Webinar: Digital storytelling – One Heritage

Michele Curtis and Chris Walker share their parallel experiences of helping individuals and communities to tell their story. Two positive and forward-looking stories that consider how choruses of voices collect around two story centres - The Seven Saints of St Pauls: Memorials and Black Joy in Bristol, and a recent project involving the capture of the life story of American musician Nile Rodgers.

Michele Curtis

I am a multi-award-wining artist, and most popularly known for my creative and digital placemaking project; The Seven Saints of St. Pauls®

I have been working within the Art, Culture and Heritage sector for seven years. When I began my journey in 2014, my aspiration was to create a platform to share and celebrate the achievements of the African Caribbean community in Bristol, by highlighting their positive contributions to the city.

As a child growing up in 1980s Britain, I saw little positive representation of the African Caribbean diaspora in popular culture or education. Living in a country that failed to acknowledge the history, contributions and accomplishments of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour caused me to struggle with feelings of belonging. This lack of affirming portrayals of Black people continued into my adulthood. My desire to break the cycle of silence and praise the countless achievements of Black British people, led to the creation of the Iconic Black Bristolians/Britons® project. To date, my work has focused on art, education and representation. My work is a combination of intangible cultural heritage and archival research, exploring how the African Caribbean diaspora’s presence has influenced British culture, heritage and identity post Empire Windrush. I am excited to be a trustee for the AHI and add another dimension to the fantastic work they have been doing.

Chris Walker

Chris Walker is a founding Director of Bright White Ltd, a design, innovation and delivery consultancy based in York. For 15 years he has worked with hundreds of different clients to deliver learning-led projects in the museums, archives and cultural sectors. Bright White has won multiple awards for its work, mainly for innovation and the use of technology for good.

Chris will share his experience of working within a research team that collected questions for Nile from the public, then filmed him answering them, then created a VR experience allowing visitors to interact with Nile, regardless of their level of familiarity with him.

Part One - Michele - 20 mins presentation, 10 mins questions

Part Two - Chris - 20 mins presentation, 10 mins questions

Part Three - 30 minutes contrast, comparison and translatable heritage interpretation practice

Register online and an invitation will be sent to you a day or two before the event (AHI members will need to sign into their members dashboard to access the free ticket).