Call for Flemish collections and oral history projects

The ‘Sprekende geschiedenis’ Hub does not only focus on the Netherlands, but also on collections and projects from Flanders. That’s the task of our colleague Sofie Heyens, a Flemish Open University cultural studies student who is doing an internship with the Oral History Hub. She’s mapping out which museums, libraries, archives, heritage cells or other heritage associations make use of oral history in current projects. She’s also trying to gain insight into interview collections that were taken in the past.

Sofie Heyens: “I am curious to see which heritage organisations in Flanders and Brussels are currently working on oral history. In addition, I would also like to draw more attention to the existing collections. Many organisations store interviews that contain wonderful information. But they are difficult to find, sometimes because they have not yet been digitised, with the result that they are rarely consulted in practice. It is my goal to put these oral history treasures more in the spotlight via the ‘Sprekende geschiedenis’ website.”

Are you a museum, archive, heritage library or heritage organisation committed to oral history and do you want to contribute to making these collections visible? Then register your collections and your current projects that make use of oral history. If you have any questions while filling in the form, or if you would like to know more about this research, please contact Sofie Heyens (sofieheyens@me.com).

In the Netherlands, a Hub is being set up, but also in Flanders a lot is happening in the field of oral history. In the long term, FARO wants to develop a practice-oriented training programme around this topic, together with the Schafttijd project and other partners from the heritage field. Would you like to think along with us and share experiences? Then read on here.

Photo: CoWomen via Unsplash