Hidden Histories

What’s on offer?

A photographic and sound based exhibition based on the oral history collection undertaken by pupils at Alloa Academy working closely with Give a Dog a Bone charity. The exhibition is free standing with embedded sound clips for you to move around at your own pace. The pupils will be available to speak to about what they did and how they curated the exhibit. The photographer will be there to ask questions about what they did and why they were interested in the project. The exhibition is free of charge and open to all members of the public.

What’s it about?

This exhibition is focused on bringing to life, through images and sounds, the experiences of older people who grew up in Alloa and the surrounding areas. It will capture their live stories and through them will demonstrate the different ways that Alloa has changes in the last 120 years. The exhibition will show the importance of working with the digital to recapture and recreate seemingly ‘lost’ histories of small towns in Scotland as part of it’s larger heritage.

Who’s leading the event?

Dr Francis Stewart, lecturer of Sociology at the University of Stirling is the event leader.

Joshua Johnston is a professional photographer from the West of Scotland, with experience in visual representations of oral history.

Emma McCabe is a PhD student at the University of Stirling and responsible for the administrative running of the project.

Give a Dog a Bone is an animal and loneliness focused charity based in Alloa who work with unhoused dogs and older members of the public in the local area. They worked closely with the project to provide space for interviews, contact and support.

Alloa Academy pupils undertook training in how to interview, capture and work with oral history. They also undertook training from an exhibition curator at the University of Stirling to create the exhibition on display.

The Alloa Hub, which is hosting the exhibition, is a community center dedicated to serving the diverse needs of Alloa's local community. 

Open to

Anyone is welcome, it is free to all who wish to attend.

Of particular interest to

Of particular interest to local families with multiple generations living in Alloa and surrounding areas of Clackmannshire. Of particular interest to those whose family member were either interviewed or did the interviewing.

Scheduling information

The exhibition will run from Wednesday 23 October 2024 to Friday 25 October 2024. 

Please drop in anytime between 10.00-16.00 on those days.