Our Sporting Life - Press Release June 11

 100,000 visitors to Our Sporting Life in the lead up to London 2012

Nationwide exhibitions dedicated to sports heritage in Great Britain mark their first successful year with over a 100,000 visitors to date to museums across the country.

Our Sporting Life is a series of community led exhibitions, spearheaded by the Sports Heritage Network and supported by LOCOG, the British Olympic Foundation and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), celebrating sporting successes and exploring our national sporting heritage in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A total of 115 exhibitions are planned with 18 exhibitions already open. Locations of exhibitions range from Cornwall to Northumberland - covering sports as diverse as football to cycling.  

Asking the question "What does sport mean to you?" Our Sporting Life identifies sporting moments, heroes, objects, photographs and experiences that have inspired the people in the local community. Public contributions are key to the exhibitions - not only to identify and explore the power and importance of national and well known examples of our sports heritage, but also to discover the personal, family and community memories, that strengthen our understanding of the nation's shared sporting history.

Over 100 sports clubs and associations have been directly involved in the exhibitions hosted to date, with many more featured in the exhibitions themselves.  Local, schools and teachers are also been involved creating a lasting legacy for future generations.

Documenting both historic and contemporary accounts of sporting achievement and highlighting the successes of sporting clubs and individuals, among the stories exhibited so far are:

• The formation of the Westburry Harriers running club in the 1920s, and a look at the 2010 Bristol Cycling Festival, shown at the Bristol Records Office exhibition.
• A celebration of Shropshire's sporting heroes, including England footballer Billy Wright and Captain Matthew Webb, to modern heroes including boxing legend Richie Woodhall and England goalkeeper Joe Hart, at the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron in Telford.
• A salute to Scunthrope United, showing a wide range of Scunthorpe United memorabilia, images and objects loaned by local fans, presented in interactive displays, shown at the North Lincolnshire Museum.
• "Salford's Sporting Stars" - a touring exhibition, which travelled to venues across Salford, collecting sporting stories on the way.

Sir Andrew Motion, MLA Chair says, "Sport taps into a fundamental human desire, to excel and succeed.  It can bind and connect people in a way that defines them as human beings, and it can be the backbone of a community's local pride.  Our Sporting Life shows exactly how sport has shaped and inspired our nation, creating some of our nation's most treasured heroes, and recording for the first time what it truly means to be a British athlete."

  Paul Mainds, Chairman of Our Sporting Life steering committee, and Chief Executive of the River & Rowing Museum, Henley on Thames, said "We're delighted to have secured over 100 exhibitions for Our Sporting Life.  The vision for the programme was to excite interest in sports heritage in any community in Britain by providing an economical exhibition model and a core story around which a unique local story could be told. We're grateful to the MLA for providing the core funding to make OSL possible."

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Press contacts

OSL:  maxim.bendall@kallaway.com or 020 7221 7883 

Get involved with Our Sporting Life 
Our Sporting Life wants to hear your sporting memories, everyone is encouraged to get involved.  Leave your thoughts and ideas at: www.oursportinglife.co.uk 

Our Sporting Life Partners
The project has the support of numerous bodies both officially and unofficially, including the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) Department of Culture, Media & Sport, Sport England, the CCPR, Arts Council, Sport England, English Heritage and Visit Britain.  Currently, over 20 sports are signed up as heritage partners with the objective of securing the participation of virtually every sports association or body.

  Sports Heritage Network members
Members include National Football Museum, MCC Museum at Lord's, Wimbledon, the R&A Museum at St Andrews, the River & Rowing Museum at Henley, the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham, the National Horseracing Museum, Wheelpower, representing the Paralympics; British Dragon Boat Racing and The Wenlock Olympian Society.