The Museum of the Home (formerly known as the Geffrye Museum of the Home) has launched a new collecting project in the UK called Stay Home. The participatory project offers the UK public the chance to be part of a historical record of home life during the coronavirus pandemic. The project is the latest development to the Museum’s Documenting Homes Collection, a national archive of photographs and personal testimonies charting how people in the UK have lived over the past century.

Stay Home aims to capture a broad and honest picture of what home life looks like in these current conditions of social distancing and self-isolation: for key workers, flat-sharers, parents, those living in urban and rural areas, living in-between homes or in hostels, and much more. From self-isolating to caring for others, from juggling family and work to living outside of home, the project considers the physical, emotional, social, and mental changes to our experiences of home.

Contributions from the UK public will become part of the Museum’s current archive, providing contemporary, personal testimonies to use for research, digital content and future exhibitions when the Museum reopens later this year.

The Museum’s Director, Sonia Solicari says: “As the world undergoes major changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, home has never been more important. The Stay Home project hopes to offer a personal, unfiltered insight into the wide spectrum of domestic life nationwide. While the Museum of the Home is closed for a redevelopment, we want people to be part of the current discussion about what home means to them right now. Our home lives are often messy, so please really share how you are feeling about your home in this extraordinary moment in time – and don’t tidy up!”

All information on how take part in the Stay Home project can be found on the Museum of the Home website and social channels: museumofthehome.org.uk @museumofthehome #stayhome

This project will also be part of BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine event #MuseumFromHome on 30 April to spotlight UK Museum projects, including Stay Home.