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The 24 Hour Museum's City Heritage Guide websites celebrate museum and gallery culture in 10 English cities. Commissioned by Culture Online, the mini-sites explore Birmingham, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle & Gateshead and Norwich.
Each guide contains news, reviews, trails and features put together by 24HM working in partnership with cultural groups, museum professionals and journalism students.
To explore real history within actual communities and to attract new contributors 24HM staff developed an easy-to-use online authoring system called Storymaker.
This tool enables groups and individuals to write about the heritage, culture and history of their city. Storymaker can be used to submit news, reviews, heritage trails or simply enable the sharing of memories. No specialist web knowledge is needed.
Storymaker is free to use and can empower groups or individuals to present their heritage in their own words. It's a fantastic resource for museum professionals too.
It could be used by education or outreach workers to create online exhibitions and teachers could use Storymaker with students to create an online account of a museum or gallery visit.
An eclectic mix of local history and community content already appears on the City Heritage Guide websites, from a heritage trail of Mill Hill in London produced by disability arts organisation Community Focus, to reminiscence trails written by a group in Norwich, Pabulum, who work with stroke victims.
Some examples of 24HM Storymaker trails:
Church End - by Community Focus
Community Focus is a specialist arts organisation in the London Borough of Barnet. It exists to encourage disabled and older people to participate in the arts in pursuit of education, recreation, personal development and comradeship - cultivating creativity, equality and strength in an inclusive and caring environment.
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/london/local/TRA26762.html
Down Our Street: Growing Up In 1950s Norwich - by Raymond Aldous
Raymond Aldous is a retired merchant seaman who has no web access at home. He gets online at his local branch library and uses Storymaker to tell us his yarns about the past in Norwich and Norfolk. Read about his experiences at school and playing in the streets and woods in his area, the way they used to be.
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/norwich/local/TRA26813.html holly north
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