Ruth Ewan’s Yorkshire Sculpture Park exhibition ‘Asking Out’ was on show at the Longside Gallery for the Summer and Autumn of 2019. It focussed on the work of the Castleford teacher Muriel Pyrah who had been championed by Alec Clegg. Ruth Ewan’s installation recreated Muriel Pyrah’s 1972 classroom from Airedale School, Castleford, Yorkshire. Ruth made contact with Lottie Hoare (who had worked as a researcher on the ‘Sir Alec Clegg Revisited’ project at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge) in the autumn of 2018. They both shared their experiences of researching as an artist and as an academic researcher. They presented a talk together at the Bergen Assembly, in Bergen, Norway, in April 2019. Ruth subsequently developed an artist book ‘Asking Out’ which includes her own reflections on Muriel Pyrah’s educational approach, interview transcript contributions from former pupils from Muriel Pyrah’s Airedale Class, an introduction from Helen Pheby, Head of curatorial programmes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and a short essay from Lottie Hoare on the historical context in which Pyrah was working in terms of arts education and oracy. It also includes transcripts from a conversation between Lottie Hoare and the artist and former Muriel Pyrah pupil, David Wilders, on the lasting impact of arts education in his life. The book is designed by Sam Blunden with a selection of photos from the National Arts Education Archive. Here is a link to a pdf version of this item
There are some photos above and below of the 12 July 2019 exhibition opening where former pupils and others from the local community and beyond visited the installation for the first time. The exhibition ran until Saturday 3 November 2020. Photos by Lottie Hoare.
The image above shows the cover of Ruth Ewan’s artist book. The book was designed by Sam Blunden. Copies were distributed for free to visitors to the gallery. Below is an image of the launch event at the installation where former pupils of Muriel Pyrah and their friends were invited to experience the reimagined and reconstructed classroom 47 years or more after they had been taught by Pyrah.
