Collaborate project spotlight
Find out more about the partnership between National Museums Liverpool and Sophie Oliver, University of Liverpool
Gender Stories
National Museums Liverpool working with Sophie Oliver, Lecturer in English, University of Liverpool
This partnership was awarded a research grant in June 2022 as part of the first round of funding of the Centre for Cultural Value’s Collaborate programme.
The fund looks to support innovative new partnerships between cultural sector practitioners and academics to explore under-explored questions around cultural value.
What will the project explore?
National Museums Liverpool (NML) and Sophie Oliver from the University of Liverpool will work with diverse audiences in the city to explore how individuals can use objects in the museum’s collection to tell their ‘gender stories’.
The team will explore how the collection can encourage people of diverse gender identities (and intersecting identities) to think about their lived experience and empathise with the experiences of others. For those whose gender identity is marginalised, like transgender and non-binary people, or women of colour, the team hope the stories will help foster a sense of belonging in the museum’s narrative, or remake that narrative in light of their lived experiences.
The participants will be co-creators, whose ideas and feelings about their gender, and their chosen objects, will set the terms for each project phase.
The project aims to weave all the stories collected back into the museum, layering them with existing interpretation to create a kaleidoscope of perspectives. In doing so, the project will push the boundaries of the approach to interpretation and develop innovative methods for narrating cultural history.
We will update you with more findings from the project over the course of the next year.
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