Humber poppy challenge hits the road!

Visitors to many outdoor events around the Humber region will be invited to contribute to a series of commemorative artworks this summer, as the Joining Up The Humber Museums mobile unit hits a summer tour!

The mobile unit will be packed with equipment to create paper poppies, which will then be used in a series of floral memorial installations to be created later this year by Hull-based artist, Martin Waters.  The tributes will go on display in Beverley Minster, the Ferens Art Gallery, St Lawrence’s Church in Scunthorpe and Holy Trinity Church in Hull later this year.

“Over the next few months we will be working with many schools across the East Riding,HullandNorth Lincolnshireas we are hoping to create around 10,000 poppies to feature in these displays,” comments Nial Adams, Principal Museums Officer for East Riding of Yorkshire Council.  “By taking our poppy-making workshops out into the wider community, through these events and also by having poppy-making stations at many of the local authority-run museums, galleries and attractions throughout the Humber region, we hope to involve many more people.”

The mobile poppy-making team will be at the Veterans’ Weekend in Eas tPark,Hull on 26 & 27 July, and up at Sewerby Hall for its World War I living history event on 3 August.  The Joining Up the Humber Museums team will also be at the Manor Farm Children’s Centre in Scunthorpe on 4 August, before the mobile unit heads up to the 2021 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpeon 14 August, where visitors will get a peek of a ‘Poppy Drift’ installation by Martin Waters.  The summer season is rounded off with a poppy-fest at Normanby Hall’s ‘Life in the Trenches’ event on 7 September.

If you can’t make any of the events, then visit www.joiningupthehumber.co.uk to find your nearest poppy-making station,” adds Nial.

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

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Joining Up the Humber Museums is supported by a £1 million grant from Arts Council England.  The initiative runs until 2015, and will support commemorations of the centenary of the First World War in the Humber region.  The money will be used to improve galleries and facilities across the three council's services in preparation for exhibitions in 2014 and beyond, including the opening up of Georgian Houses, part of Wilberforce House in Hull.

There will also be funding made available to engage with a number of additional partners from the region who wish to engage with WWI centenary projects, including opportunities for volunteering, education and other outreach projects.

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    jay@pyperyork.co.uk