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'Remembrance' focus for summer exhibitions and events across the Humber region

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The impact of the First World War will be the focus of a host of family-friendly activities across Humberside this summer, with a co-ordinated programme of exhibitions, events and hands-on activities for visitors young organised through the Joining Up The Humber Museums (JUTHM) initiative.

“As we move towards Remembrance Sunday in November, the impact of World War I is going to be discussed across classrooms, newspapers, TV and radio, and whilst many of the features will be about the national – and indeed, global – impact of the Great War, our exhibitions look at how this brutal conflict affected life back home, for those left behind, and those that returned,” comments Simon Green, assistant head of service for sports, leisure and heritage at Hull City Council.  “With funding from The Arts Council, we’ve been able to create a series of linked exhibitions across Hull, the East Riding and North Lincolnshire, each of which examines the impact of war on local people, and each of which offers a different perspective on life in the Humber region 100 years ago.”

Highlights of the exhibitions programme 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.  Visitors can read personal stories from those who lived through the War, as well as find out about recruitment, life on the front line, the contribution of men, women and children that stayed at home, the war at sea and the role of fishermen and merchant seamen from Hull. The exhibition looks at the devastating effects of the Zeppelin raids on the city and changes in people’s attitudes towards Hull’s German community.
  • ‘Normanby At War’ at Normanby Hall & Country Park near Scunthorpe.  With the house volunteered by the Sheffield family to serve as an auxiliary  hospital during World War I, this exhibition features includes oral history recordings, photographs and even some of the original beds and medical equipment used to treat the patients as they convalesced.  A costume gallery with the theme ‘Keep Calm and Look Fabulous’ also features outfits from the era – from pre-war styles through both world wars and into the 1950s.
  • ‘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’ is a new exhibition opening on 24 July at Hull History Centre.  Within the covered entrance arcade, the exhibition will include 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.

Alongside the exhibitions, many of the participating sites will also be hosting events – including a cavalry display and period concert at Sewerby Hall & Gardens on Sunday 3 August, hands-on crafting workshops, including the opportunity to make your own moving war horse at the Hull & East Riding Museum on 23 July, and a fantastic living history event at Normanby Hall Country Park on Sunday 7 September, with recreations of trenches and family activities.

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

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