OU staff are invited to take part in an event to put them and their families ‘on the map’ as part of a scheme to create a ‘portrait‘ of Milton Keynes. The OU/Living Archive Clutch club scheme is part of the Portrait of the Nation & the Face of Milton Keynes event being staged until August 19 in Middleton Hall, in thecentre:MK, the city’s main shopping centre. The CLUTCH club scheme was created by the OU’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) and helps parents to gain computing skills by creating local history websites. Forty of the websites are being featured as part of the exhibition.

The event is also an opportunity to see ‘Portrait of the Nation’ – an incredible 30m long collage celebrating Britain at work, rest and play at the start of the 21st Century. The collage was created by David Mach RA from more than 250,000 photographs submitted by people throughout Britain and was featured in the Millennium Dome. This MK exhibition, in conjunction with Living Archive, is creating a portrait of MK as the culmination of the ‘Postcards from Milton Keynes’ project. This involves the whole community, and people are invited to go along the Middleton Hall event with a photo or drawing of themselves or their family, at work, rest or play in and around MK (or create a drawing at the event) to be scanned and included in the portrait. Other exhibitions include ‘The CLUTCH Club Scheme’, ‘The People’s History of MK’, ‘McDonalds, Our Town Story’, ‘MK Music 2000’ and other local history and community displays. With a musical entertainment programme, – a great experience for young and old alike.