Louise Jordan designed this project for young people to explore inspirational women’s experiences of the First World War. Through a series of workshops, recording sessions and public performances young songwriters aged 13 – 19 were supported to analyse the impact these women have had on our lives today and to share their work with others. Participants visited local historical collections and museums and then interpreted these stories in a way that would be engaging and relatable for others.
You can hear some of the songs created during the project via the links below and there is a free resource pack available to download. Louise continues to share these with local schools, music hubs and heritage organisations to inform and inspire others to explore women’s experiences of the First World War and the many ways that music can help preserve this heritage.
Louise worked on this project with The Urban Vocal Group (UVG) and received a National Lottery grant of £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) made possible by money raised by National Lottery players and awarded through HLF’s ‘First World War: then and now’ programme. The project was also supported by Wiltshire Music Connect for whom Louise works as an Associate Music Provider and took place between October 2017 –July 2018. The project looked at the lives of women in Portsmouth and Salisbury during the war, the roles that they took on and the impact that this had on both the war effort and the perception of woman in society from then on.