Anniversary celebrations for Cornwall’s Multimedia Archive
From left to right - Kim Cooper, Terry Knight, Rowan Musser and Garry Tregidga
On 24 February 2010 the Cornish Audio Visual Archive (CAVA) celebrated its tenth anniversary at the Cornwall Centre in Redruth. Cornwall’s multimedia archive was established in 2000 as a partnership between the Institute of Cornish Studies, University of Exeter and local resource providers including the Cornish Studies Library and Cornwall Record Office. Delegates at the tenth anniversary celebrations were able to listen to audio recordings in the collection and watch some of the old films and video interviews that have been recently collected by Bob Keys and Rowan Musser. There was also a series of lectures by Kayleigh Milden, Shelley Trower and Joanie Willett on the past, present and future activities of the archive’s education and outreach unit at the Institute of Cornish Studies on the Tremough Campus.
The event also marked the launch of the archive’s new Cornish Story programme. Its aim is to promote a greater understanding of Cornwall’s cultural distinctiveness through community workshops, lectures, publications and multimedia projects. Building on the resources of the archive the Cornish Story team will eventually work with local schools, businesses and cultural organisations to promote a series of pioneering educational projects that will explore the ongoing story of Cornwall in the past and present.
Garry Tregidga, Director of the Cornish Audio Visual Archive, said ‘This event was an opportunity to reflect on developments in Cornish oral history over the past decade and to thank the many individuals and organisations who are currently associated with the work of the archive. Our next task is to build on these achievements by harnessing the multimedia power of oral history, music, film and photography to create new opportunities for promoting a greater understanding of Cornwall’s distinctive culture and heritage’.
Kim Cooper, Principal Librarian at the Cornwall Centre, said ‘We have been very pleased to support CAVA over the past ten years. The Cornwall Centre provides a public home to the archive and many of the recordings are available here to listen to. They give a wonderful insight into Cornish life and add an extra dimension to our collections of books, photographs and newspapers. We congratulate the CAVA team on all their hard work and achievements and wish them well in their next project’.
For further details, please contact Dr Garry Tregidga, Director of the Cornish Audio Visual Archive, on 01326 371 888 or email cava@exeter.ac.uk