The Sankey Family Photography Collection has allowed creativity to flourish in Barrow as local people lead an exhibition with artistic responses to the collection.
Exhibition in an Envelope is a project co-designed by The Behind the Postcard Group who have been working with Signal Staff and Artists in online workshops and discussions since November.
The sessions were so successful that it was decided that the creative responses to the Sankey photographs would be shown in an online exhibition and in lightboxes on Abbey Road.
Edward Sankey and his sons Raymond and Eric were prolific photographers of Furness, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire.
The Sankey Family Photography Collection is a unique record of life from the latter years of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th.
The innovative process for Exhibition in an Envelope included the participants being sent copies of Sankey images as postcards of their local area.
They experimented with drawing directly onto one of the postcards and sending it onto another group member to add to in order to create a collaborative artwork. Another of the postcards was selected for a digital Now and Then collage, combining the old images with new recreations of the original photographs.
A third postcard was used as the basis for the group learning new skills in videography as they transformed it into a short film.
Next, an image was chosen for a physical collage, and the final image was used to create a new photograph.
Sophie Broadgate ran the project. She said: “During lockdown we met online every week, we shared this period of time together whilst creating artwork.
“Working together has been an incredible experience, I have seen every member of the group experiment with new ideas and create such beautiful and considered work while growing their confidence at the same time. I am beyond proud of this project and everyone involved.”
The online exhibition will launch on July 15 and physical prints will be exhibited on the lightboxes outside Cooke’s Studios from July 15 to September 16.
