Nottingham Exhibit: Our Life Stories
First hand stories about people with learning disabilities told in their own words.
Our Life Storiesis the first peer-to-peer oral history project of this size and scale in the learning disabilities space.
The Our Life Stories exhibition in Nottingham, which is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, brings together a co-curated selection of real-life stories and objects from more than eighty people supported by disability charity, United Response.
People with lived experience have been interviewed across England covering a wide range of topics from relationships and family to hobbies and keepsakes. They are hilarious and light-hearted as people share funny stories, and heart wrenching when we have been allowed to hear about individuals’ life changing events.
The project culminates to bring together audio clips and personal items telling an individual story of everyday life, from personal achievements to the structural barriers faced by people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
Together, they paint a picture of disability history in England over the past fifty years which until now has been sorely missed from historical record.
From as little as fifty years ago, people with learning disabilities were shut away in institutions, away from their families often heavily medicated, poorly treated, abused and misunderstood.
This project ensures voices are heard and recorded in history, people with learning disabilities and autism will have their first-hand accounts accessible for future generations. Documented by themselves – not by others – and reflecting society across years.
The free exhibit runs at the Nottingham Contemporary, Thursday, 12th Feb – Saturday, 14th Feb, 10am-4pm.