Burns, R., Palmerini, P., 2022.

An Anthology of Joy

Museum of Half Truths is a research project founded in 2020 by Polly Palmerini and Rachael Burns. This project Anthology of Joy was funded by Manchester Independents (MIF). This project involved across workshops with the larger communty of greater Manchester, students at MMU and through a final exhibition at Contact Theatre.

An Anthology of Joy is our new project in our home city, supported by Manchester Independents. We built an archive of the small moments of joy that we have turned to for support and comfort in the time of COVID-19.

The archive is a browsable active resource; a space for sharing the coping mechanisms we have developed that people can turn to for inspiration.

We think that it is as important to remember these everyday moments as it is the headlines and statistics, so it will also have a life beyond the end of the exhibition. By cataloguing these small moments of joy, they together form a much broader cultural picture of Greater Manchester during and post pandemic.
-


Museum of Half Trust is a project in which we wanted to think critically about museums, why we need them, how they function, and how as communities we can take a more active role in shaping them.

Our first big project took place in Hong Kong in August, supported by 1a Space through their Emerging Talents in Contemporary Art International Open Call. We worked with Hong Kong based artists, writers and thinkers to look at histories that have been forgotten, suppressed and deliberately mis-remembered or mis-represented.

Through our projects as Museum of Half Truths we want to create spaces for learning, thinking and making that are collaborative, equitable, accessible, playful and relevant.