… and we can’t wait! Caistor Arts & Heritage Centre has supported ‘70’ right from the start. From the moment Martha Woodward came to us at the beginning of 2024 with her idea for an exhibition and we said, ‘Yes’, we knew ‘70’ was going to be something different.
As I write this, Martha and her collaborators, Barbara, Jane and Karen, are putting the finishing touches to ‘70’. It’s the culmination of countless hours of hard work, learning and creativity that has enabled them to get to this point. We’ve asked Martha to tell us something about how the journey has unfolded over the last eighteen months. Has it been an easy ride? Is the end result as she expected?
‘My early concept for the exhibition was a very loose one. This much I knew – that it would be about 70 year olds, that I wanted ’70’ to be a collaborative project, and that there was no model to follow – we were going to have to make it all up ourselves.’
‘I started out with the idea that I wanted seven 70 year olds telling their life stories. Seven 70 year olds just seemed to have a ring about it. But, of course, I had to find those 70 year olds, which was to prove a major challenge. I got to four very quickly, and then six, but never reached seven. Two then fell by the wayside for perfectly good reasons and so we were back to the original four.’
‘At the outset, I was open-minded about having both men and women in the exhibition but it soon became apparent that all of the interest was coming from women. Only one man expressed interest – and he wasn’t 70 – so I decided to make it an all-female project. And, actually, I now know that we could not have had the same exhibition had there been seven of us. Four has turned out to be a good number.’
‘The four of settled on two themes to explore in more depth - ‘Loss’ and ‘Journeys’. We couldn’t fit any more than two, which is a shame because there is so much we could have included but for the space available.’
‘I think I’m guilty for promoting the idea of the ’70 World Map’, which will show which countries ten seventy year olds have visited in their lifetimes. We needed six more 70 year olds for that! Although it’s a lesser commitment, it still wasn’t easy finding those six. The last one came on board, thanks to a final mail-out by the Heritage Centre, in April. But at least we got there.’
‘Another major challenge has been financing ‘70’. Exhibitions don’t just happen without funding. I have to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to Lincolnshire Community Foundation, who came on board and without whom it would not have been possible to realise our vision for the exhibition. Without LCF’s grant … well, I don’t want to think about that!’
‘Is ‘70’ going to be as I originally envisaged? Yes! And more! I am so grateful to Barbara, Jane and Karen for staying the course. Everyone has given so much. None of us had any experience of creating an exhibition. It’s been a big undertaking – and a huge learning curve. But you know what? ‘70’ is testimony to what a group of 70 year old women can achieve. This is our exhibition and we are very proud of it. The acid test now is: what will be the reaction of visitors to ‘70’? I hope everyone seeing it will find it an engaging, creative, and even, perhaps, a surprising exhibition. And whatever our visitors’ thoughts, I hope they will leave their comments. We absolutely want to know what everyone thinks!’
There is only one way to find out what you think! Come and see ‘70’! The exhibition Previews on Friday 1st August and opens to the public on Saturday 2nd August, running for three weeks until Saturday 23rd August.
