Taking place in the Year of Young People (2018) the aim of the project was to broaden the participation of children and perceptions of culture and heritage through a co-produced child and young person-led approaches. Five projects took place in the following places across Scotland: Dumfries, Glasgow, South Queensferry, Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh.
As part of the Edinburgh project we brought together Edinburgh Young Carers (EYC) with Museums and Galleries Edinburgh. The children and the young people in heritage settings across Scotland. The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and brought together heritage organisations with groups of children and young people to explore children’s heritage partners worked together to explore sources of local heritage and explore young people’s understandings and perceptions of heritage. The project helped strengthen the link between Edinburgh Young Carers (EYC) and Museums and Galleries Edinburgh with the hope that there will be development of future pieces of work.
Bronze
15
9 to 16
September to December 2018
How the project achieved the sections of the award
Plan
As part of the first stage of the process the group members explored their initial understandings and perceptions of heritage. They then decided that they would be interested in helping to co-curate their own exhibition. This involved selecting a theme, picking objects from the Museum’s Collections Centre, object handling and writing their own object labels. Additionally, members of the group had selected items from their own lives to be displayed as part of this exhibition. The exhibition is due to be launched in February 2019 and the group has been involved in designing the event.
Investigate
Sessions took place in several heritage locations including Museum of Edinburgh, People’s Story and the Museum’s Collection Centre. As part of the investigation phase the group explored object handling and evaluated ‘Their Work is Not Forgotten’ exhibition which ran from June to October 2018. Comments from the group included:
“Showing that women were instrumental to get their rights met to be able to get a vote and be able to work”
“It has loads of pictures which was helpful to understand the exhibition. Good posters as well.”
Suggested improvements by the group included more videos and colourful images. Additionally, the group had the opportunity to undertake a tour of the Museum’s Collections Centre. This allowed the group to start thinking about the types of objects they would like to form part of their exhibition. Additionally, the group gained new skills in collections care and were given the opportunity to clean some museum artefacts.
Engage
As part of the process the group selected objects that were special to them to be displayed as part of their exhibition. Additionally, they selected objects from the Museums Collections Centre linked to themes that were important to them including: sports, gaming, family, pets and sweets. The group voted for items that they wanted to include within the exhibition and expressed their reasons for selecting these items. Throughout the whole process the group took their own photos and interviewed each other. In the final session the group had the chance to design the layout of their exhibition including: how they wanted their objects and panels to be displayed within their exhibition space and how they could make the space feel more welcoming for visitors and young people.
Object Selection
Exhibition Layout & Planning
Inspire
The group has been involved in helping to design the exhibition launch event at the People’s Story. The plan is for some of the group to open the exhibition by speaking about their involvement in the project. Some of the group have also expressed an interest in helping to design and plan the final Heritage Hunters Celebration & Knowledge Exchange Event. The event will take place on Friday 22nd February and will involve 100 children and young people who have been involved in the range of projects that have taken place over the last 18 months across Scotland.
Reflect
Quotes from the young people about heritage:
“Heritage is something that defines you.”
“Heritage is something that you gain from the past for the future”
“Heritage is basically something that everyone has but is kind of hard to explain. It’s anything that has got a long history behind it and has been passed down through either family or culture”
Museum Collections
The group shared their views about what museums should collect to represent what’s important to young people today. Answers included smartphones, games consoles, photos and YouTube videos.
Lessons Learned
One of the things we learned as part of undertaking the ‘Heritage Hunters’ project was that it takes time to develop working relationships, establish roles and understand the young people’s learning needs and interests.
As a result, we think it would have been beneficial to undertake the Edinburgh project over a longer period to allow the young people more time to develop their exhibition. However, this is something we have learned from and will consider during the development of future funding applications.
Highlight(s)
My highlight from this project has been watching the group grow in confidence both with each other and within the heritage sites.
It was also brilliant to gain a fresh and honest perspective from the young people and to hear about how we can make heritage more appealing to young people.
One of the best parts for me was hearing about the objects the group had selected from their own lives to form part of the exhibition. Some of the objects were chosen because of the links they had to special people in their lives (including family members) Other objects were important because they represented personal achievements and successes.
Quotes about involvement from the group people:
“This group has been fun because I got to try new things”
“It’s been fun coming to this group because I don’t normally do anything on a Friday and you get out the house.”- Young carer
“It’s been cool to see behind the scenes of a museum.” – Young carer
The benefit of using the Heritage Hero Awards
The Heritage Hero Award shows the group that they are valued and highlights the importance of their involvement in leading their own heritage project. Offering the award at different levels allows the group to aspire to achieving the next level, which will in turn encourage/develop an appetite for undertaking new heritage projects.
We have also started to refer to the Heritage Hero Awards as part of future funding applications to demonstrate value and highlight how we have been able to measure the groups achievements.
Case study compiled by
Jane Miller Policy & Participation Officer at Children in Scotland
With thanks to
Heritage Lottery Fund & Martin Connell Charitable Trust for funding this project.
We would like to thank Ria Sloan and Gwen Thomas for offering their time, expertise and commitment to this project.
Thanks to Jamie Faichney, Gary Shaw and Lee MacKenzie at Edinburgh Young Carers for their support with this piece of work.
Finally, our biggest thanks must be given to the young people for their time, commitment and enthusiasm for this project 🙂
More information on this project can be found at:
Heritage Hunters Project Page
https://childreninscotland.org.uk/heritage-hunters-report/
Blog about what does heritage mean to you?
https://childreninscotland.org.uk/what-does-heritage-mean-to-you/
Edinburgh Young Carers in Charge
https://childreninscotland.org.uk/heritage-hunters-edinburgh/
Website https://childreninscotland.org.uk/
Twitter @cisweb
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