Making History

When we started to redevelop St Fagans into a National Museum of History, we aimed to create a new model of a national museum. Our vision was of a museum that represents all the people and communities of Wales, that works with them and incorporates their voices and lived experiences.

Since the launch of the redeveloped St Fagans in 2018, visitor figures increased and the museum won the Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2019. However, representation is a journey, not an end product. It is constantly evolving, as are our perspectives on history. Together with other participatory museums across the world, we are constantly searching for new ways to become relevant to our communities.

In such changing times, it is important that museums share their thinking. This is what we intend to do in these web pages.

To start that process, we are sharing part of our successful funding bid, which won the largest sum the HLF had ever awarded in Wales. There’s no doubt that this document would be different if we wrote it today. However, we hope that it is still useful for colleagues who are planning projects of their own.

St Fagans Making History Acivity Plan