In 2022 Bright Culture consultant Esther Gill worked with St Christopher’s CARE (Centre for Awareness & Response to End of Life) to create 'The Voices That Shaped Us: Modern Hospice in the Making', an exhibition from their oral history archive.
The St Christopher’s Hospice Oral History Project was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and ran from 2020-2022. Bright Culture consultant Esther Gill was commissioned to deliver the final stage of the project, including the creation of an multi-media exhibition with accompanying online content and the completion of the oral history archive.
Joining the project in April 2022, Esther worked with a writer, designer, marketing team and the project Steering Committee to create an exhibition in three parts that used oral history extracts to explore the early days of St Christopher’s, the daily life of the hospice from the 1970s to today, and a final reflective section on the challenges and looking to the future. Critical to the success of the exhibition was understanding how it could sit within the multi-functional St Christopher’s CARE, the award-winning Centre for Awareness & Response to End of Life.
The exhibition launched in August 2022 with a number of public events and is also available online: https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/voices. Family friendly activities were developed to accompany the exhibition, featuring the hospice’s cat, Colin, and an exhibition booklet.
The project also leaves a legacy of an archive of 76 oral history interviews, including interviews with some of the key people involved in establishing St Christopher’s, along with staff, supporters and people who have received services from the hospice.
