The Festival of Britain
A Land and its People
1st Edition
Published on 24. April 2012
288 pages
978-0-85772-197-6 (ISBN)
Description
The Festival of Britain in 1951 transformed the way people saw their war-ravaged nation. Giving Britons an intimate experience of contemporary design and modern building, it helped them accept a landscape under reconstruction, and brought hope of a better world to come. Drawing on previously unseen sketches and plans, photographs and interviews, The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People travels beyond the Festival's spectacular centrepiece at London's South Bank, to show how the Festival made the whole country an exhibition ground with events to which hundreds of the country's greatest architects, artists and designers contributed. It explores exhibitions in Poplar, Battersea and South Kensington in London; Belfast, Glasgow and Wales; a touring show carried on four lorries and another aboard an ex-aircraft carrier. It reveals how all these exhibitions and also plays, poetry, art and films commissioned for the Festival had a single focus: to unite 'the land and people of Britain'.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrations
41 bw integrated, 16pp colour plates
File size
57,56 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-85772-197-6 (9780857721976)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2012
I.B. Tauris
€50.94
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Harriet Atkinson was educated at the University of York, the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art. She was co-editor of The Banham Lectures, and contributor to Findling & Pelle's Encyclopedia of World's Fairs and Expositions. She has written for various journals of art and design, as well as for The Guardian and The Independent. She is Research Fellow at the University of Brighton and lives in London with her husband and two children.
Content
Contents
Foreword by Mary Banham
Notes and abbreviations
A brief introduction to the major Festival exhibitions
Introduction
'It was nice, wasn't it'
Chapter 1.
'This Festival of ours is a deadly serious affair'
Chapter 2.
Towards a Festival Exhibition Style
Chapter 3.
'A constellation of events'
Chapter 4.
'All through the land'/ Exhibiting The Land and People of Britain
Chapter 5.
'Spontaneous expressions of citizenship'/ Exhibiting People at Work
Chapter 6.
'An essential ingredient of democracy'/ Exhibiting the English Language
Chapter 7.
'From the planning of the kitchen to the planning of the nation'/ Exhibiting Homes and Neighbourhoods
Chapter 8.
'Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye'
Postscript
60 Years After '51
Acknowledgements
Illustration credits
Captions
Select Bibliography
Index
Foreword by Mary Banham
Notes and abbreviations
A brief introduction to the major Festival exhibitions
Introduction
'It was nice, wasn't it'
Chapter 1.
'This Festival of ours is a deadly serious affair'
Chapter 2.
Towards a Festival Exhibition Style
Chapter 3.
'A constellation of events'
Chapter 4.
'All through the land'/ Exhibiting The Land and People of Britain
Chapter 5.
'Spontaneous expressions of citizenship'/ Exhibiting People at Work
Chapter 6.
'An essential ingredient of democracy'/ Exhibiting the English Language
Chapter 7.
'From the planning of the kitchen to the planning of the nation'/ Exhibiting Homes and Neighbourhoods
Chapter 8.
'Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye'
Postscript
60 Years After '51
Acknowledgements
Illustration credits
Captions
Select Bibliography
Index
