The Museum of Youth Culture: Setting the Record Straight

On the 27th January Catherine Clarke (IHR) was joined by Eleanor Barnett, Jamie Brett, Lauren Eglen, Lisa Der Weduwe and Jamal Langley.

In 2020, the IHR’s Centre for the History of People, Place and Community (CHPPC) embarked on a collaboration, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with the Museum of Youth Culture (MOYC), a new emerging museum dedicated to the styles, sounds and social movements shaped by young people over the last 100 years.

As part of the project ‘Setting the Record Straight’, the MOYC and CHPPC jointly mentored four paid research interns, whose projects made use of the Museum’s online archive and sought to challenge traditional narratives around youth culture and instead develop inclusive, diverse stories that champion the everyday experiences of being young. The four research projects included work on fast food spaces and youth culture, Grime music and social housing, histories of leopard print, and the opening night of gay superclub Heaven.

This seminar brings together a panel from the Museum of Youth Culture and CHPPC, with project interns, to discuss the collaboration, showcase the new research, and explore broader questions including approaches to youth and sub-culture histories, working in partnership, and ‘virtual’ projects in 2020.