Cabinet Stories is a travelling exhibition for audiences who have limited access to the arts. In 2016, Cabinet Stories toured to partners in London who work with communities who may be at a point in their life where they are not able to visit museums. Cabinet Stories travelled to HMP Holloway, East London NHS Foundation Trust and Anchor Silk Court – a home for older people. At the end of this tour, Cabinet Stories opened to the wider public at a charity shop in Poplar run by homelessness charity Emmaus. Working with such disparate partners enabled the London College of Fashion access to understanding the needs of the communities and approaches to working in these environments.
There were seven curators involved in the project – from UAL and national and regional museums along with independent curators. The cabinet - the traditional form of museum display – was designed to host an infinite number of exhibitions. As such, each curator’s display was placed in the Cabinet for one week and the curator led a workshop or talk based on their cabinet installation. Cabinet Stories was installed at each venue for eight weeks – seven weeks of Curator exhibitions and one week of the audiences’ exhibition entitled Our Cabinet Story.
Find out more about it in this short film featuring the curators who worked on it, and some members of the communities involved.