Banner outside Camborne Library

Good to see our exhibition banner outside Camborne Library.  PLAYING FOR CAMBORNE: MUSIC AND RUGBY IN WORLD WAR ONE AND NOW is currently on inside. All very welcome to our launch event on 7 November 2019 at 6pm at the library. We'll be launching a book about the Cornish miners who signed up in 1914 and served throughout the war in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Glimpse of Armistice Day 2018 in Estaires, France

A glimpse of Armistice Day, Estaires, last year when we visited the town with Alison Pooley and Carmen Saunders from Camborne, the granddaughers of Leslie Pentecost. Pentecost was a Cornish  miner who was based in the town with other Cornishmen at the start of the war.
Pentecost sent back many postcards which the family has kept carefully over the years. They are a unique record of the war, and tell the story of his friendship with the Smagghue family in Estaires.

Last year we reunited the Pentecost descendants with the Smagghues and hopefully laid the foundation for links between Cornwall and Estaires in the furure.   In the video, Alison and Carmen lay a wreath on the war memorial in Estaires cemetery.
We'll be telling this story at our launch event in Camborne on Thursday 7 November at 6pm at Camborne Library when we'll be launching a book gathering this - and other local stories - together.

Knitting poppies

Thanks to Tina Williams  of Barripper, near Camborne in Cornwall, lots of people have started crocheting and knitting poppies to be displayed at our exhibition PLAYING FOR CAMBORNE: MUSIC AND RUGBY IN WORLD WAR ONE AND NOW at Camborne Library. These poppies will be sold in aid of the British Legion ahead of Remembrance Day 2019.
Tina has tracked down good knitting and crochet patterns and crocheted many, many poppies herself. The knitting group at Camborne Library has also got involved.
A great example of someone's enthusiasm and dedication starting something really worthwhile.

A good use for filing cabinets

Really liked this display in the Royal Academy, Burlington House (which I now can't find any reference to on the website, so cannot say what it's called alas).
A great way to display busts. Filing cabinets are very solid. And so very uninspiring normally.

Launch event 7 November 2019 6pm - Playing for Camborne exhibition

All are very welcome at our exhibition launch event at 6pm on Thursday 7 November at Camborne Library and Council offices (The Cross TR14 8HA, Camborne, Cornwall.)
We'll be throwing a spotlight on the heroism of Cornishmen who served on the Western Front in World War One. Joining us will be their descendants and members of Camborne Youth Band.
PLAYING FOR CAMBORNE: MUSIC AND RUGBY IN WORLD WAR ONE AND NOW tells the previously untold stories of local miners who joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914.
It also tells the story of Camborne Youth Band's trip to the Western Front in 2018, marking the end of the war. The great great grandson of one of the miners is in the Band and played his 100-year-old bugle brought back from the Front. Click here to listen to interviews with the Youth Band musicians.
These brave miners weren’t in the history books before: they are now. We’ve gathered together research about their heroism in a book that we’ll launch that night.
We'll also show a film about the trip, showcasing the brilliant playing of the Youth Band. Email info@bridging-arts.com or call 07772 128 014 for more information.

Welcome to our new Trustee!

We are delighted to welcome a new Trustee to Bridging Arts - Leonora Rae. Leonora's existing work with charities, in a responsible and sustainable investment firm, will bring valuable governance and investment knowledge to the board.

"As an art history graduate, I am delighted to join the board of Bridging Arts," she says. "I have seen art and art related activities bring communities and people together in the most wonderful ways. Susan and the Board have done a fabulous job to organise a whole host of diverse and interesting projects and I look forward to contributing to the development and success of future ones."

Keeping up links with French WW1 town

Camborne MP George Eustice with Bruno Ficheux, Mayor of Estaires

A very good visit to London last week (16 October 2019) from our friends from Estaires, northern France, including the Mayor, Bruno Ficheux.

We have been jointly keeping up links between Estaires and Cornwall ever since we discovered that the 25th Field Ambulance (in which many Cornish miners from Camborne and Redruth were serving) was based in the town for the first part of World War One. We visited with Camborne Youth Band in 2018 and played in the graveyard where one of the Cornishmen is buried. One of the Band is the great great grandson of another of the miners and played his 100-year-old bugle brought back from WW1. We returned to Estaires on Armistice Day 2018 with other descendants of the miners and the local school put on an exhibition and play.

On their London visit, Mayor Ficheux, members of the town's historical association and teachers from the College du Sacre Coeur met Camborne MP George Eustice at Westminster.

A great day.

An exhibition about Camborne Youth Band's trip to France in August 2018 is currently on display at Camborne Library.