oral history – Ancient Connections

Opportunity

History Hunters

Ever fancied delving into your family or local history? Can you imagine yourself as a historic super sleuth unearthing long lost nuggets of history from the dust of ancient archives? Might you enjoy researching, writing and publishing blogs and articles about your region’s archaeology or mythology or are you ready to unleash the slumbering storyteller within? If so, Ancient Connections’ History Hunters programme is for you.

Tell Local Stories

The aim is to support curious individuals and those with an interest in their local history and stories, to develop skills and be mentored to dig effectively into their community’s past, and share what they find. No previous experience is necessary and it’s a lot of fun. History Hunters will form local groups and networks to support each other and share information with support and mentoring from the Ancient Connections team.

A suite of four, free modules of training have been developed to equip participants with all they need to know about collecting, recording and sharing a treasure trove of history and stories from their square mile. Training includes how to collect and record oral history, how to search online and published archive sources for Wales and Ireland, how to share and publish research in the form of articles and blogs, and how to tell these stories.

Contractor Delivering Programme:

Become a History Hunter

Date: January 2020

Funded By: Ancient Connections

Project Outputs:
History Hunter’s Training Packs
History Hunter’s Training Programme
History Hunter’s Mentoring
Press Releases & Articles
Social Media

Learn More at:
www.ancientconnections.net/history-hunters

Sylvia Cullen – Smugglers and Summer Snowflakes

Art Commission

Sylvia Cullen

Smugglers & Summer Snowflakes will be a bespoke new collection of short stories, responding to the Ancient Connections themes of journeying, sacred places, Celtic diaspora and longing for home. Inspired by the Story Searches from 2019, and using my own tailored process of Creative Exchanges with local communities, I will create this new collection, setting two stories in Wexford and two in Pembrokeshire.

A Summer Snowflake is a beautiful, rare, poisonous flower native to Wexford; it symbolises the elements every great short story should contain. Smugglers speaks for itself suggesting where I will glean inspiration for this new collection from – drawing on dramatic tales of piracy and bootlegging along the Welsh and Irish coastlines.

The stories will be distributed digitally and shared online as a podcast series for the global Celtic diaspora, as well as being published in book form. In addition, they will be broadcast on local radio in Wales and Wexford.

A Shared Past

“I am a rural-based writer, living in north county Wexford. For Ancient Connections, I will make new work that draws inspiration from our shared past on both sides of the Irish Sea, in order to illuminate our present. This commission is a superb opportunity to explore the interconnectedness of these two regions, creating haunting stories, which will linger on in the minds of all who listen to or read them, no matter where in the world they live.”

Creative Exchanges

“As part of the research process, I will facilitate several Creative Exchanges with local community groups in both Wales and Wexford. I see these interactions as a two-way exchange of oral history and local research. I will facilitate a creative writing workshop for a number of groups and in exchange, participants will offer me their perspectives and opinions on the four Ancient Connections themes.” – Sylvia Cullen

Date: September 2020 – December 2022

Funded by: Ancient Connections

Project Outputs:
New short stories
Podcasts and radio broadcasts
Final exhibition book launch

Email
First Name
Surname
Phone Number (optional)
Where are you based? Wexford Pembrokeshire
I agree with the Privacy policy