Manchester's Jewish Museum

Image featuring Sarah Lee’s hand embroidered piece “NARRATIVES: Threads and Testimony”, a new temporary exhibition by Sarah Lee and Laura Nathan at Manchester Jewish Museum Download Images Here From Friday, 7 April, Manchester Jewish Museum will have a new temporary exhibition for visitors to enjoy. “Narratives: Threads and Testimony” combines textile, installation and sound pieces exploring family history surrounding the Holocaust.  This work was made during NARRATIVES, a collaborative six-month residency by twelve artists brought together by Venture Arts, The Lowry and Castlefield Gallery, with support from associates Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust, Explorers Project and Manchester Jewish Museum. Two of the artists; Laura Nathan and Sarah Lee worked at Manchester Jewish Museum during their residency period, exploring their family stories through art. Through conversations, they discovered a shared family history of the Holocaust and Jewish heritage. Both had grandparents who were makers and experienced persecution due to their beliefs. Through their explorations, Laura and Sarah attempted to understand their histories and reconcile the traumas of those who came before them.  Laura Nathan: “Some of my earliest childhood memories are focused around my grandparents' unimaginable experiences in the Holocaust and I feel that generational trauma and anxiety has filtered from one generation to the next. Much of my work focuses around processing this dark history, dealing with anxieties, and exploring my identity as a culturally strong, yet secular Jewish woman.” During their residency, in September 2022, Laura and Sarah organised a contemplative makers space in the museum’s historic former synagogue. Visitors to the museum were invited to bring their sketchbooks, knitting needles or any craft materials and join the silent makerspace to meet the artists, think and create together. The idea of the silent makerspace came from unfinished tapestries of Laura’s grandmother and the thoughts that Laura, as a fellow textiles artist, recognised must had been running through her grandmother’s mind while stitching and the great value she has found in silent contemplation and creativity.  Laura and Sarah reflect on their residency at Manchester Jewish Museum:  “We were both hugely inspired by our time in Manchester Jewish Museum. Sarah was particularly taken by the beautiful stain glass windows and beams within the synagogue and these shapes feature within her work. I gained inspiration through hearing an extract of my grandmother’s oral history testimony which was included in a film exhibit based in the Museum’s “Journeys” gallery. Both Sarah and I found so much tranquillity when embroidering within the synagogue as it’s such a beautiful, calming and reflective space.”  Image: Manchester Jewish Museum's 1874 grade II* listed Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue Laura Nathan had also been working with the Manchester Jewish Museum’s Creative Activist group (aged 16 – 30), exploring textiles as a mean to tell lesser-known stories of the Holocaust and Second World War from the museum’s collections. These pieces, which attempted to weave the individual’s rich lives, whilst recognising the gaps and absences in individuals’ stories in historic records, were displayed at Manchester Jewish Museum during ‘We Remember Them In Verbs’, a programme of reflective events marking Holocaust Memorial Day in January.  Image: Laura Nathan talking to visitors at Manchester Jewish Museum during her exhibition Identity & Heritage through Textiles, January 2023. Credit: Chris Payne During their six-month residency, Sarah and Laura have visited Manchester Jewish Museum many times, met most of the museum’s staff and volunteers and created a series of reflective artistic responses influenced by their family stories, memories and the setting of the museum’s former synagogue.  Sarah created intimate hand embroidered pieces reinterpreting her grandfather’s experiences and the woodcarvings which he made to help process what he had been through. Sarah also gained inspiration through the repetition within the museum’s stained-glass windows and architecture.  Image: Sarah Lee's hand embroided piece, credit: Venture Arts Laura processed an overwhelming collection of family documents and testimonies through the creation of a textiles and sound-based installation, which she called Meine Geliebte Poppi ( “My beloved Poppi”).  Sarah’s and Laura’s works were exhibited at The Lowry, Salford, in January and February 2023 as part of a joint exhibition by Venture Arts.  Image: "Meine geliebte Poppi" by Laura Nathan at The Lowry, Salford, credit: Michael Pollard “Narratives: Threads and Testimony” will be displayed at Manchester Jewish Museum from Friday, 7 April until Tuesday, 9 May 2023 and can be enjoyed as part of General Admission to the museum. Manchester Jewish Museum is open seven days a week from 10am-5pm with last admission at 4pm.