Exploring Energy in the Home
Two collaborative events exploring domestic energy histories and futures through museum objects at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Photo: Andy Lord Photography
Through hands-on engagement with museum objects, we'll investigate the past, present, and future of energy in our homes.
How do we use the past to inform a just and healthy energy future?
How can everyday objects from the past help us think about health and our future homes?
Who influenced energy change in homes of the past, and what can we learn from their stories?
How can community-informed research help ensure fairer energy transitions?
Join us for a family workshop in the morning and an academic research session in the afternoon.
Photo: Andy Lord Photography
Family Workshop
Have you ever thought about how your cooker, washing machine or vacuum cleaner can help us explore the history and future of energy? How do they help us think about energy decision making in the past, today and into tomorrow?
How do today's household objects look and work differently to the first inventions to help us cook and clean with electricity and gas in the home?
Join us for this family-focused workshop at the Discovery Centre where we will explore the histories of energy in the home together, and think about how new technologies for cleaning and cooking helped us power our homes in the past, present and future.
💡 We promise that after this event you will think differently about the objects you use to cook and clean in your homes!
Photo: Andy Lord Photography
Academic Research Session
This active session in the Leeds Museums and Galleries open storage centre will enable you to explore the domestic objects that are often hidden in the histories of technology — and are sometimes actually hidden in our City collections.
We will think together about how participatory approaches to energy research open up new ways of thinking and doing that support the work to ensure fairer energy transitions in the future.
A second edition of 'Whose Power? Energy Change in the Home' opened at Leeds Discovery Centre in November 2024. This exhibition, first shown at Leeds City Museum, is part of a participatory action research project with the Preservative Party — a diverse group of 14-24 year old volunteer curators from the City.
Starting with questions raised in In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy (Harrison Moore and Sandwell, 2021), the project explores archives and objects not previously used to tell energy histories, facilitating critical conversations about who had — and has — the power to influence energy change.
Images: Andy Lord Photography
Both events are free to attend but registration is required for the 1pm event. Light lunch provided for the afternoon session.
Registration is free but required ONLY for the researcher workshopn for planning purposes.
The Leeds Discovery Centre is home to over a million objects from Leeds Museums and Galleries' collections. This unique open storage facility allows visitors to explore items not currently on display in our museums.
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Discovery Centre
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