Sounding Borders was led by Scotland’s Sounds and Historic Environment Scotland with funding from the Esme Fairbairn Foundation. It aimed to raise the profile of sound collections across Scotland. The project used archived oral testimonies from people living in the Scottish Borders as a starting point, reflecting on their domestic lives, school lives, working lives and social lives in the 20th century.
This project documented dairies and doorstep milk delivery, an important long-standing feature of many communities, through photography and oral history.
The Age Exchange Theatre and Reminiscence Centre was founded by Pam Schweitzer in 1983 and she was its Artistic Director from 1983 to 2005. Her special interest in creating theatre from the memories of older people has led her to direct over 30 professional theatre productions which have toured nationally and internationally.
This project involved an oral historian working creatively with spoken testimonies to create memory-based art and poetry. It explored the importance of taking time to reflect on and celebrate a person’s life and achievements and what it means to have that life story encapsulated in an artwork.
