Evidence of Us was a project led by the South London Gallery Communities and Learning team that ran from 2017 – 2020.
The project aimed to position people as experts in their own heritage by giving a platform to local knowledge and otherwise under-explored histories, experiences and perspectives.
The programme took place through long-term locally-embedded projects, working with communities typically excluded from heritage and archival practice. Working with children, women and non-binary people of colour, older people and people living with disabilities, Evidence of Us supported a wide range of creative and critical engagements with heritage.
Evidence of Us reconsidered who has access to heritage, and brings to the surface otherwise silenced personal and local histories. The programme took shape through a range of inter-disciplinary collaborations with artists and communities, primarily the Big Family Press, a weekly community printing press supporting children to publish their experiences, and Narration Group, a collective of women and non-binary people of colour who meet fortnightly to discuss, dissect and reclaim their own narratives.
The programme also included monthly open publishing sessions for children and their families, heritage tours delivered in conversation with local residents and organisations, and a series of oral histories centred on Peckham and Camberwell. Ongoing collaborations also took place with the Copleston Centre, Peckham; the Southwark Pensioners Centre, Camberwell; Harris Girl’s Academy, East Dulwich; UAL Camberwell College, and Oliver Goldsmith Primary School, Camberwell.
Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund
