Community Curator Blog

Welcome to the Community Curator Blog!

We are thrilled to bring you along on our journey as we transform The Dining Room space into a vibrant and evolving display of our shared heritage through the lens of food. Our project aims to breathe new life into what was once a static museum exhibit, turning it into a dynamic, ever-changing exploration of our local collections. With the help of 20 dedicated Community Curators, recruited through our wonderful partners, Awakening Minds, Theatre in Flow, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, and the Association of Ukrainians Great Britain: Rochdale Branch, we will uncover and celebrate the stories and everyday objects that shape our lives but are missing from our collections.

Stay tuned to our blog as we share updates from our meetings, insights from our sessions with the artists, and the progress we’re making with The Dining Room project. We look forward to taking you along on this exciting and transformative journey!

12th July – Chopping Club at the Libraries, Bootle

The group were hosted by Niamh Riordan and Gregory Herbert who run the Chopping Club as part of the arts programme connected to Bootle and Sefton Libraries.

Niamh and Greg introduced the library and the progamme of creative activity that occurred over the past three years. Artists and library-users have co-created projects – a collaborative press archive, a Bootle tapestry, a new wallpaper, community-wide skill shares, podcasts, feasts and library-cooked lunches, and a green oasis in Bootle Library. Every aspect of the project is developed through artist’s commissions and devised in response to how the library is used by the public. The disused outside space has recently been redeveloped with artist Harun Morrison, with L Shaped planters and long bench seating, as well as being home to a hive of bees! Anyone visiting the library can to spend time in the space or engage in some of the groups that meet regularly for gardening, toddler sensory play and bee keeping.

Greg and Niamh shared their plans for a new kitchen at the library to be a space that people can come and use, as well as thinking of the kitchen as a library in itself – what can a kitchen library lend? Could a kitchen lend equipment, bread makers, large mixers or even a stock pile of herbs and spices? Members of the public could come and borrow an item from the kitchen, take a teaspoon of spice or do some cooking in the kitchen to test out a new recipe without buying all the ingredients from scratch. There was interest and enthusiasm for the project with the community curators who connected it to reducing isolation and being a means to empower people to undertake their own learning.

After talking we made a big batch of fennel and radish pickle, chopping together and continuing the conversation. We ate some of the pickle fresh for lunch with tomato and fennel soup served in ceramic bowls that had made in a commission with Aliyah Hussain. We took the rest of the pickle back to Rochdale, each of the group putting a jam jar in their handbag or coat pocket to eat at home.

26th June – Foodology at Angle Square

On a trip to the Co-Op headquarters in Manchester, we were hosted by the community team. The team showed us the product development kitchens and shared the work that goes on behind the scenes from how the Co-Op start to develop a dish to the quality testing involved and company’s ethos around food waste and climate responsibility.

22nd June – Dumpling Day at Rochdale Ukrainian Centre

Over the course of the Dining Room project, we have been working towards a sharing day – sharing some of our thinking around food and heritage with the wider community. Coinciding with Refugee week, we decided to host Rochdale’s first ever Dumpling Day as a means to bring together different communities and reflect on our learning.

Why choose dumplings? – Dumplings are found in countries across the globe, they are a food that unites different cultures and a way for us to celebrate the rich communities that make Rochdale their home.

Setting up camp in Rochdale’s Ukrainian Centre, we hosted a day of activities including dumpling tasting from Ukrainian, Caribbean and Nigerian cooks, Iranian and Chinese dumpling making with Heart&Parcel, decorative saltdough dumpling making with artist Aliyah Hussain, designing dumpling characters and stories with artist Kyam, and cross stitching and crocheting dumpling patterns with Touchstones staff and the local Nitty Gritty group.

There was also the opportunity to see objects from Touchstones Mini Museum and archive material from Local Studies sharing food stories from Rochdale’s past.

Throughout the day, Ukrainian folk musicians and South Asian bol and Tablah players took turns to play, filling the centre with lively music and a celebratory atmosphere.

The event coincided with the Culture Co-op and Open Eye Gallery’s Home exhibition, which showcases contemporary Ukrainian photography from five Ukrainian artists. In Ukrainian culture, the dumpling holds a special significance beyond a traditional dish – they’re considered a cherished talisman. Over 150 people attended the day, having the opportunity to try a range of dumplings and get to know about their global appeal.

20^th June – Stained Glass and storytelling at the Arts and Heritage Resource Centre

Artist Kyam hosted a workshop exploring stained glass. Having been commissioned to respond to the historic multi-panelled window that once showcased stained glass portraits of prominent female creatives, Kyam introduced a simple drawing activity using acrylic squares and oil based marker pens to mirror the affect of coloured stained glass designs. Inspired by the recently reopened town hall and the mass of stained glass in the building that documents different plants, produce and countries Rochdale once traded with, Kyam asked the group to draw some of their favourite food or food utensils to tell a story of their own heritage.

“80% of my identity is my food, what I cook, how I cook, how we eat together”

Thinking about what objects and foods reflected their identity, the group created a range of drawings depicting everything from ceramic pots or Metti Handi to decorative metal tea pots, fruit bowls, varenyky, ice creams, boiled eggs, spoons, mint plants and chicken soup. The drawings will form part of a digital cookery book Kyam is developing in conjunction with community portraits echoing the original stained glass window designs.

13th June – Test Tiles and Sprig Moulds at the Pioneers Museum

Aliyah brought back the plaster moulds the group had made in her last workshop. To test the moulds of different foods and snacks clay was simply pressed in and removed, creating small sculptural forms. With sprigs pressed, the group were asked to use letter stamps to print their names into the tiles. Aliyah brought Cyrillic, Arabic/Urdu and braille letter stamps. Once their names were stamped the group added their moulded shapes to the tiles to create a mix of 3D and flat decoration. A white clay was used so Aliyah can test the colours she might use for her final installation.

7th June – Hot Drinks and Shakshuka: Manchester City Art Gallery and Manchester Jewish Museum

The group ventured out to Manchester City Centre to take a look at an exhibition devoted to hot drinks. We heard from museum curators and staff on their process of developing the exhibition and how they worked with a group of community members to make decisions on the displays. Being in the exhibition gave us the opportunity to start to think more tangibly about what might be possible in the Dining Room. How might the museum cases look? What stories might we want to tell? And, importantly how do we share the stories of any objects with visitors? With a range of diverse needs in the group as well as language and literacy, conversations turned to inclusion and multiple means of storytelling.

Manchester Jewish Museum invited us to taste some of the dishes on their menu and learn about the stories of the recipes, with the museums use of food as a means to bring communities together and share the history of Jewish migrants to Manchester. The dishes had flavours of Moroccan, Iranian and eastern European countries reflecting the diverse heritage of Manchester’s Jewish community. Meeting with café manager and chef Rick, the group learnt about kosher and the requirements of developing a café that is inclusive for all faiths.

Manchester Jewish Museum has a people centred approach to its displays and interpretation that filters through into its welcome to all visitors. For example, rather than reading about a hat from a certain era, we are told about ‘Annie’s hat’ and learn about the woman behind the object. Connecting with individual stories provided rich reflection for the group, who over the course of the last 6 months have built a strong relationship, sharing their different histories and personal anecdotes.

The day provided rich material to reflect upon as the group go forward and consider the potential stories to tell in the Dining Room Space, as well as how the food offer can reflect and inform those stories to create an engaging museum experience.

Young Curators Update

Artist Ibukun Baldwin has been continuing to meet with a group of young people at Matthew Moss Youth Centre. Together they have been exploring their favourite foods re-envisioning them as fruits on a tree or budding from a flower plant. Creating the food fruits in simple shapes and limited colours, the group are exploring elements of pattern design for Ibukun’s large scale textile installation that will take the form of a curtain to divide off a particular area of the new museum space. The group will meet for a more intensive summer school working with Ibukun on the physical printing and construction of the curtain fabric, before spending some time developing their embroidery skills ready to applique the designs after the summer months.

16th May – Ceramic sprig mould making with Aliyah Hussain at the Pioneers Museum

Aliyah brought sprig moulds she had made and tested to show the group. She invited the group to bring food with them that we would use to make new moulds. The session started with Aliyah sharing the finished mugs from the previous workshop and having a cup of tea in them, as everyone then shared the foods they had brought and their reasons for choosing them.

After sharing our food choices, Aliyah showed the group the plaster sprig moulds and everyone had a chance to press clay into the moulds and see how they formed different shapes before making our own moulds. To make the mould, we each lay a bed of clay in a takeaway Tupperware before placing our food items on top, considering which parts of the fruit or vegetable we would like to make a mould from; the end of a lemon or the tip of a courgette, the exterior of an uncut pineapple and the curling outer skin of a dragon fruit, before filling the tub with plaster. Foods had to be supported to ensure the plaster mould would work, either with additional platforms to hold them on or by filling anything hollow, such as a penne pasta, with clay so that they did not get to saturated with plaster and the mould would then not release.

Whilst individuals mixed and poured plaster with Aliyah, the rest of the group made small clay sculpture of foods that they could not bring to make a mould from. The group were busy sculpting meat dishes – a chicken drum stick or rack of ribs, a whole meal such as sausage, peas and mash or pizza and mugs of chai.

The group will meet with Aliyah again to test out their moulds, pressing new clay forms from their chosen foods. These small sculptural pieces will become part of Aliyah’s large scale installation in the Dining Room Space. The sprigs, as they are called will either be suspended individually from the Dining Room ceiling or added onto larger vessels and shapes, echoing the traditional use of sprigs moulds in Bargeware and decorative ceramics.

15th May – Food Myths and Fables with Kyam at the Arts and Heritage Resource Centre

Kyam introduced us to some example images of illustrated zines and explained. There are many definitions of zines but the Salford Zine Library shares the following:

“A zine, (pronounced zeen as in magazine) is most commonly a hand made, photocopied, or otherwise cheaply produced small circulation, self published leaflet/comic/literature or any other collection of printed paper you can imagine. Zines have historically been a way for groups and individuals to express opinions and ideas that may fall outside of the remit of traditional publishing and self publishing has offered an alterantive. In making a zine you are effectively your own editor, publisher, distributor and boss!

There are no particular skills or experience required, anyone with a pen and an idea can make a zine!

Zines can help us make a tangible connection to our own personal histories and in turn can help ground us in the present. Zine making can be a great way to engage with your community, make friends, share stories and document your experiences….

The DIY ethos at the heart of zine making promotes, and encourages the idea that everyone has the potential to be an artist/writer/musician/whatever you want. If you’re not seeing/reading/hearing the media you want around you – make it yourself!”

Kyam showed the group how to make a simple beak book zine, which we were each to fill by writing or drawing a small story or collection of food myths and fables that we grew up with.

The group was full of rich and playful food myths; from foods that make you ‘all hot and mithered’ to the promise of wishes being fulfilled if you could only eat a slice of coverted Indonesian Milk Pie. A number of remedies for ailments were shared, mustard oil for ear ache or sesame seeds fried in ghee for a cough. The conversation expanded to include questions around the cultural ideals particular food myths promoted. For example, one community curator brought up colourism in the Pakistani community. Some of the myths she discussed where around eating in pregnancy, in particular what to avoid to ensure you had a fair skinned baby. This led to a very frank and thoughtful discussion about colourism and the impact of colonial legacies on beauty standards around the world. Kyam embraced the discussion and lead it towards unpacking food myths and the often problematic ideals they are propagating.

2nd May – Dining Table: Decorations, Celebration and community at the Arts and Heritage Resource Centre

Slideshow of embroidery samplers and pattern books

Our meeting began with thinking about decorations at the dinner table – what times of year we each decorate the table and how we adorn it describing the colours, materials and textures we use. Through sharing different celebrations and traditions our conversations identified a number of distinct aspects to the dining table viewing it as;

A space of welcome:

Dressed for guests or special occasions, the table welcomes individuals as well as changes in religious and seasonal calendars. What is on the table top – the crockery, glassware, cutlery and patterned textiles signify a particular sentiment as well as a certain feeling of being welcomed.

‘’If you are invited to eat with nice things you are being told you are valued’’

Sun and Moon, Katherine Mansfield – Short Story, 1920:

“It’s a picture, Min,” said Nellie. “Come along and have a look.” So they all went into the dining-room. Sun and Moon were almost frightened. They wouldn’t go up to the table at first; they just stood at the door and made eyes at it.”

A space of eating:

“A decorated table can give a particular air or expectation that isn’t always carried through in the food. It’s the food that shows the real welcome’’

A space of learning:

Coming together to share food is an opportunity to learn about different cultures and celebrations, as well as a space where we can rekindle traditions that are becoming lost. Table tops in the Dining Room will also be a space of learning.

So we have decided to start building a list

What are the celebrations that people mark in Rochdale throughout the year?
What did we used to celebrate that is no longer marked?

A space of community:

Sharing a meal is a means to share time with another person, sharing stories, personal histories and forming relationships of solidarity, building a community.

We were reminded of the radical hospitality and work of the People’s Kitchen Collective People’s Kitchen Collective, as well as the work of those in Rochdale who are enacting systems change.

From considering decoration at the dining table, we viewed embroidery samples from the museum collection. The group shared memories of family members embroidering tablecloths for special occasions; floral motifs on each corner and a central circular design. They recalled sisters and aunties crocheting adornments onto scarfs.

‘With crochet – a scarf just sort of suddenly unfolds in front of you’’

Sewing, crochet and embroidery were also ways of passing the time. Before digital entertainment and a culture of cheap homeware to decorate our interior spaces, handcrafts such as embroidery or quilting were a common pastime.

‘Awaiting collection posts’

19th April – Telling our stories and introducing oral history with Kyam at the The Arts and Heritage Resource Centre

Kyam hosted her first workshop with the group introducing them to oral history. Oral history, the recording of people’s stories is a central part of her creative practice. More on camara’s use of oral history

Kyam guided the group through a series of exercises that focused on recalling some of their earliest and happiest food memories. Walking back into individual memories, thinking of the ingredients, tastes, textures and spaces of eating as well as the smells, sounds and atmosphere was an emotive task. The group shared memories that were connected to family, to feeling a sense of belonging and the people that were central in their childhoods, from being cared for when sick to, to making tea on an open fire, to eating together at the end of the day and fried breakfasts on a Sunday morning.

The happy memories came hand in hand with a sense of loss, loss of traditions, loss of community and loss of family and friends. Holding the space and guiding the group Kyam ensured everyone’s stories were heard and they were given the space and support they needed to voice their memory and share their associated grief. Amongst the grief there was lots of laughter, recalling lively gatherings, the idiosyncracies of individual’s – the particular visitors that would loudly slurp their tea, the struggle to eat a 12 course traditional Christmas meal, the scolding of a parent for using a recipe book instead of knowing a recipe by hand or the fear of making uneven chapatti’s and using pan lids to ensure they are circular!

18th April – Commemorative cups with Aliyah Hussain at the Pioneer’s Museum

Aliyah Hussain delivered a ceramics workshop where participants hand built mugs. Once fired and glazed, the mugs will be used by participants throughout the duration of the project.

Referencing barge ware pottery in the museum collection, which has embossed lettering detailing the place and date it was made, Aliyah had devised making activity using letter stamps to decorate and demark each individual’s mug. The marking of the object with the makers name was an effort to ensure the history of the object does not get lost – if the mug would ever end up in a museum it will be clear who it was made by and when. There are hundreds of objects in Touchstone’s permanent collections that we do not know how they came into the collection, who donated them and why. It is an ongoing job, where the collections team try to find an objects history.

‘Awaiting collection posts’

5th April – Seeing the architects’ designs and meeting the artists

The community curators gathered in the newly opened Town Hall to hear from Joe Riordan from Architectural Emporium and the artists commissioned to develop works for the Dining Room Space – Ibukun Baldwin, Kyam and Aliyah Hussain

Questions were asked to Joe around interpretation and accessibility in the space:

How will people learn about the objects other than by written descriptions?

Is there space for wheelchairs and pushchairs?

What can be interacted with and how?

“Can you touch the curtain?”

“The whole point is to touch it!”

We discussed the stages of the design process; right now we are thinking about the physical space, the framework and structures – we don’t know what will be in any cases or the stories we might want to tell about them. We are undertaking a journey and going bit by bit – first we think of space and then think what we want to put in it and then how we tell stories. Like making a cake – we think about the size we need, the tools we will need to make it and then the bulk of the cake, the sponge before the flavour – the content and finally the decoration.

After listening to each of the artists talk about their work and their plans for their respective commissions the group walked to Touchstones and took a look round the empty museum space ahead of work starting on the redevelopment. Dirty, cold and rather tired looking the empty building felt far from the architectural impressions we had all just seen, but simultaneously it felt like a huge empty canvas for us to begin to collectively transform.

Ibukun Baldwin and Rochdale Youth Service

Ibukun has started meeting a group of young people at Matthew Moss youth Centre, working with them to develop designs for a large scale curtain that will be used to divide the new ‘Dining Room’ space, creating a flexible enclosed area for visiting school groups and young people as well as a quiet space for the general public. They have been exploring food packaging from Touchstones museum collection and the co-operative heritage trust at the Pioneers Museum as part of the design process. Thinking about functional design, colour and pattern.

The majority of the group are also undertaking their Duke of Edinburgh Award and Ibukun’s project will contribute to the skills development aspect of the award, with the young people learning new skills of textile printing, embroidery and processes of design.

At their first meeting Ibukun shared how to print on fabric, with the young people creating their own stencils and pattern designs for tote bags and t-shirts. The following meeting has seen them create collages from images of historical food packaging as well as old exhibition catalogues from Touchstones past programme and most, they started to work on a collaboratively, printing together onto a large piece of fabric that will remain in the centre for them to use and display as they feel works best.

We looked at food packaging and adverts with a design style that was specific to post-war Britain. The Ministry of Food ensured the general public had access to food essentials for reasonable prices, managed rationing and informed the British public on ways to use their food. We looked at some adverts from the 1940s which showed seasonal cooking, how to preserve foods, new ways to use the same ingredients and how to make the most out of all their food. They often used bright, bold designs with colours to attract people into using their food thoughtfully.

The discount coupons featured bright eye-catching colours with rudimentary building blocks of pattern and design, making them stand out and appealing in their simplicity.

Take a look at these food packagings and adverts from our collection below.

The Tools We Cook With and The Things We Eat: A visit to the Arts and Heritage Resource Centre

Rochdale Arts & Heritage Centre holds a richly varied collection of around 1,500 works of art of regional and national significance. The Arts and Heritage Resource Centre houses the collection of museum objects and art gallery collection which is entrusted to Touchstones. A vast selection of social history, international artefacts, paintings, sculptures and much more make up this collection spanning millions of years from the fossils to the modern art works.

The museum collection has a focus on collecting from the local borough to ensure the history and representation of life and local people are preserved, as well as an international collection donated to the museum from various private collectors. The art gallery collection has works dating back to the 1400’s from Italian masters, to modern artists who enrich our collection and shine a light on the artists who have shown here over the years.

The community curators went on a tour of the museum store, meeting collections staff and viewing items that relate to cooking from Egyptian ceramic jars for storing flour and grain to Victorian pastry cutters and industrial sweet moulds. As rich and varied as they are, the collection objects present a particular culture and a limited view of heritage, The Dining Room Project is about looking at what is absent in the collection, whose voices aren’t represented in the items that are in the store and how can we, as an organisation, bring in new voices.

After looking round the store, Tilly, a member of the collections team showed the group items from the Herbarium Collection, a collection of plant material that includes rice samples and seaweed. The group moved through the collections from the tools used to cook food and the objects used to store it, to the question of what we eat. Alongside the rice and seaweed Tilly also showed the group items of food packaging and tinned goods including, dried milk, custard powder, pea packets, root ginger and caraway seeds. Conversations flowed around what to make with the ingredients, different approaches to making rice pudding from Pakistani rice pudding to Bangladeshi rice pudding to food pantries in Rochdale recommending people use pudding rice to make a cheaper risotto.

We touched on possibilities of pickling. The caraway seeds a pickling spice, individuals in the group grew white raddish or their relatives or friends did, as well as cabbage and memories of their fathers making sauerkraut on mass, using mangles to press out the liquid from the leaves.

We thought about growing something together and plan to return to pickles and collective growing further along in the project

(Collections post)

The Herbarium is a collection of dried plants, algae, moss and lichen specimens which were collected throughout the Victorian era. These specimens were collected as educational tools on the natural world and how it was changing.

Our Herbarium collection dates back to early 1800’s, showcasing plants of all families. Some of which are now endangered or at risk due to changing environments and some tell stories of humans and their activities.

Here is Purple Lavar, an edible seaweed which is eaten across the world. Known in Wales where it is used to make Lavar bread doused in vinegar, eaten cold in Cornwall or enjoyed as Nori in Japanese cuisine.

There is another story to this seaweed of a young woman from Leigh called Dr Kathleen Drew Baker. Born in 1901, Kathleen studied this seaweed in the University of Manchester, making crucial discoveries to the life-cycle of Porphyra Umbilicalis. Her discoveries made a lasting development to the production of Nori in Japan, previously known as ‘Gamblers Grass’ due to the unpredictable nature of harvesting the seaweed crop. Dr. Bakers work enabled cultivators to better understand the life-cycle of the seaweed and create suitable conditions for harvesting which led to the scale of it’s consumption today. The impact of her work is demonstrated by an annual Japanese festival in which she is celebrated as ‘the Mother of the Sea’.

Going shopping

We took a look at what we can buy in Rochdale visiting a Polish and Pakistani supermarket, thinking about the differences of foods on offer, the similarities of products marketed to different customers and global food pathways. We started to unravel a little where our food comes from and the journey it takes to get to the UK, questioning where the local alternatives are.

Shopping habits and cultural etiquettes were discussed, remembering how it was to visit the Asian supermarket as a child and the expectation that you had to behave. The group shared who does the shopping now in their household and if that has changed from their parents. We thought about what we ask people to bring back for us when they have been someone else, apple tea and vanilla from morocco, sweets from Pakistan, tinned fish from Lisbon. We find things to fit in our suitcases.

We thought about local producers, small scale businesses that don’t seem to be in Rochdale anymore – milk men, egg men and the black pea man on his bike – as well as what is still here, bakers, halal butchers. We realised we eat to different seasons, UK strawberries and Pakistani yellow mangos and saag leaves. Celebrating changing in growing seasons from a distance.

The group shared recipes they knew by heart, talking about the ingredients, how to know when best to buy any particular veg or where to get halal or other meat and why they chose this recipe in particular.

“Does anyone ever measure anything?”

“No!”

1st March- Deeplish Community Centre: Bring a Bowl

The first meeting of the group saw everyone bring a bowl and share some food. As a way to get to know each other everyone was asked to introduce themselves and say something about the bowl that they had brought with them.

People’s bowls connected to particular memories, they were a gift from a friend or given by a parent before they left home. Some bowls were part of a person’s childhood, having been in the family all their lives. Other bowls were chosen because of their particular size and shape – a small bowl that was used for children’s snacks, a bowl with a distinct rim to aid a blind participant with measuring portions. Some were chosen due to the pattern, bowls with similar floral motifs on the rim connected to Asian family homes and their choices over interior decoration. Other participants shared simple Ikea bowls – because crockery gets broken and Ikea is an easy replacement. One participant explained that their choice of Ikea bowl was because 2 years ago they moved to UK from Hong Kong leaving heavy domestic items such as cookware behind. The default was to go to Ikea to get their kitchen basics.

One member of the group didn’t bring a bowl but brought a takeaway Tupperware carton. They are a caterer and uses these cartons all the time in both their job and in cooking at home – they eat out of them, even cereal, puts left overs in them and use them to freeze precooked meals. They are a staple of their everyday interactions with food.

From bowls the group conversation moved to talk about food, what we eat out of our bowls, what we like to make and decisions around when and what we eat.

It was the start of more conversations to come.