Culture And Memory

Breaking Barriers

Breaking Barriers delivers a series of intergenerational activities to promote wider public engagement with mining heritage beyond the familial and occupational connections to coal. Underpinning these activities is the development of a suite of community created ‘how to’ toolkits that break down barriers related to digital confidence and accessibility (including physical and cognitive impairment). The aim is both to empower and equip communities with the confidence and skills to interpret, map and record their own mining heritage digitally through a local place making lens, and to save the disappearing link between former colliery sites and memory through the medium of walking and cycling routes. These ‘landscapes journeys’ expand the current Eco-Museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes’ collection and respond to community demand for extended geographical reach across the former Scottish coalfields, whilst the toolkits provide the museum with long term sustainability by creating independent community curators.