Collaborating with The National Archives and Wandsworth Heritage Service

Students at Putney Library exhibition

We’ve been so fortunate to take part in ‘This is Our Park’, a unique partnership with The National Archives and the Wandsworth Heritage Service. Over a series of five workshops, our students studied archived images of items normally found in parks such as plants, animals and ponds as well as recreational facilities. This included old postcards, maps and photographs. Thanks to Enable Leisure and Culture who manage Wandsworth’s public green spaces, students also made visits to parks to learn about the plants and facilities first-hand.

This gave them inspiration to engage with the archived material and work together to create wonderful collages to collectively develop their own park designs. The artwork was then made available in a display at Putney Library from 3-18 October.

Gifty said, “The exhibition is very good artwork, I made posters and pictures of trees. I enjoyed it so much.”

Jordan said, “We went to Wandsworth. We walked by the river. I saw water and boats. I saw a grey heron, a cormorant, a duck and a moorhen […] Two women from Wandsworth Park showed us trees, leaves and flowers […] I liked going to the park.”

“We’ve thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with Share Community and the Wandsworth Libraries and Heritage Service for the 5 week ‘This is Our Park’ project. It’s been wonderful seeing how Share students took inspiration from The National Archive records to help shape their own park designs. They were brilliant to work with and we’re looking forward to working on future projects together.” 

Iqbal Singh, Regional Community Partnerships Manager, The National Archives

“I have really enjoyed getting to know Share’s students, who have taught me a great deal about providing meaningful access to our collections and our spaces. It has been wonderful to see each student develop their artwork during the course of the project, and The National Archives have done a wonderful job in leading this project.”

Emma Anthony, Archivist, Wandsworth Heritage Service

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