CHPPC x Museum of Youth Culture
Image credit: 59 Club Archive (Youth Club Archive)
In 2020-21 we collaborated with the Museum of Youth Culture part of the project ‘Setting the Record Straight’, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, hosting four paid research interns working remotely with digital collections and resources to produce a short research output for online publication.
The Museum of Youth Culture is a new emerging museum dedicated to the styles, sounds and social movements innovated by young people over the last 100 years. Championing the impact of youth on modern society, the Museum is formed from the archives of YOUTH CLUB, a non-profit Heritage Lottery- & Arts Council-funded collection incorporating over 150,000 photographs, ephemera, objects, and oral histories celebrating youth culture history. From bomb-site bicycle racers in post-war 1940s London, to the Acid House ravers of 1980s Northern England, the Museum of Youth Culture records and empowers the extraordinary stories of growing up in Britain.
Research Internships
For ‘Setting the Record Straight’, our four research interns 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. Their work also modelled ways in which the Museum’s online archive can be used as a rich primary resource for research.
Our four interns undertook projects on fast food and the spaces of youth culture (Eleanor Barnett), histories of leopard print (Lauren Eglen), the local and global geographies of Grime music (Jamal Langley) and the opening night of gay superclub Heaven (Emili Stevenson).
You can view the completed projects on the Museum of Youth Culture website. Eleanor Barnett’s essay on fast food was also printed on large boards at the Museum’s ‘pop-up’ on Carnaby Street, London, in winter 2020. You can also take a look at our CHPPC online seminar in which we discuss the research, along with questions about virtual or alternative museums, and ‘remote’ archival research during 2020 and 2021.
The collaboration with the Museum of Youth Culture helped us think about people, place and community in fresh ways, and involve new participants and audiences in the Centre’s work.
