Festival of Stamps
- Concept - Why have a Festival about stamps?
- Background - Why 2010?
- Schedule - What is already planned?
- Contact - For cultural organisations wanting to take part
Concept
The
Festival is an exciting opportunity to bring stamps into the 21st
century. These miniature pieces of art are accessible to all, and
provide a link to any kind of topic
you can imagine... art, design, history, geography and communication.
The BPMA will support the Festival by coordinating a series of events at museums, archives, libraries, and other venues across the capital. This will create a Festival in every sense of the word, that will re-generate an interest in stamps, especially amongst younger audiences.
For more about the aims of the Festival you can download our London:2010 Mission statement (PDF, 150KB)
Background
So why 2010? This year marks the centenary of the accession of King George V,
the renowned 'Philatelist King'. The Festival will be a year-long celebration of exhibitions and events to mark this centenary.
The London: 2010 Festival is of course two years before the 2012 London Olympics. The Olympics are as much a cultural as a sporting event, and so the London: 2010 Festival of Stamps will be part of the cultural and artistic lead-up to the Games.
There are many cultural initiatives every year, but we think that the simple and broad appeal of stamps is something new.
Schedule
An International Stamp Show will take place at the
Business Design Centre in Islington, London between 8 – 15 May 2010.
This will include a major competition for philatelists, a dealers' fair and meeting place for stamp collectors from all over the world.
Alongside this core event the BPMA will be coordinating the wider Festival taking place over the whole year. Partner institutions can join in however they choose: through children’s workshops, stamp-themed exhibitions, or simply offering a space for lectures and events.
Partners already involved include:
- The British Museum: Coins & Medals
- The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
- The MCC Cricket Museum at Lord's
- The Royal Philatelic Collection
The BPMA will present our own central exhibition about the Philatelist King, George V. This will open at the Guildhall Art Gallery on 6 May 2010 - National Stamp Day - and will run until 25 July.
We will also be running a programme of other events, including talks, film screenings and family activities. These BPMA projects will anchor the wider Festival.
Contact
We plan a
full year’s timetable of exhibitions and events. There are no restrictions
on how cultural organisations can take part: stamps as a theme offer so much flexibility!
- You
could run a Big Draw event, as part of the national Campaign for Drawing, to
design a stamp or postmark for your organisation.
- Or you could take any part of your collection connected to the post or communication – be it stamps, artists, maps, letters, travel – as a starting
point for an exhibition. Just take a look at our great Penny Black resources to see how we worked with stamps for Victorian history.
- Stamps cover almost every topic you can think of: to get some more ideas take a look at our own Icons of England stamp exhibition.
It may be that you simply have a venue – a display area, an event or meeting room – but are unable to mount exhibitions or events yourself. We would still like to hear from you, as the more venues we have, the better the Festival will be!
If you are interested in taking part in the Festival please contact our London 2010 Project Officer, Jennifer Flippance at jennifer.flippance@postalheritage.org.uk or on 020 7239 2561. Please note: you do not have to be a London organisation to take part - we want to hear from everyone who is interested.
A full marketing strategy
including a specific website for the Festival is currently being
developed. For more information on this please contact Tel: 020 7239 2574.
