Sharing Stories
Sharing Stories was a collaboration between Bristol City Council’s Libraries and Museums services, and Bedminster and Filwood organisations capturing and sharing community stories.
“Sometimes people are just doing things – but they don’t actually realise how much power they have. So I think it’s lovely for them to actually hear their own story as well.”
Natasha: Community Connector
Image credit: Scott Piggott, KWMC
Focusing on East Street, Bedminster and Filwood Broadway, and working with creative partners and designers, the project explored new ways of bringing neighbourhood stories to life through deep listening and creating hyper-local displays in High Street libraries.
The project took place in areas of the city undergoing significant change which will ultimately bring many new residents and new communities into these areas; the Sharing Stories initiative captures less heard local stories at this point in time.
“Local people and their voices are kind of being drowned out a little bit? So it’s nice for them to be brought back into the light for people to just really understand what it’s like to be a Bristolian”.
Olivia: Emerging Designer
Working collaboratively with community organisations and a team of local ‘Community Connectors’ was at the heart of this project. In Bedminster, acta Community Theatre worked in collaboration with residents to capture stories by running creative workshops, such as poetry, sculpture and graffiti, and collecting audio recordings. East Street shoppers, members of Creative Space Redcliffe, the Making Time group, and Dean Lane Skate Park community all got involved and shared their tales.
“This project has opened my mind to a different way of sharing creativity. It’s not like anything I’ve ever done before which always gets your brain ticking differently”.
Workshop participant, acta
Image credit: Scott Piggott, KWMC
In Knowle West, Filwood Community Centre uncovered stories that related to the theme of food. They ran photography workshops, working with groups including the We Are More after school club and the One Love Hub, and collected food stories through song and poetry at an open mic night hosted at Filwood Library.
Knowle West Media Centre, the overarching design and delivery partner, supported a group of young emerging designers aged 16 – 25 to work closely with the stories that were collected. They carefully transformed them into two unique displays that were fabricated by KWMC: The Factory, a community makerspace in Knowle West.
Both displays opened in February 2025, and due to participant enthusiasm and popularity with visitors they will now be on display until end of October 2025.
Meet the people who helped make Sharing Stories happen in the short film here:
Video credit: Scott Piggott, KWMC
“The project has helped us think about how we produce our own displays and in particular how the stories of communities might be at the heart of that”.
Sanjit Chudha, Public Programmes, Bristol Museums
With thanks to
Sharing Stories was funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK by investing in communities and place, supporting local business, people and skills.
