"The Materialisation of Persuasion": Modernist Exhibitions in Britain for Propaganda and Resistance, 1933 to 1953

'"The Materialisation of Persuasion": Modernist Exhibitions in Britain for Propaganda and Resistance, 1933 to 1953' investigates exhibitions developed for communication of propaganda and resistance from the inter- to the post-war period in Britain. The exhibitions that are central to this project were intended to influence or persuade, with ideas, not objects, as the central focus. Pivotal to this project is a vision, which the designers shared, of such exhibitions as active and participative 'demonstrations', as acts of provocation, rather than as 'displays' seen by a passive audience, primarily acting as platforms for displaying the fruits of commerce, trade, industry or the arts. This vision was initially inspired by exhibitions held in Russia and Germany and informed the visual language of the early British welfare state.

This project will focus, in particular, on a range of exhibitions developed by the Artists' International Association (AIA) from 1933 and the Ministry of Information from 1940, intended to inspire hope, pride and to teach the populous new skills. These can, as shorthand, be described as "propaganda" or "information" exhibitions, although the complexities and contradictions of these titles will be addressed within this project. These were mounted by a network of designers including Misha Black (1910-1972), F.H.K. Henrion (1914-1990), James Holland (1905-1996), Milner Gray (1899-1997) and Richard Levin (1910-2000), all of whom worked on exhibitions during the two decades from 1933 and were members of interlinking personal, professional and activist networks, many of them recent arrivals fleeing the Nazi threat. AIA artist-members included many of the most significant British artists of the time: Henry Moore (1898-1986), Eric Gill (1882-1940), Augustus John (1878-1961), Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Paul Nash (1889-1946); while the Ministry of Information's Exhibitions Division employed celebrated Modernist architects Frederick Gibberd (1908-1984) and Peter Moro (1911-1998).

This research will connect propaganda exhibitions held across a range of locations around, and beyond, Britain during these decades. They were mounted by an extended network of designers, for whom group-work was an important manifestation of a belief in collaboration and collectivity. It will assert this as a key, but largely overlooked, element in British Modernism. Particular case studies will include various AIA exhibitions mounted from 1934 (for example 'Art for the People', 1939 held at Whitechapel Art Gallery and 'For Liberty', 1943, held on a London bombsite); The Peace Pavilion at the Paris World Fair, 1937; The Modern Architecture Group (or MARS) exhibition, 1937; Picasso's Guernica touring sites around Britain including a car showroom, 1937-8; Empire Exhibition, Glasgow, 1938 (in particular installations by Misha Black); the British Pavilion at New York World's Fair, 1939; Aid to Russia, 1942; Ministry of Information exhibitions mounted in sites such as Charing Cross Underground Station and travelling round Britain to shops and village halls from 1940-45; and by Central Office of Information from 1946; and Britain Can Make It, V&A, 1946, (specifically installations by Design Research Unit). Drawing on primary and secondary sources, this project will also make comparisons of the style, content and ideological impetus of other exhibitions mounted across Europe and North America during the same period.

Major outputs of "The Materialisation of Persuasion" will be: a monograph entitled 'Modernism, Propaganda and the Public: Exhibitions in Britain 1933-1953'; a co-edited essay collection 'Beyond Boundaries: Art and Design Exhibitions as Transnational Exchange from 1945'; a methodologically-focused journal article; and a documentary film exploring British propaganda exhibitions during this period and assessing their significance today.

This project is designed to impact on five key groups outside academia through its interpretation of material in the resulting books, newspaper articles and film. The film has purposely been chosen to enable the P-I to bridge historic material and contemporary design practice, to be openly available, in full, on the University's website. Its portable form also means the P-I can show it at a range of venues as a starting point for conversations, screened at galleries or arts centres and other public spaces identified during the project. The key impacts are on:

1). Cultural organisations and their visitors
Cultural organisations (museums, archives, galleries and arts centres) and their visitors will benefit from this project through opportunities for interpretation of collections and of institutional histories (such as the Whitechapel Gallery and Imperial War Museum), which the research process, publications and film will enhance. In addition, these organisations and their visitors will benefit from the opportunities for discussion and reflection on the legacies of these historical events, which the proposed Design Salons will enable.

2). Policy makers
The project's publications, film, public articles published at the twentieth anniversary of the Millennium Dome and talks will allow the P-I to demonstrate the way in which exhibitions were used as a key strategy for public communication campaigns from and to the government, to inform future development of public cultural events by central or local government or by public agencies. Her previous experience of speaking to cultural policymakers in local and central government about the role and legacy of the 1951 Festival of Britain in a range of contexts - from one-to-one meetings to public events - and her work as Policy Adviser at Department for Culture Media & Sport and Association of London Government prior to doctoral study has equipped her to reach this group.

3). The Third Sector
Through working in partnership with established socially-engaged filmmaking collective Four Corners (http://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk), who have close links to many artists and exist to equip non-traditional filmmakers with skills, the P-I intends to create a film that helps Four Corners reach its target audiences through historical interpretations, discussions, as well as through providing training opportunities for unemployed Tower Hamlets residents. It will also reach the Third Sector through inviting charities (such as refugee arts charity Counterpoint) to be interviewed for the film, to participate in the Design Salon focused on design and displacement and by promoting this work through their networks.

4). Art, design and architecture practitioners
This project will benefit creative practitioners by raising the profile of designers as activists, explaining and demonstrating the significance of politically and socially-engaged designer interventions in public discourse, elaborating historical examples - in the publications - and discussing them alongside more recent examples - in the film and Design Salons.

5). The public beyond cultural institutions
In keeping with the democratic aspirations of the designers that are the focus of this project, who aspired to reach atypical audiences, by holding their exhibitions beyond the established spaces and institutions, this project is designed to bring this subject to new audiences through the proposed openly accessible film, public website and articles in newspapers or magazines.