- Summer art competition open to entries from children and young people ages 7 – 18 until 29 September 2024
- Entries will go into the ‘Journeys Through War’ exhibition to open on 19 October 2024
- Current Art of the Great War exhibition features original paintings from the First World War, ends 22 September 2024
Marking the Woodstock-based museum’s 10th anniversary and commemorating 110 years since the start of the First World War in 2024, Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum is currently hosting a Great War art exhibition, and is running an art competition for young people over the summer, which will culminate in its own exhibition this autumn.
Now taking entries, the competition is open to children and young people from ages 7 through to 18, and will be divided into three age brackets: 7-10 years; 11-14 years; 15-18 years. Prizes will be awarded for the top entries from each category.
The museum is looking for entries that tie into the theme of ‘Journeys Through War’, inspired by the museum’s own collections. These could take the form of art portraying a glider pilot’s flight to Normandy on D-Day, the journey made by the many evacuees that came to Oxfordshire during the Second World War, or even the journeys made by carrier pigeons used to send secret messages during wartime.
The Journeys Through War exhibition will go on display from Saturday 19 October – Sunday 17 November 2024, with any media accepted, and also both physical and digital entries welcome. Submitted work can take inspiration from museum collections from the First and Second World Wars, but could take in more recent events or even earlier conflicts. The deadline for entries is 29 September 2024, with more information and an entry form available at bit.ly/summerartcomp
Currently, the museum is hosting John Noott’s collection of First World War art in The Art of the Great War exhibition, which runs until 22 September 2024.
Based in Broadway, John has been an art collector and dealer for over 50 years, and during this time has drawn together an incredible collection of WW1 art. This latest exhibition is a follow up to The Art of World War II – an exhibition previously hosted by Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum which proved incredibly popular, showcasing a diverse range of original art from a unique mix of artists both amateur and professional, both up-and-coming and well-established.
The Art of the Great War presents a similarly broad range of original art and prints, all produced during, or depicting scenes from, ‘The War to End All Wars’. Capturing both the horrors of the conflict and snatched moments of humour during the darkest of times, together the collection provides a very human perspective of the events of 1914-1918.
The collection is a personal one for John, as he was inspired by childhood memories of his own father, who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Great War’s often-forgotten Salonika campaign. Asked for a personal highlight from the exhibition, he points out one of the largest paintings on display by artist Henry C. Seppings Wright – an official artist to New Zealand forces. The striking piece depicts two German soldiers helping a wounded British Tommy out of a trench. John explains:
“That, to me, it goes to say, we’re all human beings … why are we doing this?”.
