The Always Remember, Never Forget exhibition (Durham Light Infantry Gallery 7-22 June 2014) brought together 14 artists of different creative genres and provided each one with an opportunity to develop an exhibit to express their own interpretation of WW1. This project was a collaboration between Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Creatives

As one of the Creative Practitioners taking part in the project, Rachel produced two pieces of writing inspired by two artefacts from the DLI collection – a Sweetheart Pincushion (usually made by soldiers in hospital as part of their recuperation) & a German Pickelhaube helmet (usually taken from the battlefield by British soldiers as a trophy).  Rachel wrote the imagined stories of the two artefacts in the form of monologues and recorded them for the exhibition. There in the gallery space, they were available to listen through headphones whilst simultaneously viewing the artefacts in a glass display case.

Rachel also devised and ran five Creative Writing Workshop sessions in Durham & Northumberland, with over forty participants in total. The workshops provided participants with a unique opportunity to handle artefacts from the DLI collection and explore them further through creative writing.

A selection of writing from the workshops was made available to read at the exhibition and was also performed at the preview night.

To provide a lasting legacy to the project, an Always Remember, Never Forget podcast was produced. The content includes Rachel’s exhibition monologues together with a selection of recorded writing from workshop participants.

Listen to the Always Remember, Never Forget podcast below: