[22
FEB 99] COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE
£80,000 Boost For Millennium ProjectThe
Millennium Commission today offered a grant of £80,000 to the ‘The Spirit of
Coventry Education and Community Millennium Project’, which will signal the go ahead
for a variety of exciting activities looking at the past, present and future of the City.
20 partners, who have signed up to the millennium Project, will now be able to carry
out work with community groups, individuals, schools and colleges.
There are six aspects to the project titled: Coventry Lives, Coventry Characters, The
Millennium Clock, The Domesday 2000 record, Neighbourhood Surveys / Community Scan and
Gifts to the City.
 Councillor Gillian Darby, Chair of the Arts and
Culture Policy Team, said the funding will be a boost especially for ‘Coventry
Lives’, one of the main themes of the Millennium Project which will be the biggest
ever oral history survey of life in Coventry, she added:
"I am delighted at the news. With this funding we will now be able to go ahead
with ‘Coventry Lives’, a unique oral history project which will record the
memories and experiences of hundreds of local people speaking about Coventry’s past,
present and future."
Commenting on the award Councillor Joe Clifford, Chair of the Educational Excellence
Policy Team, said:
"I’m thrilled that this grant has been offered because so many key partners
have signed up for the Millennium Project. It also means that school children who
contribute to this long lasting record of life in the City will pass on information which
will be seen and heard by their own great grand children many years from now."
Sally Dewes, Education Manager at the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, one of the, many
partners involved, said:
"The great strength of this project is in its diversity and in the number of
organisations which are involved. It is very encouraging to see how many different groups
are working alongside the City Council to make a positive difference to Coventry’s
future."
NOTES:
The 20 partners who are backing the ‘Spirit of
Coventry Education and Community Millennium Project’ include: the Evening Telegraph,
Coventry City Council, Agenda 21, Coventry archives, The Coventry Arts in Education Group,
Coventry Cathedral, the Coventry Branch of the Historical Association, The Coventry
Performance Arts Network, Coventry Reminiscence Theatre, Coventry and Warwickshire
Promotions, the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education and the Warwickshire
Wildlife Trust.
Attached is s summary of each of the six Millennium Project
themes.
The ‘Coventry Lives’ oral history project is
currently seeking community groups to help carry out taped interviews and to help to
research the theme. Project co-ordinators are inviting people of all ages to get involved
including those who have lived in the City all their lives and those who have migrated to
Coventry. Community groups who volunteer will be given training. For more information call
Roger Vaughan City Archivists on Coventry 832414.
The interviews for ‘Coventry Lives’ will form the
centrepiece of a major exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and the Museum of British
Road Transport at the end of next year.
Further information about each of the themes
Oral History Testimony
People of all ages and from all the city’s communities will be asked to talk about
their memories of life in Coventry. The interviews will be recorded and will be added to
the collections in the City Archives. These fascinating life stories will be used to
create new exhibitions on 20th century Coventry at the city’s two museums.
Key parts of the interviews will also be placed on the internet so that people can find
out more about this key period in the city’s history.
Coventry Characters
The project is creating a fresh view of the history of the city through the lives of
selected "Coventry characters". These have been specially chosen to show the
rich and varied history of the city throughout the last thousand years. The results of
this research will be brought together into a new resource pack for schools and the
Historical Association will also be producing a special millennium booklet around the
lives of these characters.
The Millennium Clock / Timeline
From September 1999 to July 2000 each city school will work to a common millennium clock
which will tick forwards from the year 1000 towards the future. The hands will point to
the past during the last autumn of 1999 and will move through to the present to the future
during the first spring of 2000. As the hands move forward, children will take part in
different school assemblies about the key lessons that we have learnt during the past
1,000 years. They will then go onto discuss how we can create a better future together.
The ‘Domesday 2000’ Record
Children and adults will create a record of life in the city at this significant moment in
our history. This will be a chance to tell future generations of our thoughts about the
millennium and our feelings about life today. It will create a record for people to look
back on in the future, just as we look back on the Domesday Book today. The Domesday 2000
record will use a variety of methods, including documents, drama, photographs, film, art,
sculpture and poetry. The work will be displayed in the city’s museums and a sample
will be kept for posterity in the Coventry Archives.
Neighbourhood Surveys/Community Scan
Agenda 21 has produced a series of materials to help schools to work with their local
communities to create a better and more sustainable future. Pupils will start by carrying
out surveys of the quality of life and the environment in their neighbourhood. This helps
children to take a fresh look at the positive features of life in their neighbourhood and
identify things that could be improved. Pupils will then discuss the results of their
surveys with the local community and work with them to find ways of changing things.
‘Gifts’ to the City
Each school, college and community organisation will be asked to plan ways of celebrating
the Year 2000 by creating a "gift for the next millennium". These gifts must be
something that is needed and that will have a lasting impact, either physically or in
people’s memories. The gift could be an object the group has designed and made. It
might be a project to help other people or to improve an area. Groups could plan to make
an impact in their local neighbourhood, in other parts of the city or in any part of the
world that has links with Coventry. The gifts will be presented at a ceremony during
Godiva Week in June 2000.
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INFORMATION: Media & Communications Team 01203 832023
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