Trip to Sleaford

 Chris and I are enjoying a few days holiday this week and although we haven't yet achieved that much, it is nice not to have to go to work.  We had a trip out to Sleaford yesterday: a small market town in Lincolnshire.  Above is a view across some of the rooftops.

 The purpose of the trip out was to visit the National Centre for Craft and Design (it used to be called the Hub, but has recently been re-branded).  It looks a huge building, doesn't it, but in fact a lot of space inside is used as teaching rooms and it actually only has two galleries. 
There was a jewellery exhibition, based around the theme of 'Transportation' and linked with Australia.

I really liked this piece, called 'Bed and Board' by a Professor at the University of Lincoln.  It is based on the Head of Lincoln prison in around the 1830s, who apparently took a shine to the women inmates and who would (for a favour or two) put in a word to prevent transportation to Australia. The piece shows an image of Lincoln Cathedral, with a cell window over the top and a hanged figure with a view of the Castle Observatory tower over it.  Apparently, when not involved with the women, the Head of the Prison was very fond of astronomy and had the tower built. 
The other exhibition made much more of an impact on me.  It was called the 'Museum of Broken Relationships' and displayed items that had been donated by people that had some kind of significance in a broken relationship.  There were descriptions by the side of each item by the donors; bittersweet, poignant, angry, bitter, sad, happy and heart-breaking.  There were a few that really stayed with me.  There was a postcard sent to a girl by her boyfriend.  He asked her parents for their permission to marry her but was told no.  That night, he drove his car off a cliff.
There was a sketchbook by a thirteen year old girl of her hospital ward. She died and the sketchbook was donated by her brother. 
There were two lacy bras (which initially made me smile, thinking they were a gift from an ex-boyfriend), which showed the broken relationship between a woman and her body once she was diagnosed with cancer and then had to face the reconstructive surgery.
 A roll of astroturf with a label 'for ...(name)' was a gift for a girl from a boy who had a crush on her.  She needed the astroturf for an art project and he managed to get some for her.  Unfortunately, she left the area soon after and the roll of turf had been by the door, waiting for her to collect it ever since.  The stories were fascinating and it left me with the thought that even though we all live in different parts of the world, we all share the same emotions.  A thought provoking and moving exhibition.