1 September, Room to Discover at IMAG and 6 September, Highland Archive Centre
High Life Highland’s culture teams are really excited to be working with the Inverness Townscape Heritage initiative to create together with local community members a digital trail that will highlight the fascinating history and heritage of Academy Street and the surrounding area.
The ultimate aim of the Townscape Heritage Project is to improve the quality of life for those who live, work or visit Academy Street. The project is already benefiting Academy Street by:
Preserving and enhancing the character and appearance of the street; bringing historic buildings back into appropriate, sustainable and economic use; making Academy Street a welcoming and attractive environment and increasing training opportunities in heritage skills and greater community involvement in local heritage.
Throughout the next 15 months, the teams at IMAG, The Highland Archive Centre and Inverness Library will be working to share items from their collections that help to tell the Academy Street story. They will also be gathering local people’s memories, recollections, research and creative responses to our Burgh’s heritage. Assisted by local archaeologists and heritage specialists from AOC Inverness, High Life Highland’s curators, archivists and librarians will be offering workshops and activities and putting on exhibitions created with members of our local communities to explore, research, record and share the heritage of this key area of the Historic Burgh.
The community curated findings, new interpretations of heritage and new artworks and writing will be included in a new digital trail and series of leaflets, available to visitors and local people who want to discover more about the buildings and features of the street and the objects, archives and memories that tell their stories.
Join us for the first series of workshops this September; get involved, discover and share more about the history of Inverness!
Thursday 1 September 2016, Room to Discover at IMAG
Workshop One: Introducing Academy Street and the city of Inverness, 10am – 1:30pm
Learn about and share your knowledge about the origins of Inverness, including getting hands on with key objects from IMAG’s collections, including a selection of the Burgh’s medieval charters, that give us information about the significance of the City’s location through time, including:
· Strategic location
· Layout of the town
· Medieval Inverness through to present
· Academy Street’s part in the story – trade, travel and tourism and so much more.
Tuesday 6 September 2016, Highland Archive Centre
Workshop Two: Mapping the changes in Inverness, 10am – 1:30pm
Explore the Archives collections of historic maps, census records, valuation rolls and sasine registers and more. Discover and share answers to the following questions:
· What are the earliest maps we have that show Academy Street?
· How has the street changed over time?
· Are the uses of buildings shown? What are the different trades?
· Is there a pattern to the use of the street?
· Who owned the buildings/rented them?
£3.50, per workshop or £6 if booking for both together. Advance booking is essential, in person at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, call 01463 237114 or email [email protected]
