Youngsters create huge Dewsbury exhibition in town centre exploring views on peace

Hundreds of people have explored and experienced the exhibition that has been in place since November 6.

Creative Scene’s Senior Producer Vicky Holliday, who has led the project, said: “I am so proud of Dewsbury’s Young Producers who have turned our local heritage of resistance into an experience for the whole town.

"We were delighted that so many people came down to Dewsbury town centre throughout the week to explore and play in BLINK, and were thrilled with audience members saying that they appreciated the opportunity to think differently about peace.”

The first eye of BLINK, hosted by Bradford-based The Brick Box, opened on November 6, following Messages from Home, a moving open-air performance from 6 Million +.

The charity work with refugees and people in the local area and shared a moving performance of a refugee’s journey of leaving home.

On November 7 and 8, schools visited the eye and participated in poetry workshops. On Saturday November 9 the full five eyes opened to the public.

Audiences enter the five eyes of BLINK to see peace differently.

Audiences are challenged to resist the rules, create a new environment with a giant kaleidoscope, work with others to build a giant boat and record messages of hope for the future.

Growing out of the 14-18 commemorations of the First World War, BLINK has been created by young people across the country as part of Emergency Exit Arts’s national Paper Peace Young Producers programme.

Following the premiere in Dewsbury, BLINK will tour to Stoke-on-Trent, Peterborough and Sheerness.

Researched and produced by young people in Dewsbury, Stoke, Peterborough and Sheerness, BLINK draws on the UK’s local and national history of peace to ask audience members what kind of future they want to see.

The programme has seen 48 people across the country aged 18 to 25 receive training from arts practitioners and museum experts in curatorial and event production.

The Young Producers have also learned to interpret a variety of historical sources from the past century and have connected with peace-building heritage in their local area.