Inspired by her fascination with artifacts and the museum collections in Exeter’s RAMM, Community Researcher Yukiko Frank undertook an innovative research project of her own ‘Chosen By Ourselves’ which researches multi-cultural Exeter today. Many people living and/or working in Exeter come from different countries and cultures from around the world. Yuki wanted to find out what kind of items people from around the world would choose to represent their culture, religion or background. In her research Yuki asked 100 people from over 40 countries this very question and found some surprising answers, some inspired by collections in the RAMM, some from elsewhere.

Dragon Flag

Yuki has also collected Chosen by Ourselves Stories from people in her survey, asking them to expand upon the item choices they made such as the Qing Dynasty Dragon flag from China illustrated here.