Professor Vanessa Elizabeth Toulmin
Nationality: United Kingdom
Year: 1993
Subject Area: Arts and Humanities
Website: Visit (opens in a new window)I was a Wingate Scholar from 1993 to 1995 and it has certainly changed my life.
One of the major aspects of my award was to set up the National Fairground Archive and work on the history of travelling showpeople at the University of Sheffield. Because of the Wingate support I was offered a full doctoral fellowship which I completed in 1997, set up the National Fairground Archive in 1994 and now have-four members of staff and an amazing resource which is used by thousands of people completely funded by the University of Sheffield Library.
Over the past thirteen years I have run many projects, received additional funding from the AHRC, the HLF, European funding and also the Pilgrim Trust to continue the work that the Wingate Foundation believed I could deliver. As both an academic and also a representative of the fairground community into which I was born, I have served on two Government Select Committees on Travelling Fairs and Traveller sites, been a visiting lecture at the University of Yale, Chicago and Utrecht and was recently awarded a personal Chair from the University in the fields of early cinema and popular entertainment. My most famous project was the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection in partnership with the British Film Institute and funded by the AHRC and I am now returning to my roots in a way, by producing variety and burlesque shows with Blackpool Council by means of a Knowledge Transfer Award to disseminate the rich body of research and holdings in the NFA for the wider public interest through live entertainment. The Wingate Foundations believed in my work and its potential for change and I welcome this opportunity to say thanks.