The Museum of Me is a brand new project that celebrates the lives of ordinary people by creating individual museums with, for and about them. It’s a fun, personal and meaningful project that tells the story of each person through a collection of their objects and stories, offering a snapshot of the area they live in. Created by artist Paul O’Donnell with event design by Vortex Creates, the aim is for the project to go on to reach many more communities, creating museums with some of the people that live in them.
For this first ever Museum of Me, almost 5,000 households in Stechford, Yardley and Lea Hall received individual invitations to apply to take part. Open to anyone living in the B33 8 post code, just 10 people were selected for the extraordinary opportunity to create their very own museum about themselves.
Aged between 8 and 88 and from all walks of life from right across the area, the chosen individuals are Abdelhadi Hussein, Amna Esposito, Eunice Cynthia McGhie-Belgrave MBE, Hannah Lyttle, Helen Marie Weldon, Joginderpal Singh Chana, Jutta Stahlhacke, Leila-Rose Williams, Terry Newton and Zeeshan Hussein.
Artist Paul O’Donnell said, “The participants aren’t super heroes or celebrities but ordinary people with a story to tell. The Museum of Me is about real people who make their small but important contributions to the world around them. It’s been amazing to meet them all and we can’t wait for you to get to know them too.”
The museums will be presented in the grounds of the beautiful Tudor Blakesley Hall in September as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. Each museum will have its own personalised, official opening, complete with a red ribbon to cut. They will be free to visit from 11.15am until 4pm on each museum day:
Saturday 10th, Sunday 11th, Friday 16th, Saturday 17th, Sunday 18th, Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th, Sunday 25th, Thursday 29th and Friday 30th September 2022
Audio description available. For more access information please visit blakesleyhall.org.uk.
A Creative City Project generously funded by Birmingham City Council.
