The Launch as a Meaningful Milestone
On Friday 27 March, the launch of What We Carry at HMS Unicorn was a warm and deeply connecting event. The evening brought together families, partners, and supporters to celebrate not only a new exhibition, but the journey that made it possible. Thoughtful and moving, the event welcomed around 100 guests, including co-curators, community members, and project partners.
One of the most powerful moments of the evening was hearing contributors speak about their experiences and the objects they had chosen to share. Their openness and courage created a strong connection with visitors and invited reflection across the room. In this way, the launch reflected the same spirit of shared ownership that had shaped the exhibition from the beginning.
For Ukrainians Together, Bring Together Ltd, and HMS Unicorn, What We Carry marked the culmination of two years of community engagement, cultural exchange, and co-production.
About the Ukrainians Together and HMS Unicorn Exhibition
At the heart of What We Carry were personal objects contributed by members of the Ukrainians Together community, each carrying memories, emotions, and connections to home, family, loss, and hope. The exhibition reflects their experience of leaving home because of war and rebuilding their lives over four years in Scotland.
Through these objects and the stories attached to them, visitors were invited to reflect on what people carry with them in times of displacement, and how everyday items can become powerful expressions of identity, memory, and resilience.
Cultural exchange and mediation
Cultural exchange and mediation were central to the way this work was developed. By creating space for different voices to be heard and valued, the project moved beyond a traditional curatorial model and became a process of mutual learning and understanding.
Through facilitation and dialogue, Bring Together supported the community in navigating conversations around personal histories, identity, and representation. This helped shape a display that felt collaborative, grounded, and closely connected to the lived experience of those involved.
The Future of Heritage and Community Learning
What We Carry also highlighted the importance of building the right process around community engagement. What mattered was not only the final display, but the way it was developed: through trust, careful listening, and a mediation-informed approach that helped bridge language differences, cultural context, and expectations.
This created the conditions for people to take part as contributors rather than simply as participants. The project showed that when museums and heritage spaces combine co-production with skilled facilitation and mediation support, they can become places of cultural dialogue, belonging, and integration.
Public response and wider engagement
The response to What We Carry showed how strongly the exhibition resonated with wider audiences. Visitors described it as thought-provoking, moving, and humbling. It opened space not only for a deeper understanding of the experiences of Ukrainians Together members rebuilding their lives in Scotland, but also for broader reflection on migration, memory, and what it means to begin again while carrying the weight of home.
Gratitude and Future Directions
We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to What We Carry: the Ukrainians Together community members who shared their objects and stories, the HMS Unicorn team and volunteers who supported the process, Museums Galleries Scotland, and the wider partners who helped make the launch such a special occasion.
The exhibition stands as an important milestone, but also as a foundation for future collaboration, continued storytelling, and new ways of building connection through culture, heritage, and mediation.
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