Freedom Festival Arts Trust announced as a partner for Imperial War Museums’ £2.5m art commissioning programme

Announced today! We are so excited to release this brilliant news about a project audiences will see at this year's Freedom Festival. Read our full release:

Freedom Festival Arts Trust, the charity behind Hull’s outstanding international arts festivals, Freedom Festival and The Awakening, and commissioned artist collective the Freedom Women, is part of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, a national partnership programme of over 20 artist commissions inspired by the heritage of conflict. Led by Imperial War Museums, the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund was created following the success of 14-18 NOW, the official UK arts programme for the First World War centenary.

Today, IWM has revealed details of the nine new partners, including Freedom Festival Arts Trust, selected to join this ambitious art commissioning programme, building on over 100 years of contemporary art commissioning by the museum. The nine new art commissions tackle subjects ranging from rebuilding after the Second World War to reconciliation in the aftermath of the Troubles in Northern Ireland will each receive £20,000 from Imperial War Museums’ (IWM) art commissioning programme, funded with a share of the royalties from Peter Jackson’s critically acclaimed film They Shall Not Grow Old.  The nine organisations are members of IWM’s War and Conflict Subject Specialist Network (WCSSN) and hail from across all four nations of the UK. The new commissions take various forms including original brass band compositions, large-scale street art and film installations.

 Rebecca Newell, Head of Art for Imperial War Museums says, "The IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy fund builds on Imperial War Museums’ rich and longstanding history of commissioning art. One year into this programme, we are delighted by the diversity of exceptional arts experiences that have been created and shared with audiences. We look forward to expanding this work with artists, organisations and communities across the UK, continuing to highlight stories of conflict in engaging and creative ways.”

 Freedom Festival Arts Trust is working with the Freedom Women Collective, a group of women who have survived war, conflict and persecution, to tell their stories through a multi-artform exhibition, weaving stories from Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Sudan using visual and textile art, sculpture, performance, poetry, and photography.

 The Freedom Women Collective say, “This commission gives us the space and opportunity to reflect on our tomorrows, how we faced them, how we dealt with them and why tomorrow is precious. These pieces continue our ongoing support of artists who explore their experiences of displacement, giving space to represent themselves to shine light on the misrepresentation of refugees lives and experiences. It is incredibly important”.

Audiences can expect to see the exhibition at Freedom Festival later this year. Find out more about Freedom Festival 2023 here.

The IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commissions forge new opportunities for artistic engagement and bring art to audiences in new and relevant ways. The IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commissions will go on public display across the UK between 2023 and 2025. For further information about the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, please visit the IWM website. www.iwm.org.uk