Onaissa Jamil from Nottingham's young curator collective, Illuminate, describes her experience at the recent Stories of the World Arts in Parliament event...

I would describe the parliament day as bright, vivid and enjoyable. I particular liked the fashion projects, the waistcoats that one group had made and the clothing made by fashion students. I also liked the poems told by the young people from John Keat's house in London. The Leicester flashmob was the highlight of the performances with the drumming and bright costumes.

I am part of a SOTW project making costumes so I went to talk to the groups that had been involved in similar projects to get ideas from them. One of the groups had used spray painting as a way of thinking up designs and I thought that would be a good thing to do as part of our group.

I also loved the tour of parliament, especially see all the fleur de lese around the building, both the building and the projects were inspiring.

Onaissa Jamil

Leah Sinclair is a Youth Curator at Northampton Museum & Art Gallery. Leah has been involved with the curation and development of The World at your Feet exhibition and attended the special Stories of the World Arts in Parliament event on 24th July. Here are her thoughts about the event:

During our visit to parliament we watched Leicester's flash mob dance, listened to poems from various young people involved and viewed the outfits made by Manchester College. We were then able to tell people about how us "the youth curators" have been involved and what we have been doing, by going around displaying shoes and providing people with information about them and the exhibition. I enjoyed this part the most as it allowed us to meet and talk to many interesting people, as well as testing us on our knowledge about the four shoes. And it was great to hear from a lot of people that they were aware of our exhibition and had already visited it. I also enjoyed having the opportunity to take part in an interview to be featured in a short film documenting the event. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that I will be able to attend it again in the future.

Our Dress the World Suits and Saris flash mob group has been invited to perform at a prestigious Arts in Parliament event at Westminster Hall on Tuesday 24th July. This special event will showcase a selection of the excellent projects that have engaged over 2,000 young people as part of the Stories of the World initiative.

Stories of the World is the largest youth participation project ever delivered by museums. It is part of the Cultural Olympiad, led by Arts Council England in partnership with London 2012.

Also present at the event will be a group of young curators that have been involved with the Dress the World exhibitions across the East Midlands. During the day, audiences will have the opportunity to experience poetry, music, dance and design inspired by the exploration of the UK's world collections. The performances will culminate with an invitation to join the young curators and museum teams, share their enthusiasm, expertise, see the creative responses to objects from around the world and discuss the impact of working with museums in innovative and exciting ways.

Tickets are free and are available via the Arts in Parliament website: http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/arts-in-parliament/whats-on-programme/stories-of-the-world-/

Since the beginning of February 2012, groups of young people from Nottingham, Leicester and Northampton have been participating in a rather secretive project. The groups have been regularly attending dance workshops with established choreographers, where they developed short performance pieces inspired by the theme of their individual exhibitions.

We are very pleased to reveal that these workshops culminated in a series of spectacular 'flash mob' style performances across the streets of Nottingham, Leicester and Northampton. Coupled with breathtaking costume designs by Artist Ali Pretty, these performances delighted passers by as they went about their daily routines.

If you weren't lucky enough to catch a flash mob performance, take a look at the videos below...

Living in Silk Flash Mob:

Suits and Saris Flash Mob:

The World at your Feet Flash Mob:

Having experienced a steep learning curve developing and maintaining a Youth Panel for the museum, it finally feels as though things are coming together in Leicester. Young participants were tasked with purchasing clothing over the summer to reflect the themes of body consciousness and the idea of fashion fusion. The team spent a day on the streets of Leicester looking at the clothes people were wearing and what was on show in the high street shops. They discussed some ideas about the styles and patterns of clothing and what may have influenced them and also discussed the way we would choose to wear items and what that says about us.

The group went back later to select items for the exhibition informed by some of the clothing that is already in the collection. They decided to select from the High Street and the 'Golden Mile' of Leicester, Belgrave Road. It was decided that they would purchase a dress from Monsoon, jeans from Levi and a suit from Topman as well as some other items such as t-shirts and a mini-skirt. The second shopping trip was to Belgrave Road where the group decided on a sari and a Punjabi suit.

The sari was chosen because of the ornate design, the type of material and the style of the blouse. Considered by the group to be quite revealing and the style quite modern they felt that it could offer a contemporary example of fusion fashion, of 'east meets west' in the style of material, colour and embroidery chosen by the designer. The strapless tube blouse was felt by the group to be quite modern in revealing of the wearers arms, shoulders and back. This led to an interesting discussion about the sari blouse and the cropped t-shirt purchased from H&M, both showed the midriff, but one of the panel members said that she wouldn't go out wearing the cropped t-shirt because her parents wouldn't like it. She would however wear a sari blouse exposing the same area because this was part of her tradition.

The group starting to think about fashion in terms of influences and looking at appropriateness of clothing has brought out some interesting discussions about where these influences have come from. The group was also involved in the discussion of contemporary globalisation. Using magazines, the group led discussions about the style of the articles and advertising in magazines from India and the UK looking at influences, whether the styles were something they liked and if it's something they would wear, and why.

The Panel is aiming to involve as many people as it can to develop small groups to work on specific tasks, not only to create interesting and innovative ideas, but also to develop the panel's own skills and experiences, be this the launch event, workshops for families and specific groups, talks, tours and technology.

Leicester New Walk Museum and Art Gallery has been successful in receiving a significant grant from the HLF 'Your Heritage' fund, which will support a considerable body of engagement activity involving young people and community groups. The grant will also enable the team to enhance conservation and preservation of objects. Leicester plans to revisit the South Asian textile and costume Collection, engaging local South Asian communities and other community groups in the reinterpretation of items in the Collection. The valuable HLF grant will also enable the team to provide training and learning opportunities for the youth panel, helping to include young people in many stages of the exhibition design process.

Illuminate is Nottingham City Museums and Gallery's young people's panel and at present consists of 26 diverse 16 – 24 year olds who currently meet every week to work on Stories of the World. Since securing funding from HLF, Illuminate members have been busy making some exciting decisions about their project.

With the help of the Keeper of the World Cultures collection Illuminate has explored the Chinese textile collection that has been in storage and has selected the objects members wish to display in their exhibition, which includes silk woven skirts, embroidered panels, purses and costume figures. The group have had to consider the conservation needs of the objects and the dimensions of the temporary gallery space at Nottingham Castle.

Some of the group also got to meet Helen Persson, Curator of textiles in the Asian department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who made a visit to Nottingham to look at the Chinese textile collection. She was very enthusiastic about the objects chosen by the group and answered many of Illuminate's questions which gave people a lot to think about in regards to their exhibition and what information to include about the objects.

Some Illuminate members have also attended a museum interpretation training day which was run by Renaissance. This really helped them to understand what museum interpretation is and what to consider when writing for museum visitors. The group have also been on a research trip to the Black Country Living Museum where they looked at types of interpretation, different ways of engaging the visitor and creating atmosphere. A great day was had by all with the group getting on well together and being inspired by the visit, coming up with great ideas for their exhibition.

Illuminate has started to take a proper look at all the things that need doing and by when to get their exhibition, events programme and marketing ready for 2012 and has now formed small groups to work on areas such as exhibition design, interpretation, marketing, events and community engagement.

Since attending the weekend residential in August for the Dress the World project, our Youth Curator group is increasing in numbers and now has a membership of around 16 young people aged 13 – 25.

The Youth Curators have been working closely with the exhibitions team to select shoes and themes for 'The World at Your Feet' exhibition. They have been closely involved in determining which particular shoes they find of interest and we have been able to focus on those that really have interesting stories to tell. In particular one of the themes the Youth Curators wanted to highlight in the exhibition is that of materials and how the climate in different parts of the world might influence which types of material shoes are made from.

The Youth Curators have also been discussing their ideas for the Coming of Age section, what should be included in this section and how it might be displayed. They have been sharing their personal stories relating to coming of age and also inviting their parents, some who were punks in their teenage years, to contribute their memories to the exhibition too.

In August 2011, 30 young people joined The Mighty Creatives on a three day residential to discover what goes into the design and delivery of exhibitions, and to develop ideas for maximising visitor experiences to the Dress the World exhibitions.

Over the course of the weekend, young participants had the opportunity to explore the history of Quorn Hall and surrounding area in an exciting Treasure Hunt, drawing upon the group's leadership, communication and creative skills in order to complete the tasks.

Young participants were invited to Snibston Discovery Park, where workshop sessions and behind the scenes tours gave the opportunity for the group to learn about the value of research and storytelling in guided tours, examining and conserving artefacts and using technology as a way to enhance visitor experience.

At the end of the sessions, the group worked together to develop guided tours in response to their own research and the day's activities. The group presented their guided tours to each other and discussed ways to use their new skills to enhance the Dress the World exhibitions.

Nottingham Museums and Galleries Service has secured a substantial grant from the HLF Your Heritage fund in support of youth and community engagement for the Living in Silk exhibition. Nottingham's youth panel (Illuminate) will be given the opportunity to design, curate and produce a world class exhibition of Chinese textiles alongside a significant collection on loan from the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou. Young participants will be involved in each stage of the creative process, working closely with experienced museum staff to learn valuable skills in curation, contemporary collecting, conservation, interpretation, photography, graphic design and marketing. It is hoped that this experience will help to leave a lasting legacy beyond the Living in Silk exhibition, and inspire more young people to get involved with their local museums and art galleries.

The HLF Your Heritage grant will enable the Illuminate group to develop their more ambitious ideas, which will see the wider community engaged in a series of exciting workshops, tours and events led by young people and NTU Students during the Living in Silk exhibition.In addition to youth and community work, the HLF grant will enable Nottingham Museums and Galleries to revisit its own collection of Chinese silks and textiles. Plans are underway to carry out conservation work on several delicate objects, many of which have not been seen by the public for over 20 years.