Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music has received £9,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for its project Revealing and Reinterpreting ‘Making Music in Manchester during WW1’.
The project will use volunteers and local arts group Instigate Arts to digitise and encourage the creative use of material identified in a 2016 Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, Making Music in Manchester during WW1.
In this project, archive material from the RNCM, Hallé Concerts Society and the Henry Watson Music Library was researched, revealing fascinating narratives about the First World War’s impact on Manchester’s music scene including those about gender, students, repertoire and performance.
The current Revealing and Reinterpreting project will take these narratives and images out to community centres across the region, and encourage, through a series of free workshops presented alongside Instigate Arts, the creative use and response to these stories.
The digital images will be made freely accessible online via Manchester District Music Archive and History Pin. An exhibition at the RNCM as well as a digital exhibition at Archives+ in Central Library will also showcase the original First World War material.
The archive will allow the public to discuss, contribute, share and research information about the Home Front.
