What the heck is a lek?
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
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The Salisbury Museum’s Fashioning Our World project has been shortlisted for The Best Museums Change Lives Project Award at the Museums Association Museums Change Lives Awards 2024. Over two years, the project worked in a collaborative way with young people (aged 11 to 25) to share powerful stories with the community. The stories told by clothes and accessories in the past would help change attitudes to fashion in the future, and help fight the climate crisis.
Earlier this year the project culminated in an exhibition at The Salisbury Museum, co-curated with young people involved in the project. They worked on every aspect, from shaping the themes to designing the information panels.
The project also inspired other heritage organisations to work in a similar way with their own fashion collections, enabling often overlooked and untold stories and objects to gain visibility. Wessex Museums partners, Dorset Museum & Art Gallery ran a series of Fashioning Our World sessions for young people linked to their own collection of clothing and accessories, implementing a similar initiative.
The Fashioning Our World project was made possible by a grant from The Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund and further support from Wessex Museums. The award winner will be announced on the 12 November 2024, during the Museums Association’s annual conference in Leeds.
Image: Fashioning Our World exhibition showing a collaborative dress made by the young people and the tag wall, where visitors were encouraged to make sustainable fashion pledges for the future.
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!