“Punk: Rage and Revolution” Exhibition Hits The UK This Summer

The team behind the successful 2019 Mods: Shaping a Generation exhibition, Soft Touch Arts, Arch Creative and Shaun Knapp, are proud to present Punk: Rage & Revolution, a showcase that will begin in Leicester on the 27th May and will run through to the 2nd September. The main events will be held at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery and Soft Touch Arts, but it won’t stop there. With funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, BID Leicester, Leicester City Council, PPLPRS and De Montfort University, the team have been working in partnership with Leicester Museums Service, collecting memories and memorabilia from people who were part of the 70s punk scene and working with young people across Leicester to curate a multi-sensory exhibition showcasing fashion, music, art and more.

The exhibition will uncover successful Leicester creatives that were part of the scene, such as Joe Orton, Steve Pyke, Stephane Raynor, Helen Robinson, David Parkinson and Juliana Sissons. It will also feature iconic clothing from Roger K Burton’s world-class collection of Dame Vivienne Westwood punk-era designs. This will be a must see for visitors across the UK and beyond interested in youth culture, fashion, music, art, the DIY culture of punk and the influence and legacy this anti-establishment subculture has left behind. The story of the Leicester and UK British Punk subculture will be told by those that were part of the scene. Young people from Leicester charity Soft Touch Arts are part of the exhibition curation team, learning directly from the Leicester punks and contributing their ideas and reflections on what Punk means now. Through a series of creative projects and briefs, they are comparing and contrasting the social and political climate then and now, expressing what they learn through art, fanzines, fashion, music, dance, hair & make-up and styling.

Jamie Reid’s seven-metre mural telling the story of punk will be a key feature and the gallery at De Montfort University will host an exhibition of Reid’s activism art. In August, LCB Depot will host a selection of student work in response to the briefs set to tie in with the Punk Rage & Revolution project. A punk festival weekend is planned for 18-20th August across Leicester which aims to boost tourism and visitors both to the exhibition and the city centre. Parts of the exhibition will tour to Northampton Museum and Nottingham’s Backlit Gallery with each place revealing their own stories and legacy of punk.