Today Museum is a creative learning concept which encourages individual reflection while working as a group. Each session poses a question or explores a theme with 8-10 people. It works across the fields of social integration and cohesion, storytelling, aural history, archiving, and the arts. Today Museum democratises the museum/gallery/cultural space by welcoming community to work alongside social historians/curators/artists. The boundaries are blurred and everyone is an equal participant.

Today Museum replaces ‘artefacts’ with ‘belongings’- an archive of the everyday. The process begins with the group constructing the Today Museum table, they then take turns to share their story, the group responds with ‘emotion blocks’- specially designed props to aid discussion. Together they dig deeper into the question or theme- inevitably new questions arise, ideas are challenged and fresh understandings are ‘brought to the table’.

After ‘storytelling’ the group has time for creative reflection. People photograph the objects, draw self portraits, write letters to family or make model replicas. One boy wrote and performed a song inspired by the different stories he had heard shared. We believe these values of democracy and accessibility need to be applied to the arts so a greater range of voices can be heard.

Prices start from £100 for a one-off session. Block bookings are also available.