The Sixties Project – Talking about our generation
Update March 2020
This is a Shared Learning Project led by Denise West and Shelagh Woolliscroft. It started in January 2018. The main phase was completed at the end of 2019 but there have been several spin-offs which will continue to be reported here. Over 100 members have had some involvement to date.
Some of the highlights of the Project have been:
The ‘Sixties Night’ event held on 13 October 2018 was enjoyed by 90 members. The highlights included a wonderful fashion show (all original garments), the music (some of us were dancing in the aisles) and the fantastic display of photographs, stories and other memorabilia. Samina Aslam took videos and photos, some of which accompanied Denise’s report for December Links and Third Age Matters.
The seminar on National Service in January 2019 SU3A member Mike Cox talked about his time in Special Ops. 17 members completed questionnaires about their experiences and the material from these may be used to produce an overview. Meanwhile Derek Cave has produced his own story- you can read it by clicking on the link opposite.
Meetings with University of Sheffield students. Some of us met up with students of Modern History last semester to help them with their specialist topics. In May 2019 we were ‘grilled’ by school students as part of a History Day – click on the links opposite to find reports from Linda Evans and John Dixon.
The Topic Work: This formed a major part of the project. Members contributed memories on nine topics. These were distilled into reports which you can access by clicking on the links opposite. We have created a Sixties Timeline to highlight key events of the decade. Click on the link opposite.
Life-Writing Workshops. John Turner, a former lecturer in creative writing, ran successful four- part life-writing workshops in 2019 and more are planned. Contact him at jrt39bow(AT)gmail.com if you are interested.
Denise managed to get an account of the Project in April’s Third Age Matters. As a result of this publicity we were invited to do a keynote presentation at Rotherham’s 25th birthday lunch at Aston Hall Hotel in October 2019.
We are now starting to use the material in other ways:
1. The Stories Gallery. We were invited by Western Park Museum to send any of our stories and anecdotal memories about life in Sheffield in the 1960s. Some of them have been accepted into a new exhibition opening in 2020. We have been invited to the opening launch evening event. There will be a Q & A session.
2. Talking About our Generation. A Shared Learning Project in conjunction with Ignite Imaginations and Sheffield Sensoria. It will be an event where the theme is 60’s Protest and Folk Music. There will be an ” open mike ” session, food and interdisciplinary activities.
3. Regional Summer School 2020. Denise was approached by YAHR ( Yorkshire & Humberside Region ) to offer a 3-day course based on work she did as part of the Arts topic.
4. What We Read in the Sixties. A group of U3A members have signed up to take an in- depth look at the reading habits of children/teenagers in that decade.
If you have a query about the Sixties Project please contact Denise West at Denisewest3(AT)btinternet.com