On Wed 12 November, Bolling Hall Museum hosted a ‘pop up’ exhibition created by Year 4 pupils of Bowling Park primary School entitled, ‘Reflections on War and Remembrance’. The school are regular users of Bolling Hall considering it a valuable local resource for learning with different year groups participating in both self guided visits and museum staff led sessions including the Art & Science of Noticing workshop.

For three days during Remembrance Week, pupils from the school worked with artist Dave Hulston, poet Andy Tooze and video and animations expert Matt Howarth to create the installation. Inspired by their understandings of WW1 and conflict in general, they recorded their thoughts, ideas and feelings about war and remembrance in poems, paintings and films.

Our Project Officer Dan Willoughby visited the school to see their work coming together and said, ‘I was amazed at the quality of the work they were producing and the depth of language used’

For the install itself, a small group of pupils accompanied their teachers to work with Museum staff to set up the display in the morning. The majority of the work was displayed in the Hall’s ‘housebody’, with other smaller pieces of work set up around the hall as a trail. The exhibition was then on display for the rest of the day and was well attended by visiting pupils and their parents not forgetting the general public!

Headteacher for the school, Stuart Herrington, said: “I was very impressed by the thought and compassion the children showed in approaching such a serious and important subject. We were all very proud of the thought and care that so clearly went in to their shared artwork and individual poems. The display at Bolling Hall Museum was the ideal way to share their work and achievements with parents and the wider community.”

“They produced unbelievable poetry, thought provoking art work and can respectfully talk about one the most tragic and important moments in world history. Well done year four and thanks to the artists we had the opportunity to work with.”

This project was an excellent example of partnership working built over time and with great communication so a big thanks to the staff and pupils at Bowling Park Primary who were fabulous throughout.

For more details of Bradford Museums & Galleries learning offer to schools please visit https://bradfordmusgal.wpengine.com/education/index.php

And if you’d like to keep up to date with the Councils WW1 commemorations go to www.bradford.gov.uk and click on Bradford Remembers.