A celebration of what England means to its people while the men’s national football team play in the World Cup is being held at Toynbee Hall, Aldgate, with a giant projector screening a virtual museum telling ‘The story of England in 50 objects’.
Capturing both the historically significant and the everyday in English life, from Stonehenge and Shakespeare to seaside windbreaks, the virtual museum was co-created with the English public in the run up to this year’s St. George’s day celebrations, curated from 3,000 ideas submitted to the ‘A very English chat’ campaign.
The giant 8m wide screen projection will be displayed each night of the World Cup tournament from England’s debut game on June 17th to July 19th
Working with the Jo Cox Foundation’s More in Common Network and other social cohesion groups, the virtual museum aims to start an extended series of conversations, getting people to chat together around what unites people rather than what divides them,
“With many people cheering the England national team, sharing ‘The story of England in 50 objects’ helps everyone better understand what England and Englishness means in an inclusive way, supportive of shared values that bring people together” said Andy Green of Grow Social Capital, the social enterprise which co-created the virtual museum.
Commenting for Toynbee Hall, Lizzie Stevenson of Toynbee Hall said, “This virtual museum celebrates England’s inclusive values that enable people to both celebrate a pride in England, and also what unites us as a community”.
The ‘A very English chat’ campaign pioneers the idea of enabling communities to tell their collective story, to grow more compelling national narratives around the principles of fairness, inclusivity, democracy and law.
Like a mosaic that creates a bigger picture than the sum of its parts, the project provided a safe, friendly, and generous space enabling people to give themselves permission to explore, through a respectful conversation, a subject that can create division and hatred.
The campaign is entirely self-funded using a crowd-funder appeal to support its work. Further details at its website, www.averyEnglishchat.org.uk where free copies of ‘The story of England in 50 objects’ and ‘A very English chat’ workbooks can be obtained and also where anyone can share their ideas for contributing to ‘The story of England 2in 50 objects’
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For further details please contact Andy Green of Grow Social Capital CIC on andy@growsocialcapital.org.uk or call 07815 884 525
Toynbee Hall
Toynbee Hall, founded in 1884 by Samuel and Henrietta Barnett in Aldgate, is the world’s first university settlement and a pioneering centre for social reform. Created to bring future leaders into direct contact with the realities of poverty, it became a catalyst for major advances in welfare, education, and community empowerment, influencing figures such as William Beveridge and Clement Attlee.
Today, Toynbee Hall continues its mission, working alongside people facing poverty and injustice, offering free advice services, community programmes, and research that challenges structural inequality, all while remaining rooted in its original purpose: to build a fairer, more inclusive East London through practical action and social change.
Further details at: www.toynbeehall.org
Grow Social capital CIC
Social enterprise Grow Social Capital CIC has co-created ‘pocket museums’ in projects as diverse as telling ‘The story of Cockney in 50 objects’ (check out at www.moderncockneyfestival.co.uk/our-museum/ ) through to ‘inner-city district of Cardiff, ‘The story of Splott in 50 objects’ (Check out at www.inksplott.co.uk/the-story-of-splott/ )
Further details at:www.growsocialcpaital.org.uk