Building the Museum of Homelessness
The Museum of homelessness is a new cultural space and community dedicated to exploring the challenges surrounding homelessness and its depictions in culture and society.
The initial research for the project was supported by King's as one of five pilot programmes to arise from the Cultural Space Programme interventions, which took place in October and November 2014.
Theere has been an increase in rough sleeping of 102% since 2010 and more families with children are being placed in temporary accomodation. At the heart of the museum's focus is the need to explore this increasingly common part of our culture in new ways.
Central to this is the promotion of tolerance and awareness through research, and public engagement. The project draws on cross-disciplinary expertise in cultural education, museum studies, homelessness and psychotherapy, to develop a framework for working directly with socially excluded individuals to co-produce an entirely new museum space.
Project team
Jessica Turtle and Matt Turtle, from the Museum of Homelessness
Jessica Turtle hails from a homeless community in Cardiff and has fifteen years experience in the cultural sector, including four years as Museum Manager at the Garden Museum. She is Vice-Chair of the Simon Community and holds an MA in Psychosocial Studies from Birkbeck.
Matt Turtle combines his work for the Museum of Homelessness with his role as Public Programmes Producer for the Design Museum. Prior to this he worked with the Royal Academy, the Crafts Council and Open City.
Dr Anwar Tlili, Department of Education and Professional Studies at King's College London
Dr Anwar Tlili's specialised research interests are based in the issues surrounding equality and diversity in UK museums. He leads the MA Education in Arts and Cultural Settings at King's and the In Search of Museum Professional Knowledge Base: Mapping the Professional Knowlesge Debate onto Museum Work.