What is Stories of the World?
Stories of the World is a unique and innovative UK-wide
programme led by ACE (Arts
Council England) in partnership with the London Organising
Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).
The programme puts young people at the heart of the curatorial
process to present exciting new museum exhibitions across the UK.
It will connect museums’ objects and collections with relevant
communities in the UK and abroad responding to the London 2012
Cultural Olympiad’s aim of “welcoming the world”.
Sounds Global
At National Museums Scotland’s we're working with young
people to create responses to the new Performance and Lives gallery, a
multi-sensory experience that explores musical instruments,
performance and ceremony around the world.
The young people's installation will be displayed in the
National Museum of Scotland from 26 July to 30 September
2012. You can find out more about the
exhibition here.
Stories of the World events and activities so far
Here are some of the highlights of our activities in the build
up to the opening of the Sounds Global exhibition.
Launch Weekend 2010
We took part in the UK Open Weekend 24-25 July 2010 to
launch our Stories of the World: Sounds Global project and begin
the two year countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games.
We kicked off Sounds Global with a lot of noise and two days of
rhythms from around the world from Tigerstyle, a Bhangra hip hop DJ
set with live Punjabi percussion by one of the biggest names
in Bhangra and Pete the Beat from the Baobab Gateway.
Tigerstyle DJ set © Jenni Sophia Fuchs
First steps
In order to find out what young people think of National Museums
Scotland, we carried out a series of intensive workshops
with consultants Space Unlimited. You can find
out more about the results in this
blog post.
UK Youth Steering Group
In March 2011, volunteers Charlotte and Shannon met up with
other young people from across the UK taking part in this project
at a UK Youth Steering Group in Birmingham.
You can read more about the event on The
Feast Bowl blog.
Murder at the Museum
In May 2011, Charlotte and Shannon organised a Murder
Mystery Night after hours in the National Museum of Scotland.
The event was a resounding success, and proved instrumental in
establishing how we work with young people at National Museums
Scotland.
The City Sings
In March 2012, the National Museum of Scotland rang to the sound
of voices and music, as around 200 school pupils and 25 students
from the University of Edinburgh's Music in the Community course
joined forces for a special concert. You can see the concert and find out more about the
project here.
Preparing Sounds Global
In the summer of 2011, we started working on the Sounds Global
exhibition with our team of young volunteers. As part of their
research for the exhibition, our ambassadors have interviewed
musicians and artists from around the world, including artist and
composer Victor
Gama, in order to establish the themes and content of the
display.
Keeping up to date through weekly meetings and their own
Facebook group, the team have worked with National Museums Scotland
curators and exhibition officers to craft a vibrant experiential
exhibition that conveys their own love of music.