Paper Peace

We were part of Paper Peace, a year-long national arts and heritage programme considering the fragile nature of peace and what it means to work towards peace, collectively and individually. As global and political events continue to shake our communities, this felt like an important project and a truly collaborative one.

It was spearheaded by renowned outdoor arts company Emergency Exit Arts (London), in association with B Arts (Stoke), Creative Scene (Dewsbury), Ideas Test (Medway), Vivacity (Peterborough), us at The Brick Box, Young Producers from across the country, and many more collaborating artists.

The project began on Monday 12 November 2018 when a 14ft high illuminated Peace Poem set off on a national tour to commemorate 100 years since the first day of peace after WWI. The large-scale mobile artwork, created with leading artist and poet Robert Montgomery, was seen by thousands of people as it travelled along motorways to cities across the UK.

In spring 2019 we hosted a symposium in Bradford for the project’s Young Producers. It was a great few days, exploring archive materials, ideas and connections with 48 people from across the country, all aged 18 to 25.

The Young Producers received training from arts practitioners and museum experts in curatorial and event production, learning to interpret a variety of historical sources from the past century and connecting with peace building heritage in their local area.

The Young Producers collaborated with professional artists to help realise their ideas and create a series of artworks that formed the final installation that was called BLINK.

In November 2019, the project team transformed streets and city centres in Dewsbury, Stoke, Peterborough and Sheerness with the touring installation. You can find out more about the BLINK installation here.