Minutes:
Judy Aitken, Manager at the Cuming Museum, outlined the activities around the Dickens celebrations, the two main parts of which were the “Fact into fiction” exhibition and the “Dickens voices” guided audio tours and phone app. Both of these focused on Dickens’ connection to and life in Southwark.
Judy outlined Dickens’ poor and disrupted upbringing, which included his parents being jailed for being in debt. The experiences Dickens had in Southwark had been formative and had influenced his later writing. Judy described what the northern part of Southwark had looked like in terms of industries and poverty.
She invited people to look at the events, some of which were run in association with organisations like CoolTan Arts. The exhibition would run until 23 November 2012.
The chair thanked Judy for attending.