Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Public History at Gloria Jeans

I was happily sitting in Gloria Jeans at Epping this morning, when I looked up and saw this message on a blackboard: “Blast from the Past Exhibition. In May – Bring in photos + paraphernalia from a previous era to contribute.” Perhaps they are hoping that such initiatives will make customers feel like it is “their” shop and boost customer loyalty. Or maybe I am just being cynical. Maybe one of the staff is interested in history and felt that since Gloria Jeans is a public space it would be a good place to hold an exhibition.

However, so far no one has contributed anything, or at least nothing was on display. While there is little doubt in my mind that the initiative has something to do with making money, I also think that it has the potential for being a democratic and powerful display of public history. People may not have the time or money to go to a museum, but they can experience a piece of history over coffee. What does everyone think, should we view such an idea as an aberration, an innovation, or both?

2 comments:

Michelle said...

This is an interesting one, isn't it? As people spend more and more of their time in shopping centres and less in cultural institutions, the urge to consider ways to present history in these kinds of commercialised spaces might increase. It does raise a good question - how do we get history into an environment and format that people will actually read/see? If anyone has been to Kings Cross in the last couple of years you might have seen the 'interpretive signs' the council have installed on the footpaths - you can walk the main streets of the Cross and the history is literally laid out for you, albeit in soundbites. But clearly this is not what is going on in Gloria Jeans!

I suspect that you're right, Nadia, and that the Gloria Jeans 'history display' (sadly still blank?) is a way to make the business appear more closely linked to the local community. It will be interesting to see if anyone takes up their offer to post things on the board - can you do a repeat visit for us and report back?! Perhaps the challenge of getting history into a shopping centre is one someone might want to take up for their Proposal assignment...

Nadia said...

I will check it out next week, and if they are not to busy I'll ask one of the staff how it is going.