As we all know, these are bizarre and unique times that we are living through, and should be recorded in some way.

Museums normally play a key role in documenting social history, being a catalyst for communities to share, interact and promote the sense of place and pride in their local area. But with the doors closed and our potential contributors and audiences staying at home, the challenge is how can we do that?

Leicestershire’s Museum Service has come up with the idea of creating a digital time capsule and Charnwood Museum wants you to get involved and share what the people of Charnwood are doing through this situation.

They want you to help curate the content by sharing your ideas, inspiration and activities. What are you doing? Take pictures, share videos – whatever you feel best shows what you are up to. You can use the project to be inspired to start/do something new or different.

Below is just a collection of possible prompts, but if what you want to share something that isn’t on the list don’t let that stop you.

Community Creativity

Kids rainbows, make and mend (previously lost skills) repurposing of objects through necessity or desire. Maybe you have developed a new practical skill - cooking, DIY, patience.

New/Renewed Connections

Are you now in contact with previously little-known neighbours? Does your daily exercise bring your closer to nature? Are you speaking to family and friends more now? Do you feel connected globally despite being in isolation? Are you volunteering for neighbours or larger charities?

Literary revelation

Inspired / captured by a good book?

Room for mindfulness

Meditation, yoga, exercise - how has this helped you and your family? Are you reflecting more? Has this experience changed what you deem important in life?

Discovery

Have you learned new information? Have you discovered new family stories? Have you explored virtually – engaging with the National Theatre Live/British Museum/PE With Joe Wicks?

Humour

Come on, lets have it…. what’s made you laugh out loud in a happy sense? 

Next Steps

Tweet @CharnwoodMuseum or @ComCurators or post/tag them on Facebook with your stories and pictures.

Any film clips sent over should be a maximum of two minutes. They are not expecting high quality/professional videos, as long as they can hear you and see you, your phone camera should suffice. Try to ensure videos are no larger than 60MB, however don’t worry too much about the size as they can be compressed.

They can accept content via email or Facebook Messenger at www.facebook.com/CommunityCurators, if you have another way you’d like to send over the content, get in touch and they will try to accommodate you.

Last updated: Fri 18th September, 2020 @ 13:13