A friend and I paid another visit to The Peace Museum, housed in a large gallery in Salts Mill, having relocated from the centre of Bradford a few years ago with a mission 'to collect, safeguard and interpret artefacts relating to peace, in its many forms, for the benefit of all'. They have a permanent collection on display and also take items from their large archive to mount exhibitions around particular themes.
There is some information about Sadoko Sasaki, who was just two when the atom bomb destroyed her home city of Hiroshima. She survived the blast but later developed blood cancer. She folded 1000 origami paper cranes, traditionally believed to grant the creator a wish - but she died aged only 12, of leukemia caused by irradiation.
There is a table with squares of beautiful paper and instructions for folding paper cranes as a symbol of peace and healing. It seems quite a few visitors make a crane and others enjoy the craft table where you can make 'protest fairies'.
These are a response to the current exhibition called 'Tactical Frivolity', an exploration of how humour, cartoons, banners, costumes and comedic acts can be used as a form of protest.
Among the exhibits are two 'pussy hats', worn during the Women's March in Shipley in 2017, part of a wave of protests that greeted Donald Trump's election to the US presidency (the first time!), despite his reported comments about women: 'Grab 'em by the pussy'. (You might remember my photos from that march HERE, HERE and HERE. )
There were some amusing videos of protest groups in costume, including some clowns from CIRCA (Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army - a group active in the UK in the early 2000s) larking about outside an Army Recruitment Office, to the bemusement of the local police.
Other exhibits that caught my eye included this rather beautiful, though untitled, painting by Farzaneh Jafari and Madjid Malakzadeh, presented to The Peace Museum by Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Laureate (below)
and the poster below by Quaker Peace and Service.
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