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Finding Language
Explore how languages begin and end through this multi-format event which includes exhibitions, film screenings and discussions. These films, artworks and stories ask what roles languages play in our identities and everyday lives. Languages are the beating heart of our culture; they transmit the values, beliefs and narratives which give definition to our lives. Yet they are one of the most difficult things to represent and discuss with our friends and families. This event will get you thinking about the heritage…
Find out more »Flight and Refuge – Folkestone Welcomes All
This exhibition at Folkestone Museum has been curated by local sixth form students based on their research into the Belgian refugee presence in Folkestone during the First World War. The exhibition asks why an event so fundamental to Folkstone's local history remains unknown to so many? Exploring the extent to which the Folkestone community welcomed their neighbours from across the channel in a time of need, the exhibition draws parallels with the modern day immigration crisis, helping to assess how…
Find out more »The NHS is Born!
This year the pioneering National Health Service turned 70 years old. This exhibition features items from the South Wales Coalfield Collection at the South Wales Miners’ Library and the Richard Burton Archives to provide a glimpse into life in coalfield society before and after the founding of the NHS. It will look at community and occupation health and miners’ medical schemes, regarded as the model for the NHS. The exhibition will include examples of pamphlets published in 1948 to explain the…
Find out more »The Periodical Exhibition
'The Periodical Exhibition' presents period-positive, taboo-busting artwork in the Atrium Gallery. Come and see menstrual artworks by Bee Hughes, photographs from Nepal and material from the Liverpool John Moores University's Special Collections and Archives. There will also be the chance to have a go at hands-on activities suitable for all ages. The exhibition is open between 9:00am and 5:00pm.
Find out more »Other Registers
'Other Registers' is an immersive sound installation that uses software to transform data about police violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into sound. Visitors are invited to listen to official statistics for citizen and police deaths in the city between October 2009 (when Rio was selected to host the Olympics), and January 2016 (the start of the Olympic year), played as sound via a circle of eight loudspeakers. Police violence is a long-standing issue in Rio, but the high numbers…
Find out more »O. G. S. Crawford: Life in Photographs
Explore the life and archive of influential, but little known, archaeologist O. G. S. Crawford. Pick up a leaflet and go on a walking tour of sites linked to Crawford across the city and see a pop-up display at the Pitt Rivers Museum. The museum is open for you to collect a leaflet and see the pop-up display between 8:00am and 5:00pm. At select times on the 17 and 24 November there will also be the chance to see the…
Find out more »Beautiful Confusion in Senate House
Beautiful Confusion Collective are a female-led performance group who specialize in exploring movement, gender, power and the built environment through site-responsive interventions. During the festival they will undertake a mini-residency in Charles Holden’s art-deco masterpiece, Senate House, University of London – exploring the histories and contemporary uses of this building through dance, movement and documentation. Buildings have form and they have stories. They have power structures and they have politics. Moving through space means engaging with these issues – either…
Find out more »Our Mythical Childhood
This exhibition showcases discoveries made in the University of Roehampton's extensive archive of children's literature. Focusing on illustrations in children's classics, it shows how ancient myths are brought alive to the imagination. Myths from ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt have given us iconic characters, such as heroes, gods, and monsters, whose stories are often first encountered when we are children. The way these characters are represented visually in children's books is crucial to how they are perceived and interpreted. As…
Find out more »Living Zoroastrianism
This unique interactive exhibition engages the public in the Virtual Reality (VR) experience of a 3,000 years old Zoroastrian ritual in which the viewer will be immersed by means of VR glasses. Originating in ancient pre-Islamic Iran, the ritual was filmed in Mumbai 2017 with cutting edge spherical video technology. Visitors can also experience contemporary Zoroastrian Iran via the digitised oral testimony of over 300 interviewees. Displays of manuscripts, costumes, paintings and artefacts provide additional information about this ancient religion.…
Find out more »Foodbank Histories: Journeys of Food Insecurity
Newcastle West End Foodbank, one of the busiest foodbanks in Britain, came to an uneasy kind of fame through the Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake. This exhibition offers an opportunity to move past the statistics and hear real stories of life on the Tyne. Interview extracts focus on food insecurity as well as how those using and working in the Foodbank connect to the Tyne and the role the river plays in people's lives. 'Foodbank Histories' reflects the stories…
Find out more »Origins and Endings: Research at the Cutting Edge
At this event two of the best and brightest doctoral students from Newcastle University will present their research, organised around the theme of 'Origins and Endings'. Short presentations will be followed by discussion with the audience. The research on display will range widely across the history and culture of the Tyne Valley. Come to hear, for example, about the North-East’s Second World War Blitz, and Newcastle’s chilling contribution to understanding the effects of nuclear war. This event is hosted in…
Find out more »The Origins and Endings of Britain and the EU?
Politics curator Daniel Payne explores the origins of European integration and anti-federalist movements through the archive material on display in 'What Does Brexit Mean to You?'. The discussion will consider how both these early movements for and against further integration with Europe have influenced the 2016 Brexit referendum and the earlier 1975 referendum. There will also be a chance to discuss what Brexit means to you. The exhibition documents the history of the UK in and out of the EU…
Find out more »Staging Suffrage: Queer Feminist Performance
Through performed readings, this event will allow participants to meet some of the ‘great women’ of history originally brought to life by suffrage activists in the early 20th century. In 1909, as the campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain became increasingly militant, dramatist Cicely Hamilton wrote A Pageant of Great Women to help spread the feminist message. The spectacular play was subsequently performed under the direction of bisexual theatremaker Edith Craig. Actors included Craig’s partner, the Exeter-born lesbian and genderqueer…
Find out more »Feminists Eat Your Greens!
For one night only, the Glasgow Women’s Library will play host to an Edwardian vegetarian restaurant. Enjoy an evening of feasting and feminist conversation over a meal prepared using menus and cookbooks from the early 20th century. Why do so many feminists today identify as vegan or vegetarian? How far back does the link between feminism and animal rights stretch? Could it be that the modern feminist movement was founded on lentil stew, nut cutlets and veggie burgers? This year…
Find out more »Walking with Refugee Tales (Illustrated Talk)
David Herd, co-organiser and co-editor of Refugee Tales, will give an illustrated talk introducing the history and aims of the project at the AV Theatre in Canterbury Cathedral. The talk will discuss indefinite detention in the UK and will explain how the project makes its call for such detention to end. The Refugee Tales project was established in 2015 to highlight the fact that the UK is the only country in Europe that detains people indefinitely under immigration rules, and…
Find out more »My Family in the Great War
Join Professor Tony Curtis for an illustrated talk on his family in the First World War, including readings from his own work and from classic First World War writers and poets, as well as artwork from Paul Nash, E.H. Shepherd, Frank Brangwyn, Henry Moore and others. He will weave together untold, remarkable stories and some of the most memorable writing and images of the century. 2018 will be a special year of remembrance as the 'war to end all wars'…
Find out more »Rivers of Life
They say you can never step in the same river twice, yet rivers seem to be a fixture of our everyday lives. From the Tyne to the Tiber, regions and cities are defined by the water coursing through them. This evening of exhibitions and discussions will ask what we know about rivers, and what we ought to know if we are to continue to live along their banks and in their catchments. Visitors will find photography and film, poetry and…
Find out more »Creation and Destruction: Stories by the Fire
Where did we come from? Where are we going? These questions will be explored in a very special night of storytelling hosted by the Institute of Physics and Global Generation who will discuss different ideas about creation and the fate of the universe. In the beautiful surroundings of the Skip Garden, join in a fireside chat about how different cultures through the ages have explored ideas of how the universe came to be and what our ultimate fate is. This event…
Find out more »Championing Women’s Voices
To commemorate 100 years of the Suffrage Movement, join international bestselling novelist and co-founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kate Mosse and Director of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Sandeep Mahal, in conversation about Kate’s new novel, The Burning Chambers. They will also discuss the origins and future of the Women’s Prize for Fiction which celebrates outstanding and brilliant fiction written by women from all over the world.
Find out more »Seeing Red: Periods and Protest (Panel)
Bringing together political campaigners, community organisers and historians of women’s health, this panel discussion explores how the history of menstruation informs contemporary concerns about period poverty. In the UK, one in ten girls cannot afford sanitary products. Asylum seekers, refugees and women experiencing homelessness can often find it difficult to access menstrual supplies. Nearly half of women and girls aged between 14 and 21 are embarrassed about their periods. Fuelling an inspiring and informative discussion about women’s health activism past…
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