Deaf Perspectives: Past and Present
Deaf Perspectives was a creative project designed to provide opportunities for deaf children and young people to develop their creative skills and build their confidence.
Led by Suffolk Archives and Orchestras Live, it was inspired by the life and photographs of Walton Burrell (1863-1944). Burrell was profoundly deaf from birth, as were three of his siblings. He learned the art of photography in his late teens and it is estimated that he took over 20,000 photos in his lifetime.
Around 3,000 of those photographs are now cared for by Suffolk Archives. Burrell spent his whole life in the Bury St Edmunds area but travelled all over the world, including trips to Egypt, Australia, North and South America and Japan.
Burrell’s photos provided the starting point for creative activities with 26 students aged 5-15 at the Deaf Resource Bases at Westgate Community Primary School and King Edward VI School, both in Bury St Edmunds.
Students worked with composer James Redwood and flautist Ruth Montgomery (who is deaf herself). They chose their favourite of Burrell’s photos and created music to tell the stories in the pictures. The students performed the music they helped to create alongside Britten Sinfonia in front of a live audience.
They also worked with the Offshoot Foundation to develop their photography skills. As so many of Burrell’s pictures are of people, students focused on portrait photography.
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All partners learnt lots through the project and can see the positive impact on students’ confidence, aspirations and relationships. One crucial aspect of the project was that it introduced students to a range of positive deaf role models. It was the first time that many of them had been in a school show, and they were excited to have their families come to see them perform.
Students told us the project gave them more confidence and that they felt closer as a group. The concert audience told us that they were inspired and moved, and that it had changed their perception of what is possible for deaf people.
The project has several legacies. Orchestras Live is exploring further music activities with deaf students, and the Offshoot Foundation is undertaking a filmmaking project to explore different aspects of life for deaf people in the past and present, and changes the students wish to see in the future.