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Life in Ripon’s workhouse was hard enough for abled bodied people, but what was it like for those with mental or physical disabilities?
Tomorrow, between 10am and 12.30pm, people of all ages and abilities are invited to work alongside disabled artists Kate Lovell and Aisling Gallagher to produce artworks that ‘respond to the language of disability and its evolution through history’.
Taking its inspiration from the lives and experiences of people with disabilities who were inmates of the former Ripon Workhouse, the interactive event titled ‘Reclaiming Lunacy’ is free to attend and has been made possible with an £11,000 grant from Historic England’s Everyday Lottery Fund.
Saturday’s art session follows research carried out as part of the project, by the museum’s curatorial volunteers, who uncovered unseen histories of disabled people who were at the workhouse between the Victorian era and the early 1900s.
As well as being artists, Ms Lovell is a theatre-maker and writer, while Ms Gallagher is a director and creative access practitioner.
Rachael Warren, marketing manager at Ripon Museum Trust said:
“We are thrilled to be welcoming Kate and Aisling to Ripon Museums to run this open session and make a start on creating a new display which will explore the lives of disabled people at the former workhouse.
“These are important stories to tell and we are thankful to Historic England for enabling us to tell them”.
The Everyday Heritage grant scheme was launched by Historic England earlier this year to support community-led projects and further the nation’s collective understanding of the past.
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Ripon YMCA’s sleep out puts homelessness in the spotlight
The issue of homelessness and the hard times that go with it will be in focus on Friday night when Ripon YMCA holds its Sleep Easy event at the city’s Workhouse Museum.
Staff from the YMCA, along with volunteers, will be sleeping outside in the grounds of the former workhouse on Allhallowgate to raise awareness of youth homelessness, while raising money to support the charity’s work with young and vulnerable people.
Jayne Shackleton, community and development manager for Ripon YMCA, said:
“In the past year we have seen young people staying in cars, sleeping on a kitchen floor and in a shed, with many more ‘sofa surfing’.
“Homelessness is often hidden in society and small communities such as Ripon, where young people who have no fixed home will often find themselves sleeping at a friend’s house on a sofa or the floor.”
Ms Shackleton, pointed out:
“We provide housing for 22 young people and help enable them to be free from danger, hunger and isolation. We provide individual support, skills and training to help them lead an independent life and reach their potential.”
All fundraising or donations from the Sleep Easy event will go directly to Ripon YMCA to support its work.
Figures for England and Wales provided by the YMCA, show that 47% of youth homelessness is caused through family breakdown.
A total of 278,110 people were declared homeless or threatened with homelessness in 2021 and of these 56,080 were aged 16 to 24,
Anybody who would like to support Ripon YMCA, can find out more here
Donations to the Sleep Easy event can be made via JustGiving here.
Is there a part for you in Ripon Theatre Festival project?
Ripon residents are being given the opportunity to play a part in an innovative community project being created for the city’s first theatre festival.
At the Workhouse Museum on Allhallowgate between 11am-1.30pm today, would-be actors, scriptwriters, set designers and props handlers are invited to find out more.
The aim is to recruit people who would like to have a role in Jubilee at the Workhouse — a living history project by Fell Foss Theatre Company, under the direction of Mark Cronfield.
Participants will develop scripts with the museum’s volunteer research group alongside local writers and specialist script writer Simon Kirk of Time will Tell theatre company, long-time collaborators with English Heritage.
The finished production will reflect on previous royal celebrations in Ripon, such as Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, which was marked a year later, when the clock tower at the junction of Palace Road, North Street and Princess Road, was officially opened in front of a huge crowd.
Performances will take place on the final afternoon of the festival (Sunday June 26) when a promenade of colourful characters, will interact with the audience, as they make their way through the museum’s historic spaces.
The theatrical venture is being made possible through a collaboration between Ripon City Festival Trust and Ripon Museum Trust.
Festival co-director Katie Scott, said:
“This is our inaugural year and we are so pleased that we have been able to include this project in our plans.
“The festival aims to celebrate the unique city of Ripon through live performance and our ambition has always been to programme original and site-specific work alongside visiting companies. This is a creative and thought-provoking way to begin”.
Dr Laura Allan, community curator at Ripon Museum Trust, added:
“The historic spaces of the Workhouse Museum will be transformed into a stage with volunteers and the local community at the centre of the story. We are asking the local community to give it a go and get involved with this special jubilee performance”.
The festival runs from June 23 to 26, with a wide variety of performances from street theatre and puppetry to dance, storytelling and open-air Shakespeare
Tickets go on sale next month.