibition.
Visit the exhibition here
For more information, please contact the museum’s Events and Marketing Officer - Amy Washington amy.washington@gloucester.gov.uk.
Visit www.museumofgloucester.co.uk.
