Cardiff is home to more than 320,000 inhabitants but until recently was the only major UK city without a museum telling the story of its people and culture.
Given the city’s history, vibrant multicultural community and the large numbers of tourists it attracts, the opening of the Cardiff Story is not before time, particularly since the Welsh capital has undergone enormous changes in recent years.
The museum is on one of the city’s busiest shopping streets in what was the old central library and its Grade II*-listed building has been promoted as a cultural venue, housing a tourist information centre, lifelong learning centre and museum.
The first phase of the Cardiff Story is a large gallery titled Cardiff in Context, which provides an introduction to the capital. It focuses on three key themes: A Port of Some Importance, Changing Cardiff and Working Lives.
To give historical perspective, a chronology is provided on a series of large, monolithic graphics that highlight key dates in Cardiff’s history, augmented by large projected images.
On the day I visited, most visitors ignored these impressive structures in favour of the sights and sounds of the exhibition beyond. There is also a Time Tunnel video installation that highlights a number of city landmarks such as the castle and the A470 road and shows how they have changed over time.
Local voices
The grand scale of the exhibition space has provided the museum’s curatorial and design team with the challenge of making sure that the story of real Cardiffians is not lost among displays that could easily concentrate on the bigger historical issues at the expense of local people.
But the good news is that, although the graphics and showcases that divide the gallery are on a scale that reflects their surroundings, those involved have clearly taken great care to develop an overall narrative that is told through the stories of local people. This means that visitors are not intimidated by their surroundings.
Walking around the gallery there is a real sense that the exhibition has been created with the contributions and support of local people. Although some historic material has been sourced from other museum collections, locally and nationally, more than 3,000 objects have been donated to the museum and many feature in the new displays.
What makes this development even more special is that many donors have also contributed their memories and thoughts about the objects and these can be sampled through audio and video interactives in the gallery, and in object storybooks that sit close to every showcase. These books contain comments about each item on display or other oral history or comments from curators.
Smells and atmospheres
The most striking manifestation of this approach is in the Every Object Tells a Story display that features “real stories from real people”.
Within a large showcase containing a number of key objects, two video screens play a series of short films about the lives of local people, including workers at the Freeman’s Cigar Factory, a fish deliveryman from Tiger Bay, a steelworker and a salmon fisherman from the Severn estuary.
As each film plays, a relevant object is spotlighted in the case. The films were clearly popular among the visitors, with most electing to watch all the films rather than just sample one or two.
There is much to see in the displays. The topics they tackle reflect the growth of Cardiff as a port and major commercial centre and its transformation in recent years and include shopping, transport, trade unionism and working conditions and housing.
The large model of a 19th-century house from Cathedral Road is a gem. Made in the style of Victorian seaside automata, the house is mounted on a turntable, which allows it to be gently turned, revealing rooms with animated characters that illustrate how people lived at different periods in Cardiff’s history from 1890 to the present.
Down the Docks forms the centrepiece of the exhibition, with an enormous model of Cardiff Docks dominating the room.
Important buildings such as the school, seaman’s mission and other public buildings are lit on the model using push buttons, and around the outside are drawers containing objects related to people who lived or worked in the docks.
Although there is a good deal of technology used to interpret the story, there are also a number of well thought out low-tech interactives that seem popular with visitors.
I particularly liked Smelly Cardiff, an installation interpreting a description of a trip down Bute Road in 1917. Smells available to sample reflect the atmosphere and business of the docks at the time and include garlic, fish, oilskins, tar ropes and Turkish cigarettes.
Downstairs, the City Lab forms the second part of the new development. Although seen as a lifelong learning hub where people can explore the history of their own community in more depth, the interpretation and feel of the space is clearly directed towards attracting children and families, with the emphasis on new technology and national curriculum topics making it a fantastic resource for schools.
Once again, the stories of local people feature heavily, with interactives enabling visitors and researchers to delve deep into the story, using external sources such as the Glamorganshire Library and Archive via the internet.
Ultimately, since the current displays are only phase one of the project, the Cardiff Story is a frustrating visit, but only in the sense that one knows there is so much more to tell.
If the next phase, which will include more about leisure, sport and the intangible culture of the place is as good as this one, then Cardiffians will finally have a community museum worthy of their capital city.
Tim Bryan is the head of collections at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon
Given the city’s history, vibrant multicultural community and the large numbers of tourists it attracts, the opening of the Cardiff Story is not before time, particularly since the Welsh capital has undergone enormous changes in recent years.
The museum is on one of the city’s busiest shopping streets in what was the old central library and its Grade II*-listed building has been promoted as a cultural venue, housing a tourist information centre, lifelong learning centre and museum.
The first phase of the Cardiff Story is a large gallery titled Cardiff in Context, which provides an introduction to the capital. It focuses on three key themes: A Port of Some Importance, Changing Cardiff and Working Lives.
To give historical perspective, a chronology is provided on a series of large, monolithic graphics that highlight key dates in Cardiff’s history, augmented by large projected images.
On the day I visited, most visitors ignored these impressive structures in favour of the sights and sounds of the exhibition beyond. There is also a Time Tunnel video installation that highlights a number of city landmarks such as the castle and the A470 road and shows how they have changed over time.
Local voices
The grand scale of the exhibition space has provided the museum’s curatorial and design team with the challenge of making sure that the story of real Cardiffians is not lost among displays that could easily concentrate on the bigger historical issues at the expense of local people.
But the good news is that, although the graphics and showcases that divide the gallery are on a scale that reflects their surroundings, those involved have clearly taken great care to develop an overall narrative that is told through the stories of local people. This means that visitors are not intimidated by their surroundings.
Walking around the gallery there is a real sense that the exhibition has been created with the contributions and support of local people. Although some historic material has been sourced from other museum collections, locally and nationally, more than 3,000 objects have been donated to the museum and many feature in the new displays.
What makes this development even more special is that many donors have also contributed their memories and thoughts about the objects and these can be sampled through audio and video interactives in the gallery, and in object storybooks that sit close to every showcase. These books contain comments about each item on display or other oral history or comments from curators.
Smells and atmospheres
The most striking manifestation of this approach is in the Every Object Tells a Story display that features “real stories from real people”.
Within a large showcase containing a number of key objects, two video screens play a series of short films about the lives of local people, including workers at the Freeman’s Cigar Factory, a fish deliveryman from Tiger Bay, a steelworker and a salmon fisherman from the Severn estuary.
As each film plays, a relevant object is spotlighted in the case. The films were clearly popular among the visitors, with most electing to watch all the films rather than just sample one or two.
There is much to see in the displays. The topics they tackle reflect the growth of Cardiff as a port and major commercial centre and its transformation in recent years and include shopping, transport, trade unionism and working conditions and housing.
The large model of a 19th-century house from Cathedral Road is a gem. Made in the style of Victorian seaside automata, the house is mounted on a turntable, which allows it to be gently turned, revealing rooms with animated characters that illustrate how people lived at different periods in Cardiff’s history from 1890 to the present.
Down the Docks forms the centrepiece of the exhibition, with an enormous model of Cardiff Docks dominating the room.
Important buildings such as the school, seaman’s mission and other public buildings are lit on the model using push buttons, and around the outside are drawers containing objects related to people who lived or worked in the docks.
Although there is a good deal of technology used to interpret the story, there are also a number of well thought out low-tech interactives that seem popular with visitors.
I particularly liked Smelly Cardiff, an installation interpreting a description of a trip down Bute Road in 1917. Smells available to sample reflect the atmosphere and business of the docks at the time and include garlic, fish, oilskins, tar ropes and Turkish cigarettes.
Downstairs, the City Lab forms the second part of the new development. Although seen as a lifelong learning hub where people can explore the history of their own community in more depth, the interpretation and feel of the space is clearly directed towards attracting children and families, with the emphasis on new technology and national curriculum topics making it a fantastic resource for schools.
Once again, the stories of local people feature heavily, with interactives enabling visitors and researchers to delve deep into the story, using external sources such as the Glamorganshire Library and Archive via the internet.
Ultimately, since the current displays are only phase one of the project, the Cardiff Story is a frustrating visit, but only in the sense that one knows there is so much more to tell.
If the next phase, which will include more about leisure, sport and the intangible culture of the place is as good as this one, then Cardiffians will finally have a community museum worthy of their capital city.
Tim Bryan is the head of collections at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon
Project data
- Cost £2.4m
- Main funders Cardiff Council; Heritage Lottery Fund £440,000
- Museum manager Kate Howe
- Museum officer Victoria Rogers
- Exhibitions officer Alison Tallontire
- Exhibition design Redman Design
- Lighting Simon Baker T&M Services
- AV Centre Screen/Electrosonic
- Interactives AIVAF/Paragon/ Fourteen Balls
- Display cases Armour
- Illustrations Chris House
- Fit-out Scena Pro
- Mountmakers National Museums Liverpool
- Conservation Cardiff Conservation Services/National Museum of Wales
