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Lottery funding for Their Past Your Future project
Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has received a £590,000 funding boost towards a museums-led initiative that will collect oral histories from the older generations in communities across Scotland.
The grant will fund the second phase of the Their Past Your Future Scotland campaign, which aims to capture oral histories focussing on World War II and subsequent conflicts.
Phase 1 of the scheme commemorated the 60th anniversary of World War II through a touring exhibition and a series of community events including local exhibitions, entertainment, and events specifically created to generate intergenerational learning opportunities.
One of the biggest outcomes was the gathering of invaluable first hand accounts, experiences and veterans stories that otherwise would never be known. The majority of these were extracted through interaction with schoolchildren or groups of young people.
These personal histories will be collected and compiled into 300 online mini-exhibitions or 'vignettes' - oral histories and illustrative or contextual items from local and national collections.
Joanne Orr, CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland, said: "The impact that Their Past Your Future Scotland projects have had on communities across the country is staggering and I am delighted that we have the opportunity to further that work.
"Personal accounts and reminiscences like these hold much fascination for young people and they can bring a greater understanding of what life was like for their grandparents' generation. People are now acutely aware of the importance and urgency to continue to gather this information now while the opportunity remains."
Culture minister Linda Fabiani said: "I'd like to congratulate Museums Galleries Scotland on the continuation of this wonderful and significant project. Phase two of Their Past Your Future will again see young people and older folk working together in communities across Scotland to deliver a body of work which will be thought provoking as well as entertaining.
"Scotland's older people have a mine of information, stories and experience to impart and it's therefore heartening to know that some of it is being captured through projects such as this for the benefit and education of younger citizens and the wider community.
"With museums and galleries across Scotland set to showcase work from Their Past Your Future, I am really looking forward to the project's ongoing success and securing its abiding and hugely important legacy.''
Their Past Your Future Scotland will culminate with the launch of a website in 2010. The vignettes and other outputs generated will available as a classroom teaching aid via Learning and Teaching Scotland's new Scottish schools' intranet, Glow. This ensures these projects become a rich educational resource for teachers and a global legacy for young people and the wider community involved.