The Festival of Britain ‘A Tonic for the Nation’
The Festival of Britain in 1951 provided a much-needed dose of colour, excitement and fun in post-war Britain. At the end of World War Two an exhibition was proposed that would commemorate the Great Exhibition of 1851 and provide a ‘tonic to the Nation’ and a welcome break from austerity, it was an opportunity to re-define ‘Britishness’ and engender a sense of national identity, and most importantly re-asserting Britain’s role as a manufacturing nation after the war.
Bio
Dr. Sophie Hollinshead worked at the University of Nottingham for over twenty-five years as a lecturer and programme manager in interdisciplinary humanities. She currently works at Newstead Abbey the ancestral home of the poet Lord Byron, and at Nottingham Castle. Her interests are in landscape, culture and above all place, and her PhD explored the transformatory potential of landscape on the individual. The impact, influences, traditions, and spirit(s) of place are what inspire her.
Curated & Hosted by
Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer, curator and critic, ethnographer and folklorist speaking and writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall. She is the author of Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor 2020) and is currently working on several Colquhoun related manuscripts. She is also the editor of Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (Palgrave 2022). She has contributed gallery texts and essays for a number of institutions including Tate, Camden Arts Centre, Art UK, Arusha Galleries, Heavenly Records and she is a curator and host for the Last Tuesday Society lecture series.
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