100 Years on! The Great War Commemorative Exhibition

As part of WinterFest – Incubation Arts at Charles Roe House is again opening its doors to coincide with the national commemorations of World War 1.

100 Years On – ‘Art of Remembering’ at Charles Roe House, Chestergate, SK11 6DY, will be held from 15 November 15 until 8 December. Everyone is welcome to visit and view the work of professional artist who live and work in Cheshire.

ARTSXSTRA and CHESHIRE ARTISTS NETWORK are collaborating to present a unique exhibition in a wide variety of media.  The work represents individual responses to the Conflict 100 years ago, as seen through collective recollection and documentary accounts and family histories.

As Adrian Sumner of Cheshire Artists Network says, “Artists hope to slow the clouding of memories of World War 1, and in this way pay their respects to those who paid the price for our freedom.”

With this exhibition, we as artists, pay homage to those millions who made their ultimate sacrifices so that we could live in peace. The public will find it interesting to view the exhibits as each artist has viewed and reflected on the War from its various aspects that impacted on society.

For the artists participating from Cheshire Artists Network, the collective pieces of work have been travelling to several regions as the ‘Great War Commemorative Touring Exhibition’ supported by the grant from the Arts Council England. Among other venues, they have exhibited at the Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford, Shropshire and most recently at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester.

Incubation Arts have also invited Geoff Archer  with photographs of war memorials, illustrating all aspects of the war with images of memorial sculpture. The Macclesfield War Graves Project is ‘staging’ a trench titled “The Christmas Truce” installed in one of the rooms of Charles Roe House and The British Legion have been invited to bring along their information stand.

To give this exhibition a strong personal and local focus, Incubation Arts is asking for any memorabilia from the people of Macclesfield may have in their possession which would add poignancy to the event. Many of these will be, by definition, precious artefacts (such as medals, letters, photographs etc), so scanned images, photocopies and similar will be acceptable for exhibition purposes. Incubation Arts will endeavour to display them in a sympathetic and sensitive manner throughout the building.

There are also plans to incorporate exhibition visitors’ recordings of memories and their written words – perhaps handed down to them by their relatives – which can be added to, as the event continues, thus ensuring the unfolding of an ever-changing narrative over the two weeks between November 15^th and December 8^th.

In line with national thinking, this may become an annual event at this time for the next four years to 2018, to commemorate the end of the war in 1918.

In the first instance, please contact Incubation Arts by email or letter to info@incubationarts.org  or send to Incubation Arts, Charles Roe House, Chestergate, Macclesfield, Cheshire. SK11 6DY with details of what you may have to display.

The exhibition is very kindly being inaugurated by the Lady Mayor of Macclesfield at the Opening Event, which will take place on Thursday 14^th November 7 – 9pm. We welcome anyone who is interested in our work.

The exhibition will be open Monday to Friday 10am to 4 pm, and weekends 11am to 4pm. Free entry.