Moments in Time
A unique collection of creative work made by young people during the Covid-19 Pandemic, sharing our passion for extraordinary everyday stories.
Moments in Time is a very special creative project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It’s an archive of creative work gathered from care experienced young people from right across Derbyshire, for a project that began life as a document of one event of worldwide significance and ended up recording something quite different…
The original project launched in 2019 as Moon Stories, young people working with creative mentors from Derbyshire Virtual School started recording people from Derbyshire’s memories of the 1969 Moon Landings as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. This kicked off with the young people interviewing visitors to the ‘Museum of the Moon’ art installation at Derby Cathedral – and then making their own creative work, including working with music and arts organisation, Baby People on sister project, Music of the Moon.
However, when the pandemic hit in early 2020, the focus of the project shifted and the young people started exploring their own personal memories, experiences and feelings both before and during these unprecedented times.
This collection of more than 400 stories, poems, photographs, artwork, films, songs and music created during the pandemic, as well as recordings of Derbyshire people’s memories of the Moon Landings have now been collated into an extensive physical and digital archive which will be stored in the Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock for people to explore forever.
Here you can enjoy this short film made by Adam Robertson as a celebration of the Moments in Time project and archive. This film gives a fantastic insight into the breadth and huge diversity of work you will find in the archive. See the archive by appointment at the Derbyshire Record Office.
The film features extracts from storyteller Maria Whatton’s narratie interpretation of the archive, delve a little deeper and find out more about Maria’s work, including listening to her full narrative here. And fine artist, Carol Harries-Wood has created a giant artwork on a canvas made from 42 carefully stitched together disposable face masks and inspired by the young people’s work. This artwork will be exhibited at Wirksworth Library in December 2021, Ashbourne Library in January 2022 and Belper Library in February 2022.
Adverse Camber founder and producer Naomi Wilds explains: “As the creative project developed, it became clear that young people’s experiences in the pandemic, and how our world views are changing, had a great deal of synergy with the momentous change represented by the era of the moon landings.
“We hope that the archive and particularly the film produced from young people’s work will resonate with young people now and those who access the archive for many decades to come, potentially inspiring new creative work in the future.” Kim Johnson from Derbyshire Virtual School says: “This has been an amazing project for the young people, for their skills, confidence and understanding of the significance of their contributions to this extraordinary record of our collective culture and history.
“It is also an important celebration of the resilience of these young people through recent challenging times which have been just as significant as the 1969 moon landing – giving us new insights for the future.”
So whether you are looking at this project and its archive in 2021 or 2121, you are witness to an extraordinary and unique collection which now takes its place as an important part of history.
Thank you
There are many people and organisations to thank for their time and energy maintained throughout the Moments in Time project, who have helped to create and collect all the stories, artwork, poems, songs and films you’ve seen in this book. We’d like to give our special thanks to Jan Reynolds, Adverse Camber’s Participation Associate.
We would like to thank all the amazing young people who have used their strength and imagination to share their immense creativity with us, which can now be witnessed by people searching through the archive, and marking this significant moment in time, for the rest of time.
It is also through the drive and tenacity of the following people that this archive has come together under the ever-changing challenges of a global pandemic:
Jan Reynolds, Kim Johnson, the Derbyshire Virtual School and its host of creative mentors, Wendy Johnson and Christine Hayward of the Amber Factory, Julian Butt and Baby People, Adam Robertson and Film City, Carol Harries-Wood, Maria Whatton, Karen Millhouse and the Derbyshire Record Office, Debi Hedderwick and Learning Through Arts and Ava Hunt Theatre.
And thank you to our funders: The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Youth Music, Foundation Derbyshire’s Ashby Trust and Derbyshire County Council’s Action Grant.
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