Imagine: a hundred years of homes in Bath - funded by the Wellcome Trust

Bath Record Office has recently worked on a Wellcome Trust funded project entitled ‘Building a Healthier City 2: slum clearance, council housing and renovation in Bath, 1890-1995’ which you can read more about here. As part of this we undertook a complementary engagement project, in partnership with Creativity Works and the Genesis Trust to enable local community groups to creatively engage with original housing records.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed the course, especially finding out more of the history of Bath in relation to where I am living. I have also really enjoyed doing some art works for the first time in many years. A big thank you to Ellie, Hannah and Drew for making it fun” Community participant

“The Imagine: a hundred years of homes in Bath project was a great success and a testament to the hard work, passion, and commitment from the many project stakeholders to both deliver on its funding objectives but also to create meaningful and unique opportunities and experiences for the community participants who were engaged with over the summer and autumn of 2022.” Kayte McSweeney, Project Evaluator

The workshops included architectural drawing, map-making, poetry and creative writing, clay modelling and more. Artworks and writing from the project have been added to Bath Record Office’s collections and you can find the catalogue to them here.

The sessions were themed in the following way:

1. Housing and the City

2. Housing and Health

3. Housing and the Environment

4. Housing and You

5. Housing and the Community

Imagine - Project Gallery

Drawings

Drawings of participant's favourite buildings or styles of architecture.

Creative Writing

Creative writing on the theme of housing and health.

Mapping

Maps created by the participants of their favourite places.

Clay Sculpture

Objects that reminded the participants of home.

Collages

Collages on what housing meant to the participants.

Protest Signs

Collaged Protest Signs on what the participants wanted to say about the state of housing in the City.

Project Exhibition

Photos taken at the project exhibition in October 2022.

Our sincere thanks go to: Ellie Shipman for acting as creative facilitator of the workshops; Kayte McSweeney for evaluating the project; Creativity Works and Genesis Trust our project partners; and most importantly to everyone who took part in the sessions and for sharing their work with us.

A zine was created by Ellie Shipman to celebrate and promote the project and its creative outcomes. Physical copies of this are available on the Record Office, a digital version can also be downloaded from this page.

In depth evaluation was undertaken by Kayte McSweeney to explore whether creativity adds engagement and research value, and if it could broaden the Bath Record Office’s audience and inform future work. The summary of this report can also be downloaded from this page.

Name	Details
Project Zine by Ellie Shipman	PDF, 12 MB	Download

Name	Details
Project Summary by Kayte McSweeney	PDF, 240 KB	Download

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Imagine: a hundred years of homes in Bath - funded by the Wellcome Trust

Explore Bath's world heritage

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

Imagine: a hundred years of homes in Bath - funded by the Wellcome Trust

Imagine - Project Gallery

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