Last week saw the culmination of a project we’ve been working on with artists at the Booth Centre since January.
The Booth Centre is a day centre providing support and activities to adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
The Listen Up project was inspired by the Peterloo bicentenary and the ideas about protest and being heard which this anniversary brings to the fore. There is a long history of the use of banners as a vehicle for communication in struggles for rights and democracy. And so, the Booth Centre arts committee decided to continue this tradition by creating a series of banners which expressed their ideas, desires and hopes for a different tomorrow.
The project is a collaboration between over 200 artists who visit the Booth Centre, working together to express themselves both as individuals and collectively. The aim of the project was to promote personality, heritage, passion, talent, values and inclusion, with each piece celebrating individuality and diversity and protesting stereotypes and prejudice.
Over the course of seven months during the Monday morning art sessions, we worked with Booth Centre artists to help them create five beautiful banners using hand embroidery, machine sewing, painting and drawing.
A skilled team of volunteers at Stitched Up helped to finish off the banners, adding the linings and pole sleeves to make them march-ready!
We’re so impressed with the hard work, dedication and creativity of the whole group. It’s amazing to see the fruits of their labour on display in the People’s History Museum, alongside some stunning screen prints made for the project. If you’re in the area, please do go and take a look and let us know what you think!
The show can be found in the Protest Lab, part of the Disrupt? Peterloo & Protest exhibition at People’s History Museum, until 27th September.
People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Manchester, M3 3ER
