City Reflections – Our Journey as Community Curators

We’re proud to be part of Southampton Forward’s City Reflections: Illuminating Southampton’s Stories — a stunning new light trail taking place this February (2026) across the heart of Southampton.

For four magical nights, six of the city’s most iconic heritage buildings will come alive with large-scale light projections inspired by stories from Southampton’s world-class Art, Maritime and Archaeology collections. This free, family-friendly trail invites you to rediscover the Old Town and city centre — and offers a glimpse towards the future reopening of Southampton City Art Gallery in 2026.

As community curators for the Castle Vault Wall, we’ve been exploring the theme “Neurodivergent People / City Maps and City Walls” through a neurodivergent lens — connecting hidden histories, personal stories and emotional landscapes with artefacts from the archives.

What we’ve been doing since July

Walking the city walls and vaults

We began with a guided walk along Southampton’s medieval walls and through the vaults — tracing old graffiti, noticing sounds, smells and atmosphere, and imagining how many people once gathered there. This sensory walk helped us connect with the places that would later appear in the projection.

Visiting the Archives

Next, we spent time in the city Archives exploring maps, photographs and documents linked to City Maps and Walls. Handling original artefacts and seeing how much history is “hidden in plain sight” gave the group a stronger sense of connection to the city’s past.

Co-creation session (August)

In August, we brought these experiences together in a co-creation session. Participants gathered words, images and objects that expressed how they experience the city, its boundaries and gateways — shaping the early narrative and visual ideas for the Castle Vault Wall projection.

Previewing the animatic (October)

In October, all of the City Reflections community curators came together with five community representatives each to preview the animatic (the draft version of the projection). It was wonderful to give feedback and see everyone’s hard work begin coming to life on the Castle Vault Wall. Our community representatives shared their thoughts on the pacing, imagery and text — what felt too fast, what needed more space, and which moments felt especially powerful. The community has been integral to every stage of co-creation, ensuring that the light projection is authentic to the neurodivergent community’s narrative.

Creating the voiceover (November)

Most recently, we’ve been in the recording studio creating the final voiceover. Together with members of the group, we shaped a script that weaves in participants’ own words, rhythms and pauses, so that neurodivergent voices are literally carried out onto the Castle Vault Wall when City Reflections lights up the city this February.

Through every step — walking the walls, exploring the vaults, visiting the Archives, co-creating the story, previewing the animatic and recording the voiceover — the community’s ideas and lived experience have shaped what visitors will see and hear. City Reflections has become not just a light trail, but a shared act of storytelling, skill-building and belonging.