Building on the success of the last reminiscence and arts project in care homes in Wychavon, Suitcase stories enabled 77 adults living with dementia and their carers in six Worcestershire locations to relive memories from the 40s, 50s and 60s using objects from Museums Worcestershire handling collection. The themes of the objects were work, holidays, hair and beauty, family and nature and all of the objects came in suitcases. From these memories new stories about Worcestershire’s past have been sourced and written. These were performed in six local dementia cafes by a professional storyteller Gavin Young and musician Gemma Young and were recorded by Ade Holbrook for audio uses. These activities will enable Museums Worcestershire to reach out to more audiences. They will also have a lasting new resource through the cd’s and podcasts created. Tickets were £2 per person per week which included refreshments.

The workshops took place for 6 weeks at each project across the County;

Malvern Cube, Malvern  from October 2016

The Commandery, Worcester from October  2016

Avoncroft Museum, Bromsgrove from October 2016

The Museum of Carpet, Kidderminster-Mondays from 6 February 2017 10am to 12 noon

Forge Mill museum, Redditch-Mondays from 6 February 2017 from 2-4pm

Evesham Library-Thursdays from 9 February 2017 from, 12-2pm

The first three recordings of the stories from, Malvern, Worcester and Bromsgrove are here

All six of the stories are here 

The project was supported by Arts Council England, The Elmley Foundation, Worcestershire County Council, Worcestershire Arts Partnership, Malvern Hills DC, Wychavon DC, Bromsgrove and Redditch BC, Wyre Forest DC, Worcester City DC

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