Final push for Humber region poppy challenge

27 – 28 September 2014

Public participation in an ambitious project of commemoration will be given a final push on Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 September, when the North Lincolnshire Museum and Normanby Hall’s Farming Museum hosts a ‘poppy drive’!

Throughout the weekend, visitors will be invited to create their own poppy, which will then feature in one of five artworks being created by Hull-based Martin Waters.  Each poppy includes a tag in which the name of someone from the Humberside region who fell in World War I – a poignant tribute to their sacrifice.

“We are trying to make tens of thousands of poppies to feature in these artworks, and we’ve had amazing support from schools around the whole region, but the more we get, the more spectacular these artworks will be,” comments Laura Smith-Higgins, Audience Development Assistant for the Joining Up The Humber Museums. 

The poppies have been made by children from schools throughout the East Riding, Hull and North Lincolnshire, as well as visitors to many of the local authority visitor attractions and museums throughout the region.  The remembrance artworks will be created in Beverley Minster and Beverley Art Gallery, St Lawrence’s Church in Scunthorpe, Holy Trinity Church in Hull and the Ferens Art Gallery ahead of Remembrance Sunday in November.

The Poppy Challenge forms part of the World War I commemorations across the Humber region as part of the Joining Up The Humber Museums initiative.  Local authority museums across the Humber region are hosting themed exhibitions and events telling the story of how the First World War impacted on the people of the region.  Highlights include:

• ‘When War Hit Home: Hull and the First World War’ which opened at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull on 19 July.  The exhibition explores the effects of the First World War on Hull and its people, using Hull Museums’ extensive collection of objects and images. 
• ‘Normanby At War’ at Normanby Hall & Country Park near Scunthorpe.  The exhibition focuses on the time the house was volunteered by the Sheffield family to serve as an auxiliary  hospital during World War I, including hospital beds, medical equipment and costumes from the era
• ‘Keep the home fires burning: how the First World War was felt in Beverley’ is hosted at the Beverley Guildhall, and takes a very local view, drawing on the local newspapers of the period to look at the problems, issues and idiosyncratic way Beverley experienced the war.
• ‘Art relating to World War I’ at Hull History Centre.  The exhibition includes a variety of new artworks created by participants in Hull Adult Education courses, from paintings and soft furnishings to fashion and recipe ideas inspired by each participant’s personal history.
• ‘For King & Country: First World War in North Lincolnshire’ at the North Lincolnshire Museum in Scunthorpe looks at the experiences of local people both at the Front Line and back home, and how they have since been commemorated through war memorials all over the region.
• ‘Goole and the Great War’ is an exhibition by the Goole Museum’s volunteer team, looking at the role of Goole as a port during the First World War, and what happened to the seamen interned by the Germans at Ruhleben camp.

For more information on all of the events taking place as part of the Joining Up The Humber Museums initiative, please visit www.joiningupthehumber.co.uk

ENDS

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    jay@pyperyork.co.uk