Raising a family in 2024: New exhibition celebrates families living in Wakefield

By Leanne Clarke
Published 11th May 2024, 09:00 BST
The exhibition, entitled Born and Bred in Wakefield, introduces four young families who live in the district and features photographs, objects, and histories from the families as well as a film that documents their experiences of raising a family in the district in 2024.The exhibition, entitled Born and Bred in Wakefield, introduces four young families who live in the district and features photographs, objects, and histories from the families as well as a film that documents their experiences of raising a family in the district in 2024.
The exhibition, entitled Born and Bred in Wakefield, introduces four young families who live in the district and features photographs, objects, and histories from the families as well as a film that documents their experiences of raising a family in the district in 2024.
A new online exhibition exploring the experience of families living in the Wakefield district who have recently had a baby, has been launched.

The exhibition, entitled Born and Bred in Wakefield, introduces four young families who live in the district and features photographs, objects, and histories from the families as well as a film that documents their experiences of raising a family in the district in 2024.

The interactive exhibition also features the stories of midwives working for Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust as well as historic images of local families and hospital staff dating back to the late 1800s.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Coun Michelle Collins, Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, said “It’s wonderful to see the experiences of local families shared and celebrated in this new online exhibition. Born and Bred in Wakefield explores the highs and lows of being a new parent in Wakefield and it’s fantastic to have these stories captured for the future in our local museums.”

The exhibition complements Born and Bred in Wakefield (BaBi Wakefield), a research project which uses routine health, social and education data to create a picture of local people’s health and lifestyles over time.

The exhibition features the first-hand experiences of four different families who are all taking part in the research study. Malvika speaks about the realities of parenting her two-year-old daughter Mishka whilst being pregnant with twins.

Bex shares the challenges of conceiving her daughter Lucy through IVF. Isabelle speaks about some of the anxiety she experienced whilst pregnant with her son Marco, and how she is keen to try gentle parenting.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Charlie shares her experiences of being a single mum to son Levi and her hopes to home school him so that he can have the freedom to be himself.

The museum service plans to follow the four families over the coming years, visiting them each year to document how their children are growing up. This will help them to collect and share the experiences of having a baby in Wakefield District in the 2020s.

The museum service is eager to hear from other families who are interested in sharing their own stories.

If you’d like to be involved, contact Leah Mellors, Museums Development Manager at [email protected].

Related topics:WakefieldMichelle Collins

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.