Workshop Abstracts
1. Promoting greater awareness and understanding of diverse communities and exploring hidden histories through digital storytelling.
Sarah Cotton, Keeper of Contemporary Collecting, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Kylea Little, Keeper, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Contemporary collecting within Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums has been heavily dependent on collecting personal stories and working with local communities and numerous social history projects have involved aspects of co-curation with local people. This session will trace the development of personal stories within museums. From oral histories to digital stories we will look at real examples of personal stories within the collection and how they have been used in interpretation. The workshop will also explore ways for curatorial and outreach teams to work together to get the best out of communities and to broaden the histories told within our museum spaces.
Workshop 2: Building skills and confidence by using games, objects and memories in a story circle.
Barrie Stephenson, Owner of Digistories
Anita Moffitt, Museum Assistant, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Everyone has a story to tell but how do workshop facilitators inspire confidence in participants to share their experience and craft it into a short narrative?
This practical workshop will look at some of the best ways to develop a story and build confidence. Experience the story circle for yourself; explore and write a story through word play and memory prompts and discover how to encourage workshop participants to create stories inspired by objects from collections. Come prepared to take part and collaborate in this fascinating process.
Workshop 3: An alternative education – how can digital storytelling be used to support lifelong learning?
Sophie Mitchell, Collections Access Officer, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Mary Hagan, South Tyneside Adult Education Services
Barrie Cooper, Chaplain, HMP Durham
Lauren Prince, Project Coordinator – Volunteers, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
This workshop will explore how digital story telling has affected individuals from excluded audiences. Focusing on unemployed people, prisoners, refugees and asylum seekers, this session will discuss the practical and emotional skills that are explored during digital story telling sessions and how these can impact on participants and influence future learning. The workshop will also look at how informal learning may influence those who have been away from formal learning for a length of time.
Workshop 4: Whose story is it anyway? The ethics of digital storytelling.
Helen Graham, Research Associate, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University
Mel Whewell, Principal Officer Collections Management, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
At the heart of digital story telling is a simple idea. That you have a story, that it is your story and that you have chosen to share it. Yet what happens when you sign the consent form and it becomes accessioned into a museum collection? What was once your story– through being part of a museum collection – becomes an ‘object’. This means the museum takes on public responsibility for the curation, storage and management of that object. This workshop will discuss the ethics of accessioning in the digital age.
Workshop 5: Digital Storytelling - Identifying Emerging Opportunities
John Hentley, Evaluation Officer and Zoe Brown, Outreach Officer, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
This workshop will build on previous presentations delivered throughout the day, reiterating the positive impacts of digital storytelling. Looking into the issues raised by numerous professionals from a range of sectors, this workshop will act as a springboard to stimulate further discussion and exploration on how you can use digital storytelling to benefit you and your organisation.