ABSTRACT
Hughes and Williams’ chapter focuses on an active partnership with the learning disability charity Mencap Cymru on the Hidden Now Heard project, as part of Making History, a three-year oral history project at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Hidden Now Heard captured the untold and often painful living memories of patients, their relatives and staff from six former long-stay hospitals in Wales, most of which had closed by 2006. The chapter examines the experience, in practice, of working with a third-sector organisation to collect the oral histories and material culture of this vulnerable community. It explores the experiences of sharing authority, bringing together expertise, as well as the ethical challenges faced by both partner organisations. It considers how the project indicated a new way of working for both organisations, and has become a blueprint for future active partnership-working. In conclusion, the chapter considers whether the impact of such initiatives can influence long-term change in policy, structures and practice at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, leading to the development of greater community agency at the very heart of its work – inclusive collecting, relevant interpreting and co-produced exhibits.
