ORIGINATION INSITE

This project has been developed with Channel 4 to demonstrate the contribution of incoming cultures to England – explored through the objects of its museums, galleries and individuals. Black, Asian, Irish and Polish communities will be among the groups reached out to.

Although immigrant communities make a continuing cultural contribution to England’s arts, sciences and humanities, communicating this across the general population is not easy. The institutions which hold the objects and stories that tell us about the depth and breadth of our cultural heritage can feel distant to incoming minority groups. Yet their current activities provide the cultural heritage of tomorrow and remain inspired by the cultural activities of the past.

This project aims to enable users throughout the country to create websites that in some cases uncover and in some cases communicate their cultural heritage and the relationship that group has to England. Whether inspired by the photography of Windrush or a tea set that was used in the Raj, participants will add their own stories and objects to those provided by museums, galleries, libraries and science centres. These will then be made available online, via the Channel 4 project ORIGINATION.

Through free, local workshops and online resources, best practice in site design, structure and content will be communicated to builders. This will increase familiarity with new technologies across age groups.

Zyweb and Moonfruit (providers of site-building tools to the public) have been commissioned to provide a simple interface that should allow non web-savvy users to create a website. Culture Online has helped these companies to make their output accessible and we are hopeful that this will open up a lot of sites, in addition to Origination, to a host of users with accessibility issues.

Culture Online is very pleased to be funding a project that will increase inter-cultural understanding and access to new technologies.