A New Project From the Museum of the Home Takes an Unvarnished Look Into the Lives of Self-Isolating Families in the UK

What is life in the UK like under lockdown? How will this
strange period of time be remembered by generations to come?
London’s Museum of the Home is looking
to the public to help answer these questions with a new collecting
initiative called “Stay Home.”

“We wanted to capture a candid picture of how people across the
country were coping and adapting their lives at home during this
unique moment in history,” museum director Sonia Solicari told
Artnet News in an email. “‘Stay Home’ aims to capture a personal,
unfiltered picture of what life at home in the UK looks like under
current conditions of confinement.”

It turns out, people aren’t too shy about sharing intimate
photographs of their living spaces.

“We have found that people are very open to share their
experiences and are excited to have the chance to be part of a
unique historical record of home life at a time of self-isolation
and social distancing,” said Solicari.

“It’s hard to imagine my old routine. Simple things like
traveling on the tube, going to the pub, visiting a bookshop,
getting a haircut seem a world away,” said Sharon, an archivist
who lives alone and has been furloughed, on the project’s website.
“I have really learnt to appreciate art and the wellbeing it
brings.”

Launched at the end of April, the collecting effort is an
outgrowth of the museum’s nearly 8,000-piece “Documenting Homes
Collection,” a national archive of photographs and personal
testimonies that offers a glimpse into life across the UK since the
early 1900s.

The museum, which is currently closed, is sharing people’s
lockdown testimonies on its website and social media channels, and
will catalogue submissions for future research and displays.

People’s living conditions vary widely, from cramped apartments
to spacious homes with sprawling backyards. But some elements of
the experience are universal, regardless of class.

“Everybody, whatever their home circumstances, is having to
juggle an array of different roles and duties, and find new ways of
adapting socially, mentally, and emotionally to this very alien and
uncertain time,” Solicari said. Other common threads in
submissions include loneliness and isolation—especially pronounced
when celebrating milestones like birthdays—but also “a new found
sense of community and togetherness,” and an embrace of new
hobbies.

“I’ve learned to make pies. My wife is memorizing all the
world’s capital cities,” wrote 60-year-old Gareth J, He lives in
Hailsham with his wife and stepdaughter, a nurse who uses a
separate entrance and self-isolates in her bedroom, eating meals
left out on the landing.

The contributions speak to the dramatic shift in everyday life,
and the process of settling in to a new normal.

“It’s incredible to capture these moments for posterity,” said
Solicari. “If anybody asked, how on earth did you cope during lock
down? These stories would tell you how.”

The post A New Project From the Museum of the Home Takes an
Unvarnished Look Into the Lives of Self-Isolating Families in the
UK appeared first on artnet News.