'Stay home': rethinking the domestic during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • How does life at home during the pandemic differ for people of different ages, cultural backgrounds and faiths?

  • How does it vary depending on whether we live in a high rise flat or on a terraced street, on our own or with other people?

  • How has the pandemic changed our relationship to places beyond our threshold – our street, neighbourhood, city or place of birth?

  • How should we document and map this unique experience not only for ourselves but for future generations?

  • How can a focus on home inform policy and practice as we emerge from this pandemic and rethink our priorities both as individuals and as a society?


Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation rapid response to COVID-19 and in partnership with universities, museums and other cultural partners in London and Liverpool, ‘Stay Home Stories’ aims to address these issues through three interconnected strands:  

  1. Documenting Home: inviting people to record and submit their experiences of home during the pandemic and studying related political debate and media coverage

  2. Practising Home: interviewing people of diverse cultural and faith backgrounds about their experiences of home during COVID-19

  3. Mapping Home: encouraging children to map and record their experiences of home during this crisis


*Above header photo credited to Museum of Home - Stay Home Collection