Heritage
Community-led projects which celebrate local heritage and cultural identity are central to the Capital of Culture programme, which provides wide-scale opportunities for participation at grass roots level.
Within the Liverpool Culture Company, English Heritage is funding a post to co-ordinate heritage and historic environment programmes, which specifically target local people and communities who may never have had the opportunity to engage in heritage activities.
Working largely in the neighborhoods, the community programme challenges 'traditional' perceptions of heritage, encouraging people of all ages and all communities to explore their histories from different perspectives.
Consultation clearly demonstrates that communities value their local heritage as much as the majestic historic environment of the city centre.
Heritage education, outreach and community participation are at the heart of Liverpool's vision for a vibrant historic city.
Kaleidoscope - Kaleidoscope! is an innovative creative heritage programme for the over 55s, based in the Anfield and Breckfield areas of North Liverpool.
Working with a range of community partners and the Culture Company, older residents have developed a range of sustainable heritage projects, exploring ideas about memory, place and identity in an area currently being transformed by redevelopment.
Personal memories have been recorded and shared through a range of media, including music, drama and creative writing.
A 'community archive' is being developed, so that a local perspective of the past can be shared by the whole community.
Out of the Shadows
A partnership between Liverpool Culture Company, Age Concern Liverpool and North West Disability Arts Forum.
Reminiscence interviews will take place over Spring and Summer recording the memories and experiences of older people who have literally lived a life 'in the shadows' through disability or sense of difference.
The project explores changing perceptions and responses to disability and how people have coped with isolation and discrimination because they are 'different'. All participants in the project have an individual, moving and challenging story to tell.
The project culminates in a provoking film and multi-media exhibition which will be displayed in St George's Hall during November and December 2008. Once interviews have been transcribed, the archive of Out of the Shadows will be deposited in Liverpool Record Office as the city's first archive of disability and difference.
For more information call Eileen Willshaw, Heritage and Historic Environment Manager, on 0151 233 6759 or e-mail eileen.willshaw@liverpool.gov.uk
