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Created: 14 January 2015

The Hungarian Trade and Tourism Museum www.mkvm.hu/indexen.php has a new exhibition about food and provisions in World War 1.  As the British thought that the war would be over by Christmas of 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy thought that it would last no more than 90 days.  As time passed, it became increasingly difficult to provide enough food - and in many cases, water - for soldiers and civilians, leading to great hardship.

The Goulash Cannon was a mobile field kitchen used at the Front, running on rails and pulled by horses, with a big chimney, so it looked like a cannon.

One of my recent tasks was copy-editing the English version of the text for the exhibition.

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Created: 15 November 2014

The past week has seen Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.  Recently I've been to three very different, but equally memorable and thought-provoking, performances reflecting on World War I.

Canny Theatre Group - young people aged 11 to 21 - created a musical to mark the 200th anniversary of the Exchange, Sunderland. Three of them, aged 17 and 18, wrote all the words and music, and the cast ranged from 11 to 85 years.  During the war the building was used as a seaman's mission. Northumberland Theatre Company's John Telfer reflected on his great grandfather's experience at Gallipoli, and the experiences of present-day soldiers.  November Club were at the Lit & Phil again for Cautionary Tales from the Trenches.  What started as a light-hearted hunt around the library for books to send to soldiers at the Front, suddenly became more poignant as we were taken into a small space with photographs, and the names being read out, of men connected with the Lit & Phil who had been killed during the war.

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Created: 05 November 2014

Look to your left as you enter the National Glass Centre, and you will see some of the work young people made with glass artists, a project funded by the Gillian Dickinson Trust.  Eight groups of young people, from schools and youth organisations, worked with four artists and their assistants to make glass art for their school or youth group building as well as lots of smaller pieces which they could take home to keep.

This is one of the pieces made by the group from Springwell Dene Academy.  They spend one day a week at forest school in nearby woods, and the inspiration from this piece comes from things they found in the woods - animal footprints, bones, leaves. Note the cast glass spoons for cooking on the camp fire.

The project exhibition was formally launched along with NGC's autumn show, Magdalene Odundo's stunning Transition II [Link removed 12/12/23 as no longer available on the external website] and Metamorphosis & Transformation.