‘A Homeless History of Newcastle’ was a ground-breaking local history project that ran from January 2018 to April 2019. The project brought a team of members from Crisis Skylight Newcastle (all of whom were homeless or had experience of homelessness) together with a historian and museum curator to explore local archives and find out what history can tell us about the ongoing crisis of homelessness, its causes and its effects on people.
The team met every week to visit archives, piece together the stories that were being uncovered, and discuss the issues surrounding homelessness now and in the past. They also visited cultural and heritage institutions around Newcastle/Gateshead to talk about the representation of homelessness in the heritage sector and to gather ideas for an exhibition on the history of homelessness.
Along the way, the team worked with Newcastle City Guides to plan, write and deliver a unique walking tour that told detailed stories of five people uncovered by the project who had all faced homelessness in 19th century Newcastle. The team also developed and hosted a major conference celebrating other radical local history projects across the North East and beyond.
The project culminated with the launch of ‘Missing Pieces: A History of Homelessness in Newcastle’. This major exhibition used archival evidence to explore experiences of homelessness in Newcastle’s past. It also laid bare public attitudes and government responses to homelessness in recent history. The city-wide exhibition took place in spring 2019 across Newcastle City Library, Discovery Museum, The Laing art gallery, Bessie Surtees House and St Nicholas Cathedral.
Five members from Crisis Skylight Newcastle – John, Rachel, Rob, 'P' and 'C' – worked on the project team and dedicated their time, energy and knowledge to shape the project and the exhibition. The original exhibition installations were built and designed by Newcastle-based artist Joe Shaw working with Crisis members Dai, Ian and John.
The ‘Homeless History of Newcastle’ project was created by community historian and archivist, Kristopher McKie, who led the project alongside museum curator, David Wright. Louise Wennington led the project on behalf of Crisis.
If you want to find out more about the project then get in touch: homelesshistorynewcastle@gmail.com
Further reading and media links:
You can download our National Lottery Heritage Fund project evaluation report here
The project team worked with Newcastle based designers Everything on the branding and publicity for the project and the exhibition. You can find out more about their work on the project here
You can listen to an interview about the exhibition (recorded for Deutsche Welles radio, 8 March 2019) featuring Project Lead Kristopher McKie, Project Curator David Wright and Director of Crisis Skylight Newcastle Andrew Burnip here
You can listen to an audio review of the exhibition by the 'Hey Art, What's Good' podcast (16 March 2019) here