Connect. Create. Celebrate.

Throughout 2018, as part of St Helens’ 150th anniversary, our town is decoding its past and designing its future. As part of the annual Heritage Open Days weekend we’ve selected two artists to form a new partnership with the town’s Deafness Resource Centre. The centre is marking an anniversary of its own this year, having provided services for D/deaf people, their carers and families for 90 years.

Over the summer, artists Katie Musgrove and Alex Douglas have connected with a wide range of people from the D/deaf community in St. Helens using creative workshops in order to remember and celebrate the work of the centre but also the ways in which the D/deaf communities in this region have developed over the decades. An especially important part of Connect. Create. Celebrate. has been a series of workshops that have connected people from different generations along with family members who are both deaf and hearing, giving the opportunity for a range of stories to be heard and celebrated.

Their work will be presented alongside archive images and film from the DRC’s incredible 90 year history in the beautiful – and rarely open – Lady Pilkington Chapel, next to the Deafness Resource Centre, which will be open between 9:00am and 3:30pm on Friday 7th September.

Members of the public are invited to connect with members of the D/deaf community, co-create and celebrate community in a creative workshop that will be led by Katie Musgrove at the DRC between 9:30am and 12:30pm on Friday 7th September.

Between 1:30-3:30pm there will be a celebratory tea party that is open to all and which will feature the work produced in the creative workshop.

Part of the national Heritage Open Days https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/.

[Image courtesy of Deafness Resource Centre, ‘D/deaf members enjoying their Annual Tea Party’, 1930s, from their archives and featured in their publication ‘Deaf History 1928-2008’, 2016]