The Silk Mill to host iconic poppy sculptures as part of 14-18 Now tour

Poppies are coming to Derby

Thu 6 Oct 2016

The Silk Mill will host the iconic poppy sculpture between 9 Jun and 23 Jul as part of 14-18 NOW tour

We are pleased to announce that the poppies will present Weeping Window at the Silk Mill, in Derby.

The presentations by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, will give people across the UK the chance to experience the impact of the ceramic poppy sculptures in a range of places of particular First World War resonance. During the First World War, Derby Silk Mill was divided into two businesses one grinding corn and the other making medical supplies, both integral to the British war effort and scarce by 1916.

Derby as a whole played a vital part in production during the course of the First World War with Rolls-Royce developing the Eagle Engine at the request of the government to power allied aircraft. As Derby Silk Mill: Museum of Making the museum now holds a great number of industrial and social history objects which help to tell the stories of Derby’s companies and its communities.

Wave and Weeping Window are from the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red – poppies and original concept by artist Paul Cummins and installation designed by Tom Piper – by Paul Cummins Ceramics Limited in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces. The installation was originally at HM Tower of London from August to November 2014 where 888,246 poppies were displayed, one to honour every death in the British and Colonial forces of the First World War.

Leader of Derby City Council, Ranjit Banwait, said:

“I’m delighted that Derby will be hosting this iconic sculpture at a site with such historic importance. Across the country we have seen the installation attract hundreds of thousands of people and now we can be proud that it is coming to Derby. I have to thank all of the team including Pauline Latham OBE MP who have helped put the bid together, so the Weeping Window can be displayed in the city where the artist Paul Cummins went to university.”

The two poppy sculptures being presented across the UK, together totaling over 10,000 poppies, have been saved for the nation by the Backstage Trust and the Clore Duffield Foundation, and gifted to 14-18 NOW and Imperial War Museums. Financial support for the presentations has been received from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and fundraising for the presentations is ongoing.