‘To still my beating mind’: A new exhibition by children in response to ‘The Tempest’ opens at the Shakespeare Memorial Room
· A creative exploration of Shakespeare’s The Tempest by the children of Birmingham opens in the Shakespeare Memorial Room from 24 May until 27 July.
· Led by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the exhibition showcases original artwork, Shakespeare Scrapbooks and photographs taken during the project.
· ‘To still my beating mind’ is the third in a series of five-community curated exhibitions created as part of the ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project.
Sea Collage as imagined by one of the children for their Shakespeare Scrapbook
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has worked with children across Birmingham to develop a new exhibition ‘To still my beating mind’ for the Shakespeare Memorial Room as part of The ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project.
The FREE exhibition runs from 24 May until 27 July and is a creative exploration of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and features original artworks by the children, Shakespeare Scrapbooks and photographs of the dance and movement workshops that have taken place as part of the project. The exhibition also features treasures from Shakespeare Memorial Library at the Library of Birmingham.
Pupils from across Birmingham, participating in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Hub Programme, funded by Arts Council England, have been inspired by the beautiful illustrations in the Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library to explore The Tempest through dance, circus skills and creating their own artwork.
Performance inspired by ‘The Tempest’
Sally Gray, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust said: “The children in our Birmingham Shakespeare Hub have had the wonderful opportunity to see the beautiful illustrations and artwork from both the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Collection and materials from the Shakespeare Memorial Library.
“This inspiration has taken them on a creative journey that has included dance, art, circus skills and, for some children, the opportunity to perform their dance at the Children’s Library here in Birmingham. We’re delighted to have documented the children’s work and the children will be proud to see their work in this fabulous exhibition.”
After being introduced to The Tempest and creating their own scrapbooks, the children took part in movement and dance workshops with Sampad exploring how to tell the story through South Asian dance and music. Sampad’s choreographers worked with the children to produce their own performance of The Tempest using movements inspired by Bollywood. Their performance took place in the Children’s Library to mark the beginning of Shakespeare Week in March.
Caliban as imagined by one of the children for their Shakespeare Scrapbook
CircusMASH taught the pupils a range of circus skills and performance techniques to retell The Tempest in a new and imaginative way using a combination of movement, music and storytelling.
Artist Ros Ingram ran art workshops with the children to create clay busts of characters from The Tempest. The children learned traditional pitch pot forming techniques to create the busts which they then decorated. Their work will be on display in the exhibition.
Professor Ewan Fernie, ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project Director said: “Birmingham’s Shakespeare library has a fabulous, inspiring and beautiful range of materials on The Tempest and it’s a joy to see how children from across Birmingham have responded to that. It’s their collection – and yours and mine too – you know.”
The ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project is an ambitious celebration of one of the UK’s most important cultural assets: the Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library – not just the first great Shakespeare library in the world but also the only great Shakespeare collection which belongs to all the people of a city.
The ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council, with funding contributed by National Lottery Heritage Fund and History West Midlands ‘Everything to Everybody’ will give this uniquely democratic Shakespeare heritage back to people and communities across Birmingham.
To achieve this, ‘Everything to Everybody’ is working in conjunction with anchor institutions and arts organisations such as the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Pupils become waves in their performance of ‘The Tempest’
Find out more about this project and others via:
www.everythingtoeverybody.bham.ac.uk
Twitter @E2EShakespeare
Facebook @e2eshakespeare
Instagram @e2eshakespeare
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ENDS
For further information please contact Helen Annetts, PR on behalf of the ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project via HelenLAnnetts@hotmail.co.uk or 07779 026720.