Birmingham residents are being offered the chance to secure a place in the city’s history when a new museum gallery opens next year.
As part of the £9.7 million Birmingham history galleries, which will open in autumn 2012, staff at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery are developing a number of oral history projects on aspects of Birmingham life.
The ‘Your Birmingham’ gallery will explore the histories and stories of a wide range of local people through objects, text, photographs, audio and film.
The new gallery will play host to Birmingham’s iconic HP factory sign – saved when the Aston factory was demolished in 2007.
And Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture Cllr Martin Mullaney, expects the sign to be a popular talking point.
He said: “I’m sure it will be the star item in the gallery – it’s an iconic image from Birmingham’s past. So we’re asking people to get in touch with us and talk about their memories of working at the factory and just general memories around the sign itself.
“The new gallery will talk about the wider history of this fantastic city and its people and we’re gathering stories for this exhibition – not just about the HP sign but about lots of subjects.”
Staff are currently collecting stories on the following:
Suburban Birmingham in the first half of the twentieth century
- Working at Austin Motor Works, Longbridge
- Working at Cadbury’s
- Working at Chad Valley, Harborne
- Moving to Kingstanding or Weoley Castle estates
1945 onwards
- 40s – 90s Lewis’s Store: shoppers/employees
- 50s The Duddeston Four or Prefabs: first residents
- 60s Birmingham Nightclubs in the 1950s/60s: People who owned/went out to Birmingham nightclubs
- 1964 The Bull Ring: shoppers/shopkeepers
- 2000 – 2003 Bullring: shoppers/shopkeepers
- HP Factory: Workers/HP Sauce enthusiasts
- Duran Duran fans
- 1947 Winter: Birmingham people who experienced the winter in Birmingham
- 1953 End of the Trams: Birmingham people who remember travelling on the last trams in the city
- 1968 Rivers of Blood Speech: people present at speech or affected in aftermath
- 1977 Silver Jubilee: Birmingham people who celebrated in Birmingham
- 1986 / 1987 / 1988 / 1989 Super Prix: Birmingham spectators/participants
How to tell your story:
- Use our on-line form http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=orjlyQeOyqs86JWp0yRAtg_3d_3d
- Go to the Your Birmingham group on Flickr where you can upload photos of your objects and tell your stories. http://www.flickr.com/groups/yourbirmingham/
- Call Mariyam Ali 0121 303 4585, 07920576831
ENDS
For more information contact Geoff Coleman on 0121 303 3501
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