Conferentie 'Het aanpakken van armoede door middel van erfgoed. Naar een raamwerk voor gemeenschapsmusea', 7 december 2016 @ Huis van Alijn, Gent

1. Community museums?
Whatever next!
Ian Smith
Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Industry
National Museum of Wales

2. In the 1960s, as a young boy in Hafod
Primary School, Swansea I had been
fascinated by the ‘School Museum’ –
a few glass cases with a motley
collection of curiosities from all over
the world. An ostrich egg, relics from
WW2 and various coins and stamps
fired the children’s imaginations as
we made up stories to go with these
strange artefacts. It had long been an
idea of mine to recreate this little
museum in other schools or
‘somewhere’ in the community.
In early January 2012 the opportunity came up at Waun Wen Primary School

3. Creating a timeline of local and
international events
• Pupils visited the Waterfront
• Conservation staff visited the
school – 3D jigsaw
• County Archivists visited the
school and the children went
to County Hall
• We interviewed new residents
to Swansea as well as older
residents who lived here all
their lives
• We created a video history film
that is displayed in the
reception area
• Pupils were taught how to
write labels and object
handling

4. Waun Wen Primary School, Swansea
The children interview older residents about their
memories of the area, living through WW2 and
changing Swansea
Archival pictures from the school records
It cannot be stressed enough the importance of ‘real’ people
telling ‘real’ stories about their history to children who mostly
live their lives through video games and television
programmes.

5. Waun Wen School and Community Museum
I kick started the collection with ‘handling objects’
from my collection, but pupils and community
members were asked to donate or loan objects too.
The pupils were trained in how to document these
objects so we knew who to return them to.

6. Opening ceremony
The children now use the museum as a
learning resource for many different subjects
Rolled out as ‘make a museum’
The project was so well received that it was decided to roll out
a streamlined version that that could be offered to primary
schools as part of the National Museum’s education platform.

7. community museum
I wanted to create a museum in the heart of a community.
• Graigfelen
• Blaenymaes
• Spark and Gwalia
• 104 building
• Penlan Community Centre

8. I scoured the Museum Freecycle offers for any display cases
that we could utilise and found four cases on offer in the
National Museum Cathays Park. This meant that we could use
two in the 104 and two at Penlan.

9. Coffee mornings to publicise the museums
Involved three local primary schools

10. Involved the residents of Plas Melyn retirement
complex – especially Len Burns who was 94 years
old, and I decided to ask him if he would consent
to ‘open’ the Community Museum on November
the 12th 2015.

11. Children video interview older people

12. Over 100 people turned up
for the opening!

13. Pride in Penderry 2
This is the space we had to work with in Penlan
Community Centre

15. We opened the Pride in Penderry Community
Museum Penlan site on 18th March 2016

16. Nearly 200 people turned up for the opening!

17. There are more Community Museums planned!
Llanybydder, Carmarthenshire – Gwalia + Llanybydder Primary
School (rural area)
Hafod Senior School, Swansea (children from 11 – 18)
EYST Swansea – Ethnic youth support team
involving communities form all over the world
Oakdale Miners Institute, St Fagans
Llanybydder
EYST, Swansea
Cwm Aur, 55+ residential complex

18. What started out as a small idea has blossomed into a worthwhile and compelling series of projects that take
heritage out into the community, empowering and giving ownership to ordinary folk and valuing everyone’s
memories and history equally.
By making displays relevant and inclusive it is possible to break down barriers and create an environment
where nobody will feel out of place.
Partners include:
CCS Communities 1st
Gwalia Housing (social housing and retirement housing)
West Glam Archives
Glam Gwent Arch Trust
Penllegare Valley Woods
Severn Wye Energy Agency
CCS Library Service
People’s Collection Wales
Swansea Museum
Five local Primary Schools (CCS Education Dept)
Plas Melyn Retirement Complex
The ‘Ark’ Drop-in Centre, Blaenymaes
Penlan Community Centre
Carmarthen Education Department