Exhibition extension: New Town Youth 1985
The Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, will continue to host New Town Youth 1985, by award winning photographer Russell Boyce, until 3 June 2023.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the memories that come back of myself as a 15-year-old’ girl”, said Andrea Brace, whose picture forms part of the exhibition. Her image is part of a set of documentary pictures by Russell Boyce which feature in the exhibition 38 years after they were taken.
This powerful exhibition, full of iconic images of youth groups in Peterborough from the 80’s, has been bringing back memories and filling visitors with nostalgia. It has been so well received that Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery are thrilled to be able to extend the dates and allow more visitors to enjoy this fantastic exhibition.
“Wonderful photography, curation and design”, “beautiful and thought-provoking images’” and “took me back to my youth” are comments received by visitors to the successful exhibition to date.
The picture stories document some of the diverse youth groups operating in Peterborough during Thatcher’s Britain when youth unemployment stood at one in five for those under 18 years old and interest rates were running at 11.4% but the hope, aspiration and drive of young people is clear to be seen. The Friday Club - local bands practising in the Guildhall, the Asian Cultural Centre, The Goulistan Girls Group, Amanda - a YTS worker paid £27.30 for a 37.5 hour week’s work, the Young People’s Theatre Company, the Westgate project for the young unemployed, Anantas - a home for the homeless young and Peterborough Youth Trust - an alternative to prison for young offenders are all stories featured.
Russell said “What this exhibition means to me is that I have been able to bring pictures I took nearly 40 years ago back to the community I took them in. Some people recognise themselves; others recognise family or friends and what is most exciting is that people are sharing the pictures and, even after nearly 40 years, people are getting in touch with myself and with each other. The response has been terrific and the pictures enjoyed on so many levels; be it a renewed interest in the ‘mullet’ and bouffant haircuts, the number of people smoking, a long-lost memory of the 1980’s jogged or a social and political landscape that looks more than a bit familiar.”
Russell added “I am very pleased that so many young people who are studying photography or interested in visual story-telling have come to see the show too. There is a renewed interest in social documentary photography and I hope I can inspire young people to start to look at the community around themselves and document it like I did when I was 23. I am very proud that the exhibition has been so popular and that Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery have decided to extend the exhibition until June 3rd
2023”.