Have you been keeping a record of your life since the Coronavirus crisis began?

If you have then Hastings Museum and Art Gallery want to hear from you because it is asking for volunteers to keep a journal to record the extraordinary times we are living in.

Kim Forward, Leader of Hastings Council said: “Coronavirus has transformed every part of our lives in just a few weeks. We are experiencing restrictions on our daily lives that have never happened at any point in our country’s history before. 

“As this is such an important point in our history, we believe it’s essential for the museum to start recording what’s happening.

“We’re recruiting volunteers to keep a journal about their experience of living through the Coronavirus crisis. If you live in or around Hastings and are interested in taking part, email us at museum@hastings.gov.uk for more details.”

But just what is the museum asking people to write about?

A key topic will be people’s individual experiences of living through the Covid-19 crisis and how it impacted their work, hobbies, relationships, emotions and perspectives on life.

“We’re asking participants to write as much or as little as they feel like each day, but we would like them to write something every day. We don’t mind what people are writing about,” a museum spokesman said.

Ideas include… 

• what’s happened that day
• how has Covid-19 changed the way they live their lives
• things they are finding difficult to deal with
• how they are keeping busy/calm/fit/well
• things that make them laugh or cry
• anything they have discovered about themselves, or anyone they are staying at home with
• how they think this experience might change them, their family and friends, or community

“We hop the journals will show the happy experiences as well as the difficult bits. We are asking people to donate their journal to the museum collection when the pandemic is over. This means it will become part of our collections and be used in the future to help people understand what this experience was like for ordinary people. The journals may get used in future exhibitions and online to explain what it was like in Hastings during the Covid-19 crisis. 

How to register to take part?

Email the museum at museum@hastings.gov.uk to register your interest.

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