A colourful and creative takeover by life-size sculptures that represent heroes of protest is taking place this summer at People’s History Museum (PHM). The arrival marks the start of a summer programme of family friendly activities taking place at the national museum of democracy that explore the past, present and future of protest.

Arriving at People’s History Museum on Monday 15 July to mark the birthday of the founder of the suffragette movement, Emmeline Pankhurst, is Hope a life-sized suffragette made from LEGO.

Standing 1.7 metres high, Hope is made from 32,327 LEGO bricks and was created by UK Parliament in 2018 to mark 100 years since the first women won the right to vote in Britain. During her stay, at the home of ideas worth fighting for, Hope will reside in the recreated kitchen of fellow suffragette, Hannah Mitchell. Found on the main galleries, where the Votes for Women story is told, this is the ideal setting for visitors to pose with Hope for suffragette selfies.

Creating a vibrant visual spectacle life size sculptures by artist Jason Wilsher-Mills will be on display at locations throughout People’s History Museum from Saturday 27 July. Brave Boy Billy, The Corby Rocker and The Corby PiP Princess each invite interaction through their bright and fun designs, with augmented reality (AR) technology enabling people to discover some of the serious disability issues that they represent. For example, Brave Boy Billy is sat on a space-hopper, a design which Jason created working collaboratively with young disabled people. Their individual stories are accessed via trigger points on the sculpture, with the overriding message being that only 15 million people in the world have access to wheelchairs, when over 60 million people actually need them.

Jason Wilsher-Mills has taken inspiration from his Greek namesake for the title of the exhibition, Jason & the Argonauts, with his heroes being the people he has met and worked with in disabled communities around the country. Each sculpture offers visitors a different interactive experience, which will unlock animations, text, music and audio.

Hope and Jason Wilsher-Mills’ sculptures are part of People’s History Museum’s summer activities and will be on display until early September. Busy Bee explorer packs are a fun way to discover the museum and Duplo LEGO gives young visitors the chance to create their own models.

Throughout 2019 People’s History Museum is exploring the past, present and future of protest as it marks the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. The story of how a peaceful protest, which took place on 16 August 1819, led to loss of life and blood shed and its significance today is told in its headline exhibition for 2019, Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest (until 23 February 2020).

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