Healing War Through Art is an exhibition on the Brighton Pavilion Hospital for Limbless Soldiers where, from 1916-1919, over 6,000 men were admitted for treatment, recuperation and retraining.
Healing War Through Art was curated by Gateways’ Dr Lucy Noakes and her colleague Dr GillIan Scott and was held at the University of Brighton Art Gallery during spring 2014. The exhibition included images and text from the soldiers' publication, Pavilion Blues, and explored their local experience as adult learners at the purpose-built Queen Mary Workshop, and the Art School. Using material from the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove, and the University of Brighton Design Archive, its historic interest resonated with contemporary debates about war, disability and military rehabilitation.
The exhibition was accompanied by an open seminar at the University of Brighton chaired by Dr Noakes, on the art and craft rehabilitation training of limbless soldiers from the Pavilion Hospital, at which speakers considered various approaches to art as therapy during the First World War.
The exhibition is currently on display in Crawley, West Sussex, and will travel to Lublin, Poland, in autumn 2014.
Images courtesy of the Brighton School of Art Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.
