Placed in a Fortress City: Memory & Making of Belonging

Memory & Making of Belonging is a family collage workshop taking place at the Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 4 July, starting at 11:00. It's part of Placed in a Fortress City, a series of workshops run by the University of Portsmouth that look at memory and how we build a sense of belonging. This particular session focuses on the past of Old Portsmouth, and it's one of the many things happening across the city as part of Portsmouth100, the celebrations marking the city's centenary throughout 2026.

The session is a practical one: you're asked to bring along a personal archive — a photograph, an object, a memory, or an item related to Old Portsmouth. From there, the group works with those materials to create collages and photographic pieces, turning individual stories into something visual. It's described as a space for reflection, sharing, and experimenting in a welcoming atmosphere, and it's family-friendly, so it works as well with kids as it does on its own. The whole thing runs for about three hours.

It sits within the wider Placed in a Fortress City series, which explores personal and collective memory in relation to Portsmouth and its geography. The broader Portsmouth100 programme fills 2026 with live music, fireworks, a sculpture trail and more, so this is one of the quieter, more hands-on moments in the mix. If you've got a connection to Old Portsmouth — or just a bit of family history you've been meaning to dig out — this is a good way to do something with it.

Booking is essential, and you can sign up online via a form or by emailing tarek.teba@port.ac.uk. The workshop is at the Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery on Museum Road, PO1 2LJ, on Saturday 4 July from 11:00.