A PREVIEW of a major First World War exhibition was unveiled yesterday at Swindon’s Central Library.

The culmination of 12-months of research and media production, the 100 Stories Exhibition is a collection of work from 60 Swindon young people mentored by the award-winning team at Create Studios.

Originally inspired by the work of Swindon’s Mary Slade who mobilised Swindon communities to collate and send comfort parcels to prisoners of war during the conflict, 100 Stories features a series of original films and photographs produced in response to exploring rich regional First World War resources, including the Prisoners of War postcard archive held at Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, and the Local Archives held at the Library.

Five short films from Create Studios’ young people’s group, MassMedia, bring contemporary reflections to historical stories. Young people from the Oakfield Project who are outside mainstream education, researched seven local soldiers at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham and made a documentary about their moving journey to find their resting places at the war cemeteries of Belgium.

Media and history students from Dorcan Academy collaborated to create a moving series of photographic portraits based on real Swindon events, supported by the project’s Lead Artist, Gurchetan Singh, and photographer Elmar Rubio.

Visitors will also be able to see a ‘making of’ film, 100 Stories: The Production Journey, which highlights how much the young producers valued discovering more of Swindon’s First World War past, and the process they went though to make their own media projects with support from the Create Studios mentors.

This week’s Central Library exhibition and screenings at the Big Screen are a taster for the major exhibition which will be hosted at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery from November 20, through to February 20 next year. A new 100 Stories website featuring all the media works plus the original 100 stories uncovered through the project, will also launch on November 20 at www.100storiesww1.com

The project was made possible by National Lottery players thanks to a grant of £34,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Create Studios’ Artistic Director, Shahina Johnson said: “We are delighted to have been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Young Roots Programme to deliver the100 Stories production phase with local young media makers.

"Now the exhibitions in Swindon and Wiltshire plus the website will bring the 100 Stories to thousands of people as part of the First World War Centenary Celebrations.”

This is the second HLF project which sees Create working in partnership with Swindon Museum & Art Gallery.