A Suffolk and Hertfordshire contemporary collecting and community project

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Saving the 70s was an HLF funded project lead by the Association for Suffolk Museums in 11 museums across Hertfordshire and Suffolk.

Visitor at Dacorum Heritage Trust’s pop-up exhibition

This booklet has been compiled by Emma Hodges, Contemporary Collections Intern for the Saving the ‘70s project

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Introduction

Saving the ‘70s was developed by 11 museums and heritage organisations in Hertfordshire and Suffolk with generous funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Led by the Association for Suffolk Museums, the project focused on individual community activities, whilst partners also worked together to learn from each other, share resources and create an exciting project. The focus on contemporary collecting and recent history allowed museums to explore themes, stories and issues within living memory, engaging with audiences who did not previously relate to much of the museums’ collections.

Local people were drawn into the project in a wide number of ways: they were encouraged to contribute objects, photographs, documents, memories and stories to enrich collections and exhibitions, they took part in related events and were drawn into museum volunteering and seeing the exhibitions. The exhibitions focused on local issues whilst also setting these stories in a broader national context.

This commemorative booklet captures the range of each partner’s project activities, evaluates the success of the project and explores its impact on the participants.

Campervan event in Letchworth town centre

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The second half of the twentieth century is under-represented in most museum collections and during project development most museums had difficulty in identifying any artefacts from the 1970s in their collections. Yet many of the partner towns and surrounding areas saw rapid and fundamental change during the decade as housing estates were built, new populations moved in and traditional town centres were transformed out of all recognition. Grammar schools disappeared, the first shopping centres were built, historic buildings were demolished, cinemas closed, and many traditional and long-lived businesses and industries disappeared forever.

The project highlighted the risk of losing the material culture and intangible heritage of the 1970s unless action was taken to start collecting and recording this important decade whilst it remains in living memory. The timing and approach was crucial to enable curators to collect the personal and local stories behind photo-graphs and objects. Even when collecting ‘generic’ items such as mass produced toys or kitchen equipment, the local and personal stories and memories of an item are what makes a difference to our understanding of the heritage and our ability to represent it accurately for the future. Inspiring people to see the value of objects and memories of heritage in the second half of 20th century was critical.

Why the 1970s?

Aim One: Collect, record and preserve 1970s material and memories, especially local stories that relate to major changes of the period.

Aim Two: Develop the skills of local volunteers and staff in community focused exhibitions and related activities about the 1970s, recruiting new volunteers where possible

Aim Three: Develop and build on community links across counties in order to develop valued events and services for specific groups, including vulnerable older people and families

Aim Four: Create exhibitions and a range of opportunities for local people to be-come involved and contribute to the heritage of the ‘70s

Aim Five: Disseminate the learning of the project to the wider museum sector and, if possible, other relevant professionals working in local communities

Project Aims

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Over the course of the year Saving the ‘70s has reached some remarkable mile-stones:

Project Statistics

Between 10 November 2013 and 25 November 2014 the project engaged with 79,387 people through a huge range of exhibitions, community con-sultations and events

The 193 volunteers who were engaged in the project logged almost 584 volunteer hours worth at least £49,262.50 in man-hours to the project partners

The project succeeded in partnering with SHARE East to provide 18 formal training opportunities with 160 attendees. In addition to these the project orchestrated a further 40 informal mentoring and training sessions involv-ing 56 people

Craft workshop at Moyse’s Hall Museum

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Key Activities: Digitization of a photographic collection, 1970s Road Show, ‘70s themed Summer Carnival, Pop-Up Shop Exhibition, Local History Book Launch and Lecture and ‘70s Themed Music Nights

Key Partners: Halesworth Lions Club, Circle 67, The Halesworth and Blyth Valley Part-nership

Taking the collection outside the walls of the museum was an ambitious project for the volunteer-run Halesworth and District Museum, who see their future lying in the community they serve. They achieved their aim through the most ambitious series of events of any of the project partners, all the while digitising a staggering 30,000 images and recording over 30 hours of oral history material. Through a road show series they took their museum to surrounding villages, building community links and developing interest in the project in the local area. The pop up exhibition ‘Hot Pants in Halesworth’ in an empty shop on the High Street attracted over 400 people, equal to a quarter of the museum’s usual annual visitors.

In addition to the progress made in partnership working, the museum is looking to develop a number of 1970s reminiscence loan boxes for use by local groups.

Halesworth and District Museum

1970s Themed Carvival in Halesworth

“When an exhibition is in someone’s lifespan...[it] becomes a participatory thing” Volunteer

Project Outcomes: Suffolk

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Haverhill & District Local History Group

Key Activities: Film Showings, School’s Out for Summer Exhibition, Haverhill Festival Stall, Local History Booklet and Town Trail

Key Partner: The Arts Centre

Through the project, the entirely volunteer-run group hoped to attract a wider range of people to the museum and raise their profile by running a series of events in conjunction with the Arts Centre, including a series of 1970s films, children’s activities and exhibitions. Throughout the project, they have worked with the local community to add memories, sto-ries, photographs and artefacts to their collection and in doing so have built up their local audiences and forged new long lasting partnerships. The 1970s provided the opportunity to generate a more contemporary focus for heritage in the town, which changed fundamental-ly during this decade and has culminated in the creation of a new, local history booklet, ‘A Glimpse of Haverhill in the 70s’. The success of the project and the breadth of events has acted to raise the society’s profile in the local community, and the popularity of the events and exhibition which have taken place has resulted in recognition of the value of the organisation within the town council.

“We’ve learnt an awful lot about displaying our collection” Volunteer1970s Craft activities at Haverhill Festival

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Key Activities: Provision of Film Reels and ‘70s advertising images, Heritage Open Day, Lecture at Halesworth

The History of Advertising Trust is an independent charitable trust with the largest ar-chive of British advertising in the world, dating from the early 1800s to the present day. Throughout the project customised reels of 1970s TV commercials and print ads from their extensive collection have entertained and inspired audiences as part of exhibitions and activities across both counties.

The impact on the way the organisation works with partners has been invaluable and provided a shining example of how the collection can be successfully used in outreach and educational work in partners/situations far beyond the industry-base.

History of Advertising Trust

“Being part of a larger museum network, with opportunities to attend specialist training sessions and project meetings, has hugely benefitted our team with new knowledge, skills and useful contacts. We’d certainly do it all again.” Trust Director

BIRD’S ANGEL DELIGHT 1973 Press advertisement for Birds by the Leo Bur-nett (LPE) advertising agency Credit: The History of Advertising Trust www.hatads.org.uk (HAT32/97) Angel Delight, a powdered instant dessert mix, was introduced by Birds (by then part of General Foods Ltd) in 1967 and came in sev-eral brightly coloured flavours. As this adver-tisement suggests, the fact that this powdered product could be easily mixed with milk by children was clearly designed to appeal to busy working mums of the period who didn’t have time to cook a traditional family meal in the evening. The child model’s fashionable “pudding bowl” haircut and brightly patterned clothes are typical of the period and the reference in the accompanying copy to the pop singer David Cassidy, particularly popular with teenage girls, provides a further nod to the cultural zeitgeist.

Angel Delight advert from the HAT archives

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Key Activities: 1970s Exhibition, Record Launch, 1970s Sci-fi Event

Key Partners: The Martins Residential Home, St Peter’s Care Home and GateHouse Day Centre

Moyse’s Hall Museum sought to build their younger audience and deliver activities to draw in more family and intergenerational groups. Workshops and events as well as in-ter-active elements in the exhibition drew in a wider range of visitors than usual in high numbers. The events included record launches for a local ‘70s band, a 1970s youth club reunion and ‘70s toy and puppet workshops for families.

The exhibition explored 1970s technology including early computer and space games through the context of 1970’s social history and popular culture. The 1970’s dance floor, the SciFi characters and early computer technology and games, along with the film reels from the History of Advertising Trust, acted as a fantastic springboard for intergener-ational family groups to enjoy, share memories using post-it notes and interact in the museum and with the displays and to inspire people to contribute contemporary collec-

Moyse’s Hall Museum

“The fact that there was a mix of items on show, not just items behind glass, and of course the music and TV ads added to the variety and stimu-lated interest in a different way” The Martins Residential Home Manager Visit from care home residents at Moyse’s Hall Museum

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Museum of East Anglian Life

Key Activities: Escape to the Country Exhibition, Super Smashing ‘70s May Day, 1970s Cos-tume Talk

Key Partners: Albion Fairs Archive, Old Hall Collective

The key themes and text behind the exhibition at the Museum of East Anglian Life were developed with local communities through several workshops. ‘Escape to the Country’, an ex-hibition exploring the ‘70s search for self-sufficiency, acted as a kick-starter for conversations with communities and provided the opportunity for the Museum to pose the question ‘What does the 70s mean to you?’

‘Preserving the 70s’, an interactive element of the exhibition, encouraged visitors to preserve their own 70s stories. Over 175 visitors made a ‘jam jar’ and the accompanying tags were evaluated. Many visitors chose to write in-depth responses showing that this interactive en-couraged a high level of engagement.

The Museum has continued to focus on collecting ‘70s objects, either through donations or purchasing items suggested by communities. Some of these will be on display in a 1970s room setting which will open in Spring 2015.

“I felt very involved and please to be included in more than ‘grunt’ work. I felt invested in the outcome and excited to see it through to the end… I felt proud of what I had contributed.” Museum Volunteer

Super Smashing ‘70s May Day at the Museum of East Anglian Life

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Key Activities: Pop-up Shop, Library Gathering Events, 1970s Art Workshop

Key Partners: Berkhamsted Art Shop, Local Libraries,

Dacorum Heritage Trust houses collections relating to the history of the Borough of Daco-rum but has very limited public access, so the staff and volunteers embarked on an am-bitious programme to reach local people and go beyond traditional audiences. Through a series of memory-gathering events at libraries across Dacorum, ‘70s themed workshops at the local art shop, recording oral histories and manning a market stall, the Trust built mo-mentum for a pop-up shop at the Marlowes Shopping Centre in October which attracted over 4700 visitors in just 13 days.

The Trust succeeded in developing new audiences, enhancing the skills, knowledge and ex-perience of staff and changed the perception of the Trust as ‘only a store’ to create a pres-ence and recognition within the community.

Dacorum Heritage Trust

“I’ve grown, I’ve learnt a lot, I have learnt a lot about managing large-scale projects, being realistic and taking risks” Collections Manager

Pop-up exhibition at the Marlowes Shopping Centre

Project Outcomes: Hertfordshire

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Garden City Collection, Letchworth

Key Activities: Campervan Day, Pop-Up Shop Exhibition, Fanzine Workshop

Key Partners: North Herts College

Through the Saving the ‘70s project the Collection aimed to improve its profile in the local community by delivering events and exhibitions outside of the store space. During the de-velopment phase the team team identified a need to engage the local community with their history as the museum building now focuses purely on Garden Cities. A memory gathering event in the town centre which utilised the attraction of a 1970s camper van succeeded in generating intergenerational discussion and identified oral history participants whilst also creating interest for the later exhibition in a pop-up shop in the town.

The shop space acted to engage with ‘non-users’ of the Collection and it’s services, a theme which was echoed in the fanzine workshop undertaken with North Herts College where students used material from the Collection as a stimulus to create their own booklets using traditional materials and methods. Through engaging with younger audiences and non-us-ers the Collection has continued to grow its user base and create stronger links with the local communities.

“Visitors value the history and value the fact that it is archived... People stayed for ages and really loved it” Museum Curator

Young visitor with his chopper bike at the pop-up exhibition in Letchworth

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Hertford Museum

Key Activities: Sound and Vision Music Event, Memory Gathering Day, ‘70s themed fam-ily events week

Key Partners: Hertfordshire Regional College

Over 450 music fans explored the displays and watched 1970s themed acts at the muse-ums ambitious Sound and Vision event in June. Few of these people had ever visited the museum before and it helped change their perception of what the museum was for.

The Museum is now seeing an increase in first-time visitors and enjoys a greater social media following. Employing a professional artist to work with students from Hertford-shire Regional College resulted in an incredible range of art work inspired by the Muse-um’s 1970’s collections which was displayed at the Sound and Vision, increasing visitor numbers and interest in the event. Additionally, the project provided training opportu-nities and equipment which has facilitated oral history recording, an area in which the museum hopes to continue developing in the future.

“The project has given us a great deal of opportunity to try new things, and take risks” Museum Curator

Absolute Bowie at the Sound and Vision event at Hertford Corn Exchange

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Key Activities: ‘70s Summer Fete, ‘Staying In’ and ‘Going Out’ exhibitions, WEA Workshops

Key Partners: WEA, Oaklands College, National Jazz Archive, Howard Centre

Mill Green Museum delivered an exciting series of events, workshops and exhibitions throughout the year which attracted people in hard to reach groups in the face of diffi-culties in securing an external venue and staffing changes. Through a partnership with the WEA the museum hosted workshops on 1970s Fashion Design, Macrame and Creative Writing.

A pop-up exhibition in the Howard Shopping Centre in Welwyn Garden City during the summer holidays explored ‘Going Out’ in the 1970s and encouraged the museum to think outside of the box, and walls, and demonstrated to volunteers and friends of the museum the benefit of working directly in the community rather than inside its own walls.

Mill Green Museum

“Some of the things we research can be quite dry, but this project has been really exciting and the fun element has been a really good thing. I wish we could carry on into next year.” Museum Curator

Staff and VIPs at the ‘70s Summer Fete

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St Albans Museum

Key Activities: Pop-Up Shop, Photography workshop, Exhibition

Key Partners: AGE Concern, Christopher Place Shopping Centre

The Museum of St Albans has previously struggled to attract large audiences due to its location. The project provided an opportunity for audience development, taking its col-lections out to the people it serves. In addition to an exhibition in the museum, the pop-up shop format was developed after plans for an outdoor city-centre display had to be shelved. This surprise addition to the event line-up proved incredibly popular, attracting people in the street and sparking the imagination of residents through the display of 1970s photographs from the museum’s Review Newspaper archive. The success of the shop display was invaluable for demonstrating the effect of a city-centre location, which helped to inform the plans for the relocation of the museum to a new space in the Old Town Hall in the centre of St Albans.

The information gathered about the photographs during the exhibitions and from var-ious reminiscence sessions has enriched the collections documentation. As a legacy of this project, this contextual information, along with the images, will be made available online for public access when the museum’s new website becomes live.

“It was nice to work on a project with other museums, but all doing it in dif-ferent ways” Museum Curator

Reminiscence session at St Albans Museum

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Stevenage Museum

Key Activities: Exhibition, Reminiscence Sessions, Quiz Night

Key Partners: Wisden Court Care Home

Attracting Stevenage residents who had not visited the museum before was a crucial element of the project. This was achieved by developing an interactive, humorous and community-focused exhibition in partnership with residents with dementia at Wisden Court Care Home. The outcomes of the ‘Generation Game’ themed workshops with a local artist were then put on display as part of the exhibition. In addition to working with older groups, the museum delivered events for families with a focus on 1970s crafts.

Alongside fantastic events, the museum took the opportunity to look at its collections in more depth which has allowed a greater understanding of the new town in the 1970s.

“We have had money to do something that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. We have reinforced and built on partnerships.” Museum Curator

Visitors at the Reminiscence launch event at Stevenage Museum

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Taking the Museum to the Community: Pop-Up Shops

Some Key Recommendations from the Project

Pop-up shops are often offered at short notice, and shop units availability can change at the last minute. Everyone needed to be prepared to adapt an exhibition accordingly.

Units with a shop front are best. In addition to providing a display space and draw for the exhibition, the shop front also allows visitors to see what they are committing to before entering the space

Signage is crucial in publicising your museum and upcoming permanent and temporary exhibitions and events, whilst also making it obvious that entry is free.

Building relationships with local venues, including shopping centres, can be long lasting and empty shop units are often offered free of charge or at a charitable rate.

It is possible for low value objects, reproduced photographs, text panels and even complete exhibitions to be shared amongst museums if suitable transport is available

Make sure volunteers understand what is expected of them when invigilating a pop-up shop space, particularly if they are used to working in back office type roles

Visitor at the exhibition at Moyse’s Hall Museum

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Some of the most successful aspects of the Saving the ‘70s project occurred where project partners allowed the activity plans to develop and grow and embrace unforseen opportunities which occurred eg. last minute pop-up shops and Moyse’s Hall Museum Record Launch

Many participating museums have increased the number and variety of family activities they offer which has increased the number of families who visit them.

Working with artists can be expensive, but the results have many benefits including higher visitor numbers and increased publicity surrounding events

Objects are often donated after exhibitions. Seeing contemporary objects in museums often seems to be the catalyst needed to change opinions over what members of the public think is important for museums to collect

The Saving the ‘70s project has raised interesting questions regarding provenance and the use of objects as ‘types’ with no local link, but rather a basis for discussion and collecting associated memories and photographs

Contemporary objects have provided an excellent basis for practical arts and craft workshops during the project, and many of these outcomes have been displayed in exhibitions

The Saving the ‘70s project has allowed museums to reach out to their local communities, create new community partnerships and build on existing links. A huge range of exciting and valued exhibitions and events have provided opportunities for local people to become involved and contribute to their local museums through volunteering, community consultations and attendance.

This project made possible training, events, activities, exhibitions, publications and partnerships and has made a difference to heritage, people and communities. It enabled museums to take risks which they otherwise wouldn’t have taken, to employ specialist artists and experts in oral history and reminiscence, to offer targeted training sessions and provide trainees with invaluable professional experience in a challenging museum environment.

The project has changed the way museums work with their communities and increased their commitment to working with local people. Legacy projects are already underway and the huge benefits of working in partnership have inspired museums to explore future joint working. Saving the ‘70s won’t stop just because the formal project has ended .... it has been a catalyst for permanent changes that everyone can build on.

Project LegacyTaking Risks: Adapting Activity Plans

Contemporary Collecting: Changing Hearts and Minds

Future Contact

Lyn Gash, Secretary of the Association for Suffolk Museums, Lyn.Gash@suffolk.gov.uk