From ‘The Lion Roars’ to the Roaring Twenties!

As you know, a new building to house a new museum and archive is rapidly springing up in Willesden Green. While we wait for our new home to be finished, the Heritage Team at Brent is working hard to make sure that the temporary exhibitions we put on are accompanied by a comprehensive programme of events and outreach activities. This helps to make sure that the themes of the exhibition and work of the museum and archives reaches as wide an audience as possible, whilst we continue to assist the steady stream of visitors and researchers that use our service.   After the exhibition launch, we kicked off the public programme to

accompany ‘The Lion Roars: The World in Wembley’ with some 1920s dancing from The Bees Knee’s dance troop in the Civic Centre foyer. The response from you was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and the foyer was so full that people were dancing on the balconies on the upper levels! We also had a group of visitors from Edinburgh House Care Home, and a lady that was 101 years old joined in the dancing. The feedback we had was heart-warming, with the carers expressing how much their residents enjoyed the day.  Next up we had popcorn at the ready for a screening of the Oscar winning ‘The King’s Speech’, with an introduction from the front of house manager at the Lexi Cinema, and curator of the exhibition Antonia Grant to draw together links between the film and the exhibition. To bring archive material to a younger audience we also held a poetry and creative writing workshop with award winning author

Malika Booker in Wembley Library, who used material from the archives in the session. We wanted to share the wonderful poem written by attendee Amelia Mingo, who used the 1924 plan of the British Empire Exhibition as a base for a poem about how she felt about Wembley today.

However – for those of you who haven’t had a chance to join in yet, the show is far from over! On the 5^th of June Jessica Proudman a costume specialist from the National Theatre will be giving a talk and demonstration in Wembley Library, titled ‘The Exotic and Daring: Eastern and African Influences on 1920s Fashion’ to explore how influences from the Empire shaped how people dressed during the period, and even bringing along some examples of clothing for you to have a look at. For those of you that are academically inclined, we have the privilege of hearing Brent resident Professor Denis Judd speak on the 17^th of June about The British Empire Exhibition, drawing from his hugely successful book ‘Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present’. Both talks will start at 6.30pm in Wembley Library. Should you wish to explore the history of the exhibition further Philip Grant of Wembley History Society will also be giving a walking tour around Wembley using images from the archive to explore the historic area of the British Empire Exhibition.  Schools and family learning sessions have also continued along with the programme and a school group will be working with the English National Ballet to produce a piece inspired by the exhibition. If this wasn’t already enough for you, we are planning a session for Adult Learners Week in Kilburn Library so you can get some hands on experience with museum and archive material.

Over 300 people have already turned out to enjoy the events so far, bringing Brent Museum and Archives to a new and wider audience, and reaching out into the local community.  We hope that some more of you will attend the exciting events we have planned. For more details visit www.brent.gov.uk/BEE and look out for posters and bookmarks with details of the events in your local library.