WCIA’s heritage work has been heavily driven by volunteer participation. Though WCIA doesn’t have dedicated onsite heritage staffing, through ‘Temple Friends’ and WCIA’s broåder volunteering team, we aim to offer regular access to archives and collections, and scope for students to gain work expeience through hands-on projects. These are usually organised through structured ‘dropin sessions’ on specific days (usually Wednesday afternoons, by appointment). Find out more about our recent heritage volunteering activities:
Volunteer Projects May-July 2024
We regret that due to lack of funding, we are unable to offer paid roles or casual / drop-in support; but if you are interested in volunteering regularly through Temple Friends, or are a student seeking a work experience placement, please contact heritage@wcia.org.uk (including as much detail as possible on your skills, interests and development needs).
Testimonials – Student Placement Blogs
WCIA’s ‘peace heritage’ work has involved many hundreds of volunteers and students over recent years, and we have a number of opportunities for internships, casual volunteering or work experience either online or at Wales’ Temple of Peace in the heart of Cardiff. Meet some of WCIA’s recent Heritage Placements and Volunteers:
- Maryam Ginwalla insight placement blog, July 2024 – Digitising WCIA’s Hidden Histories
- Rhiannon Day internship placement blog, July 2024 – Heritage of Refugees and Sanctuary
- Sam Mutter placement blog, Minnie James Collection (Spring 2023) and Digital Archives (Summer 2023)
- Tom Chambers placement blog, Peace Heritage Assistant (Summer 2023)
- Georgia Wood blog, Summer 2022 – Digital Archives
- Georgia Osborne blog – Library Cataloguing coordination
- Georgia Ash blog – Archiveathons placement
- Morgan McCarthy blog – Archiveathons placement
- Ffion Edwards on Transcribing ‘Annie’s Diary’
- Iman Hamizan on Digitising the CND Archives and mapping Wales’ links with Malaysia
- Helene Chaland on International Volunteering and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
- Rob Laker’s Research into Daffodil Days and the 1935 Peace Ballot
- Temple80 ‘Artists in Residence‘ young creatives, 2018
What sort of practical tasks have Temple Friends helped with?
- Library Cataloguing – completing searchable listings of books held in the Temple’s Council Chamber,
- Archives Cataloguing and Reorganisation – assisting with selection and appraisal of the Temple’s considerable archive holdings, reorganisation into thematic collections and development of an online Archives Database.
- Collections Cataloguing – photographing and recording artefacts and curating an online showcase for the Temple’s Collections
- Digital Archives Audit – supporting migration of digitised archival materials from WCIA’s Flickr to People’s Collection Wales accounts, and curating into organisational and thematic collections.
- Digitisation of new / undocumented archival materials from the Temple’s Archives & Collections
- Temple Tour guides to support visitors exploring the spaces of Wales’ Temple of Peace (building from our online ‘Temple Tours‘ and features such as ‘Architects of Peace‘)
- Peace Garden Memorials Trail for mobile phones / online devices; using social media to share stories behind the Peace Garden memorials and to illustrate / bring to life WCIA’s Memorials Trail Map and onsite information.
- Digital Timeline of Peace History stories from the last century, enabling people to explore themes, movements and periods of time, and connect to source materials / wider references.
- Popular Culture Features – drawing together an entertaining resource detailing the Temple in Film, Screen and Popular Culture, from a set for His Dark Materials / Sherlock / Dr Who, to major historic events.
- Digitisation of Temple Archives collections: Curating, indexing and organisation of documents from movements such as the Freedom from Hunger Campaign, United Nations Association, UNA Exchange / International Volunteering, the Writings of Lord Davies, etc; and producing structured feature articles that enable future researchers to analyse further.
