Partnership focusing on recreating the past

RECAPTURING moments from a bygone era will be the focus of a partnership between a youth organisation and Rustington Museum, thanks to a grant of more than £41,000.

Blueprint 22, which runs youth projects along the south coast, from Littlehampton to Brighton, will plough its Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant into a new initiative combining photography and local history and leading to an exhibition at the museum, next summer.

The scheme, entitled Future Focus, will be launched next month and aims to encourage young people from Littlehampton and Worthing to recreate historical snapshots from this area, using modern-day photographic techniques.

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The museum has agreed to unearth an array of unseen archive postcards and photos to help inspire the prospective photographers.

Young people, aged between 16 and 25, will have the chance to work in partnership with staff at the museum, in The Street, to help organise and arrange the display for next summer. Amanda Baker, project development director with Blueprint 22, said she hoped those taking part would learn some invaluable skills as a result of the project.

Future Focus participants, she added, would have the opportunity to be able to gain an insight into local life, in decades gone by. They would also learn how to create and develop exhibitions, as well as find out more about the skills needed in photography and museum curatorship.

She said: “Blueprint 22 young people are thrilled to receive the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are passionate about developing Future Focus – a project that brings together their love of photography and learning about the history of their local community.”

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Stuart McLeod, head of the HLF in the south-east, said the club members would help to create a window into the past, giving villagers a chance to see how Rustington, and the surrounding areas, had changed over time.

Blueprint 22 has in the past hosted displays at the Arun Ideas Shop, in Beach Road, Littlehampton.

For more information about the group and Future Focus, see www.blueprint22.org.uk

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