{"id":1362,"date":"2022-03-30T18:13:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/warephemera\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2022-03-30T19:30:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T18:30:02","slug":"reflections-on-the-centenary-part-1-plans-intentions-and-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/warephemera\/reflections-on-the-centenary-part-1-plans-intentions-and-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"The Centenary # 1: A two-part reflection by Chris Kempshall"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Introducing the First World War centenary in Britain<\/span><\/h3>

Between 2014 and 2018, the United Kingdom entered a prolonged period of national commemoration and remembrance to mark the centenary of the First World War. The initial announcement for the centenary commemorations was made by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron at the Imperial War Museum in October 2012.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The governmental involvement with the centenary was organised by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Imperial War Museum was the central institution for centenary commemorations and the government funded <\/span>14-18 NOW<\/span><\/i> project facilitated much of the artistic responses.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

However, this was not simply a centenary run and organised centrally through governments and established institutions. Many activities of the centenary period were organised by non-governmental groups, local institutions, and individuals.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

To understand these activities and evaluate not just the \u2018successes\u2019 or \u2018failures\u2019 of the centenary but, more importantly, the gaps which our project is attempting to fill, it is necessary to understand what the centenary was designed to achieve, and how the various activities came into being.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Spread of UK newspapers marking the start of the centenary period on 4 August 2014 (Photo credit: Ann-Marie Einhaus)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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National Plans<\/span>, <\/span>Intentions<\/span>, and Infrastructure<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>

On a national level, particular moments within the First World War were identified as being suitable focal points for commemoration. These were the outbreak of war in 1914, the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and the war\u2019s conclusion in 1918. These moments would be commemorated in 2014, 2016, and 2018 respectively. In his 2016 article <\/span>Something About Who We Are as a People\u2019: Government, Media, Heritage and the Construction of the Centenary<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Daniel Todman theorised that these centenary events would likely be all that the public could manage and the danger of \u2018remembrance fatigue\u2019 may have an impact the longer the centenary lasted.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The 2014-2016-2018 framework was not the totality of centenary activities. For example, the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele was commemorated in 2017. Other moments of the war were commemorated at local levels based on connection and relevant links.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Various organisations provided support to facilitate local endeavours and artistic interactions with the centenary. The aforementioned <\/span>14-18 NOW<\/span><\/i> project aimed to \u2018support the creation of artworks by contemporary artists, to engage and stimulate the UK public in fresh and engaging ways that will lead to new perspectives on the First World War and its resonance today\u2019 and centred much, but not <\/span>all, of its focus on the <\/span>2014-16-18 framework<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Katherine Baxter, a colleague at Northumbria University, scrutinised the advantages and limitations of the <\/span>14-18 NOW<\/span><\/i> approach in a series of interviews with artists and curators, with particular attention to the implications for diversity of representation. Her findings are available in her Open Access article <\/span>Practices of Remembrance: The Experiences of Artists and Curators in the Centenary Commemoration of World War I<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Local dimensions<\/h3>

To support local communities\u2019 own activit<\/span>ies during the centenary the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) made a variety of grants available for those who met <\/span>wide-ranging criteria<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0The two broad aims of HLF’s FWW Centenary-related activity were:<\/span><\/p>

  1. To fund projects which focus on the heritage of the First World War and collectively:<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>