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To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Richmond Council’s Orleans House Gallery is looking for residents to get involved in a community project exploring the area’s royal connections, culminating in a public exhibition.

The Council has been awarded almost £40,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out the project.

Residents can get involved in two ways: by becoming part of an exhibition development group or by sharing memories and memorabilia from the Coronation and more recent royal events.

Cllr Pamela Fleming, Richmond Council Cabinet Member for Community, Business and Culture, said: “I would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for this generous funding - ensuring that during the year of the Diamond Jubilee, Orleans House Gallery will have an exhibition celebrating the role the Royal Family has historically played and continue to play in our borough.

“I urge residents who are interested in our local history to take part in the project and activities planned by the gallery to commemorate the jubilee. I am sure the Royal Connections exhibition will be a particular highlight and I look forward to hearing residents’ stories and experiences of the Queen’s coronation.”

The Exhibition Development Group will see volunteers work with a project team to research royal connections of sites in the borough. They can then share discoveries with the community by curating a section of a final exhibition.

Participants will be asked to take part in five workshops during February and March. These will be led by the Council’s arts service curators and will show volunteers how to design exhibitions and display memorabilia. Other activities will include visits to archives and partner sites including Hampton Court Palace, Kew Palace, Ham House, the White Lodge Museum & Ballet Resource Centre at the Royal Ballet School and Marble Hill House. Volunteers will be able to take the lead on deciding which stories to tell, and how to tell them, with support available from the Council.

Residents can also share their memories, photos and other memorabilia of the Queen’s coronation to form part of an exhibition. Memory-gathering oral history sessions will be held where people can share stories from the Coronation and other royal events and occasions.

For more information contact Sian Hunter Dodsworth at the Council’s Arts Service on 020 8831 6000 or sian.hunterdodsworth@richmond.gov.uk by 27 January.