ARBOR DAY 2024
Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation (LGCHF) partnered with St Thomas More Catholic School and a team of creatives to bring back Arbor Day, a unique piece of Letchworth’s heritage.
Arbor Day, which celebrates tree planting and care, first occurred in Letchworth in 1908. While fond memories can be found in news articles in the Collection and there have been attempts at revivals (including Plant a tree in ’73), the town has slowly forgotten this early tradition.
This term, the Year 4 and 5 classes from St Thomas More have participated in a variety of history, music, and art workshops with Musical Director Robert Hyman and the LGCHF team to revive Arbor Day once and for all. The classes participated in the Arbor Day ceremony on Wednesday 13th March 2024 at the community orchard on Hillbrow. Students planted their apple trees at the same site as the 2008 centenary event, performed their co-authored song for their families and were presented with certificates.
Generously funded by the Peter Sowerby Foundation and SHARE Museums East, the Arbor Day project was developed through co-creation between teachers, local musicians and artists, students, and the Arts, Culture and Heritage team at LGCHF.
The project was piloted at Garden City Academy in 2023 and has been further developed this year with St Thomas More to create teaching resources and creative training sessions to be rolled out to wider Letchworth schools later this year.
A-LEVEL EXHIBITION 2023
Historically, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation has supported The Highfield School and Fearnhill School to exhibit their A-Level classes within the town centre, showcasing the artistic talents of their young people. In 2023, Broadway Gallery was proud to present the town's first all-school A-Level exhibition. This exhibition showcased works from thirty-five year twelve students from The Highfield School, Fearnhill School, St Christopher School and St Francis College in one of Hertfordshire’s most respected gallery spaces.
The exhibition brings students from across the town into the Gallery, hoping to empower them by showcasing their work in a professional setting and build community among the town's next generation of artists.
The Gallery intends to host this exhibition for the foreseeable future, starting with the Spring Term show in 2024.
TOM KAREN CREATIONS
In Summer 2022, the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation (LGCHF) displayed ‘Tom Karen: Creations’ at the Museum at One Garden City. This wonderful exhibition celebrated the life and work of designer Tom Karen. Tom was known for his iconic vehicle designs including the Bond Bug, Reliant Scimitar GTE and the Raleigh Chopper bicycle, as well as his toys, like Marble Run and Ogle Mogles.
Honouring Tom’s legacy, the Cultural Learning team at the Foundation partnered with Pixmore Junior School to co-create cross-curricular teaching resources inspired by his work. Alex Evans, Head Teacher at Pixmore, volunteered to research and develop the resources which were the basis
of the project, supported by Mollie Mclellan, Cultural Learning Officer for the Foundation. Delivering the project over the Autumn Term 2022 and Spring Term 2023, the team continued to learn from the students’ experience how the project could evolve. Students visited the Museum and used the facilities at the Broadway Gallery to begin designing their own vehicles. Once complete, the students works were then installed within the existing ‘Tom Karen:
Creations’ exhibition. To enable other schools to get involved, the team have collated resources including an interactive virtual scan of the ‘Tom Karen: Creations’ exhibition, educational videos for KS1, KS2 and KS3, lesson plans and worksheets. The Foundation hope to continue co-devising work like this with Letchworth Garden City schools to support the delivery of arts and cultural activity.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD EXHIBITION
‘A Whole New World’ at Broadway Gallery was an exhibition created by the Year 5 children of Pixmore Junior School and Garden City Academy. After completing the project in the summer term 2022, the exhibition featured in the Family Arts Studio at Broadway Gallery. During the project, students collaborated with artists to create colourful sculptures representing their ideas of a new place of their own creation. The artists involved included Kerry Lanigan, Alex McIntyre and Abigail Hunt.
The two groups took inspiration from Ebenezer Howard’s work to plan and develop the Garden City. Particularly interested in his vision for better living conditions and a fairer society, students made worlds in which plentiful outdoor spaces meant they could congregate to play, skate, and be calm surrounded by natural beauty. The worlds full of magic and fantasy also reflected the needs of children after the pandemic.
PIXMORE SCHOOL PLATINUM JUBILEE 2022
In Summer 2022, Broadway Gallery delivered a series of workshops for students from Pixmore Junior School to support them to achieve their Arts Award. Across 6 weeks, the students attended an afterschool club hosted in the gallery’s Family Arts Studio.
The workshops celebrated and explored Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee. As a result, students made a number of works including a street party mural.
ICE AND ABSTRACT ART WORKSHOPS
During Spring 2022, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation (LGCHF) commissioned Glow Training to carry out a process of research with Letchworth teaching professionals. The research explored how primary and secondary schools in Letchworth accessed LGCHF’s cultural provision (both currently and in previous years) and what more could be provided by the foundation to meet schools’ needs in the wake of the pandemic.
To thank the schools involved for participating, LGCHF offered a free visual arts workshop to a class from each school at Broadway Gallery. The workshops gave the team the chance to welcome Letchworth students back to the gallery and introduce their staff to the new Cultural Learning Officer. Local artists Abi Spendlove and Callum Abbott led sessions focusing on abstract drawing or ice and ink.
