Abergavenny Museum has been awarded the Women’s History Network’s annual Community History Project prize for its Monmouthshire Women Making Change exhibition which runs until 11th March 2018. The project explores the contribution the county’s women have made to suffrage, the war effort, agriculture, the peace movement and how continued involvement in different issues continues to improve women’s lives, locally and globally.
The prize was awarded to the team that created a project by, about, or for women in a particular locale or community completed between January 2016 and May 2017. It was judged by a panel of representatives drawn from the Women’s History Network, The History Press, heritage professionals and community historians and was shared with Newcastle’s Discovery Museum for its Tiny Sparks scheme.
Rachael Rogers from Abergavenny Museum says: “The exhibition has been a tremendous opportunity to work with many women and witness first hand the difference they have made on the global stage. What has been particularly interesting is finding out about what has happened historically and the activity that is happening today”.
Abergavenny’s Museum’s project is a collaborative exhibition curated by an intergenerational group of volunteers – a graduate, two university students and a member of the community, working with community organisations. The judges praised the museum’s team for the “enthusiastic way in which community groups of all ages and cultures have worked together to bring their own material to illuminate the women’s histories brought to light. The panel were truly uplifted to see a small rural museum working so creatively.”
The exhibition is currently on display at Abergavenny Museum until March 2018. The Museum is open daily from 11am-4pm (closed on Wednesdays between 27th September and May 2018)
