Previous Exhibitions

Visitors to the Be Prepared! exhibition

We have a programme of temporary exhibitions which give us the opportunity to highlight community stories of local people. It also allows us to showcase objects from our collections which are not on permanent display.

You can find out about some of our previous exhibitions in Hollytrees Museum below:

 

Life’s Rich Tapestry Textile artwork on display in Hollytrees Museum

March 2011 – September 2011
www.cimuseums.org.uk/outintheopen

Showcasing a textile artwork created by 18 women from the Colchester and Tendring Women’s Refuge working with artist Alison Stockmarr. Created over 10 weeks it weaves together their stories and experiences through words and photographs. This exhibition is part of a year long project called Out in the Open where the museum service is working with people who have experienced homelessness.

 

Straw : Bonnets to Boaters            A display of straw hats from the collections

September 2010 – February 2011
An exhibition focusing on straw hats and the techniques involved in making them. The exhibition featured over twenty straw hats, ranging from 1830s to today, from Colchester and Ipswich’s collections. Also on show, 3 paintings from Ipswich’s art collection, including Woman reading on a couch by Philip Wilson Steer, and some of the tools used to create the straw-plait for hats.

 

Be Prepared! … to celebrate the Centenary of Girl Guiding.Brownies crowding round their ceremonial toadstool

March 2010 – September 2010
This exhibition explored 100 years of Girl Guiding in Essex. The display was produced in partnership with the North East Essex Guide Archive and included some beautiful and rare items from the earliest days of Guiding in Essex.

 

Stadium LegendsColchester United football fans - young and old!

January 2010 – February 2010
Stadium Legends was an intergenerational community project co-ordinated by Colchester United Community Sports Trust. A central part of the project was recording the memories and thoughts of past players and supporters through film, artworks, and performance which were then showcased in the exhibition. The touring exhibition, coordinated by the museum service, illustrated the link between football, communities and emotional well-being.

 

Holding Back the TideListening to oral histories of life on the East Anglian Coast

October 2009 – January 2010
An exhibition in partnership with Coastnet, an organisation which has been working to increase awareness of the changes in cultural and natural heritage of the East of England coast over the past 50 years. Inspired by oral history interviews which recorded people’s experiences of living by the coast, this exhibition highlighted the significance of the East Anglian coastline and its impact on the people who live near it.

 

A Cast of Thousands : The 1909 Colchester PageantA display of the posters, tickets and costumes relating to the 1909 Colchester Pageant

July 2009 – September 2009
Marking the centenary of the Colchester Pageant, the exhibition told the story of the thousands of people involved in creating this significant moment in the town’s history. The exhibition included unique items from Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service’s collection, as well as loans from members of the public.

 

Stitching TimeUnfinished patchwork bed cover made in the 1800s

March 2009 – June 2009
An exhibition of needlework and sewing accessories from the Colchester and Ipswich Museums’ costume collections. The exhibition celebrated how sewing and needlework has been taught and passed on as part of everyday life for over four hundred years.

 

Empire of CareCelebrating the contribution of international nurses to the NHS

October 2008 – March 2009
An exhibition about the lives and stories of the nurses who came to Colchester to work for the NHS, recruited from other countries throughout the Commonwealth Empire. The exhibition used objects, oral histories, photographs and press cuttings to bring the story of Colchester’s overseas nurses to life.