Over the past year and a half, a remarkable project from Narberth Museum has grown and morphed into all sorts of exciting directions.
In 2016, when students of Greenhill School, Tenby visited the museum, they were struck by how little history of local women featured. So, with the help of learning officer, Emma Baines, they chose to create six giant Facebook profiles of these women - and this project went on to win the Women’s History Network community prize.
This got Emma thinking: how could the museum celebrate both the women of West Wales, with remarkable achievements - and the ‘ordinary’ women who’d heroically kept their families from starvation? And could an online museum of these women’s stories be created, involving schools, workshops, talks and events - and a wide cross section of West Wales folk?
Funded by Arwain Sir Benfro LEADER Project and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and now half way through, Women of West Wales is an extraordinary example of creative community output. Old and young have come together to make quilted books, linoprint, poems and video poems, bread as it would have been made in Victorian times, designer dolls and paintings of unknown women in the style of Frida Kahlo.
Project collaboration is considerable and the reach of the project extends way beyond Narberth.
Llangwm Litfest and Llangwm History Society are active supporters and on 10th August the project will be live at Llangwm Litfest, with a session of twelve video poems, with poets chatting about what woman they chose and why. Emma, also a poet, will be co hosting the session and give an update on where this amazing project goes next.
Do hope you can join in this celebration of West Wales women and you can book tickets here: https://llangwmlitfest.eventcube.io/events/18635/women-of-west-wales-unearthed-poetry-prose-and-film/
To follow the project, please follow the hashtag #WoWW on Facebook, Twitter
And to see the bilingual online museum, with 60 or so women featured so far: https://woww.narberthmuseum.co.uk/
More stories