Local exhibition challenges the stigma around poverty

An exhibition challenging the narratives around poverty has been held by the University of Chester.

‘Walking Further Together: An interactive exhibition of the lived experience of poverty, designed to challenge stigma and shape next steps’ was on display at St Mary's Creative Space in the city centre.

The exhibition was designed to challenge the problematic narratives that surround poverty. The exhibition presented findings from research undertaken by Social Justice Chester academics and Community Inspirers from the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission. The work was underpinned by co-production, which is the notion that research should be “with” people, rather than “on” people”.

The pieces explored the lived experiences of poverty including issues such as media representations, foodbank use, period poverty and child poverty. The exhibition was interactive and encouraged those attending to add their own contributions such as their hopes for a fairer and more equal future as well as asking those attending to make pledges.

The event was open to the public and had over 100 attendees across the two days. It included the exhibition as well as a panel and long table discussion.

Feedback from attendees included:

“It has been extremely powerful and highlights stigma and social ignorance” and described it as a "very creative approach to an important issue. It was heartening to see the way you were giving a voice to those who are usually denied their narrative”.

The exhibition was organised by the University’s Social Justice Research Team which includes Dr Kim Ross, Dr Nancy Evans, Dr Holly White and Jenn Robinson from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in conjunction with the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission.

The exhibition featured research funded by the University’s Culture & Society Research and Knowledge Exchange Institute Breaking Boundaries Fund; the Research & Knowledge Exchange Policy Support Fund and the University of Chester, Social and Political Science QR Fund.

Dr Kim Ross said:

“This exhibition aimed to present research findings in an accessible way to a public audience, everything that was exhibited was the result of a collaboration between researchers from Social Justice Chester and Community Inspirers from West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission.

“The idea for the exhibition came from a research workshop hosted at the University within which we discussed how we could better engage the wider public with academic research and how we could share stories about the lived experience of poverty in a way that challenged the problematic narratives that surround this topic. We would like to thank the Community Inspirers for sharing their stories and everyone who visited the exhibition.”

Pictured - Images from the exhibition.