Year of Stories 2022
Beyond 2020: Community Reflections project
The Covid pandemic will shape and impact our society for many years to come. As part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, the project Beyond 2020: Community Reflections invited people from across East Renfrewshire to share their stories of this remarkable point in time.
A fantastic team of volunteers received professional oral history training and went on to interview and record the experiences of over 40 people from all walks of life, who live and/or work in East Renfrewshire. Another group attended creative writing workshops and have produced new writing, which reflects their own experiences.
The interviews and creative writing will be archived permanently in the East Renfrewshire Heritage Collection, leaving a shared community legacy for future generations. This project has culminated in a touring exhibition which will travel around East Renfrewshire Culture & Leisure venues and a main exhibition which will be on display at Eastwood Park Theatre.
These exhibitions invite you to share some of the stories, as told or written by members of East Renfrewshire’s community. Excerpts from the creative writing works are on display, and ten recorded stories have been brought to life through a stunning photographic portrait by Wes Kingston.
This event has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players. The creative writing sessions were part-funded by Live Literature Funding from Scottish Book Trust.
We would also like to thank the project volunteers, creative writers, project interviewees, Wes Kingston for the photography, Sue Morrison, Oral History Training & Research Consultancy for training and advice and Alan Bissett for leading the creative writing workshops. We would also to like to thank staff across East Renfrewshire Culture & Leisure for their support with the project.