The ‘Stories in a Box’ Project at Clare Museum

Recently, the Clare Family Learning Project (part of Clare Adult Basic Education Service), Clare Museum and Scoil Chríost Rí in the Cloughleigh area of Ennis came together as partners in a new and exciting project called “Stories in a Box”.

The project involved 6th class children and some of their parents working together under the supervision of their Class teacher Joe Garrihy and Family Learning Tutor Colette O’Brien. The end result comprises a selection of very personal and individual stories around objects of importance to each child. Parents helped guide pupils initially and children completed the display boxes on their own in class.

The museum supported the project and now these little displays have been removed from their boxes and placed on exhibition in showcases in the museum. In due course, photographs of these special objects will be posted on the Clare Museum website as a snapshot as to the kind of items that were of importance to the children at that given moment in time. Projects like this one remind us that objects are important to us because of the meaning, emotions and stories they evoke. As this is very much what museums are about, it is appropriate for the museum to assist in displaying the objects these children consider meaningful to them today.

The project also reflects the cultural diversity of Ennis with the sixteen children involved having backgrounds in Kenya, Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Albania, Serbia, the UK and of course Ireland. The exhibition will remain on display at the museum until September when the items will be returned to the children. Admission to the exhibition is free.