Faceless Company have written this guest blog about the community workshops they have delivered as part of this project:
With
work almost complete on The Great War Inspires artwork, it’s time to reflect on
the participation and engagement in the project so far.
We
contacted a range of groups about the project, including the 2460 (Pontefract)
Squadron of the Air Cadets; the Army Cadets, Pontefract Detachment; the Royal
Air Force Association, Pontefract Branch; the Pontefract Branch of the British
Legion, Pontefract Library and the Pontefract Live at Home Scheme. All of them
were interested to hear about how we were working with Pontefract Museum to
commemorate the First World War, and to remember those who had fallen and
agreed to take part in a variety of ways, including advertising workshops to
their members, sharing their memories, providing space for sessions or visiting
the exhibition.
The Pontefract Air Cadets were keen to take part
in a creative workshop, and Helen and Stephanie joined over 30 of them, on parade,
to create individual silk paintings for the project. The paintings were
inspired by photographs of Pontefract buildings during the war, images of local
soldiers and associated regimental paraphernalia, and imagery of the
battlefields of the Great War
Our silk painting sessions allow participants to create something beautiful within a relatively short space of time, even if they have never experienced this kind of art work before. Each participant approached the task differently and as a result we have an array of beautiful silks, some have used vibrant colours to depict their chosen image, and others have chosen muted, sepia or grayscale style paintings, such as the one shown. All the participants have received a printed copy of their artwork to keep and we have records of them all on file.
As
well as photographs from World War 1, our artists also took along images of
World War 1 objects such as medals and the handkerchiefs that have inspired the
artwork. Along with World War 1 paintings, these images provided colour
references for the participants, as the majority of photographs from the Great
War are black and white due to the technology of the time. The reason we chose
to use images of buildings from the Pontefract area as they were in 1914-1918,
alongside the more obvious wartime imagery, was to give the piece a sense of
place, we did not want to forget those at home, or the impact that war has on a
community such as Pontefract.
During the workshops participants also have the opportunity to look at 1st World War poetry and to see other more personal artefacts such as letters home from soldiers, to give them some insight into life as a soldier during the Great War.
We
approached Pontefract Library about hosting a few sessions in their space for local
families to access, in part so we could widen the reach of the project to the
Pontefract Community and to increase the trans-generational nature of the
project, but we also wanted to encourage families to think about this
anniversary and what it means to us, together. We also used this as an
opportunity for the British Legion and the Royal Air Force Association to
invite their members’ families to enjoy a creative activity together as part of
the project.
During
this session, as well as individual pieces, we created a large communal silk
painting which made the session accessible to those with very young children.
Our youngest participant was 2 years old and the oldest was a participant who
recorded a letter written by his Uncle for us. Aged 91, he is a veteran of the
2nd World War, where he served in the Navy.
In
total we worked with around 60 participants on the participation elements of
the project. Their silk paintings and recorded poetry and memories are now
being worked into the artwork for the exhibition which will be unveiled
shortly. As the work begins to take shape, I can feel the excitement building
amongst artists, staff and participants alike. Final artistic and technical details
are being ironed out in preparation for The Great War Inspires which opens next
Saturday 25th January at Pontefract Museum.
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