I visited Pete McKee's Sheffield Weston Park show as ticket requirement ended. This is how he's raised the bar
I’ve long been a fan of Weston Park Museum.
As a parent, it is a fantastic place to take your children for a cheap day out. It may not have the scale of the British Museum, but it has a fantastic variety, a nice café, and it’s in a beautiful setting that’s on a very good bus route.
Over the years, its temporary display space has had some great exhibitions. I especially especially remember one when my son was small that he loved, about the world of insects. It had a giant video screen and a corner filled with insect costumes for young visitors. I recall another another on children’s books, later on, which was also great.
The last few, I’m not sure have hit the same heights. The recent themes of hair, and Sheffield’s rivers, though very well done, failed to excite me or my family.
The most recent exhibition, which features a range of Pete McKee paintings, initially required tickets, which were available online for free. That requirement has now recently ended, so you can just walk in like other temporary shows that have been there in the past.
And on the basis of my ticketless trip there recently, it has proved popular, as it was bustling when we visited on Saturday, with people of all ages. It’s great that you can now just drop in, unplanned.
The exhibition, The Boy with a Leg Named Brian, features dozens of Pete’s paintings. But it’s more than just an art show.
He’s mixed the paintings with his own memories of growing up in Sheffield in the 70s and the 80s. And it’s a powerful, often poignant mix, featuring stories from his own childhood, including bereavement.
Many of the paintings depict those toys and places that any Sheffielder of a certain age will fondly remember.
It’s all there. From trips round Castle Market, to those drivers’ periscopes that we used to stare down at the front of the cream and brown SYT buses.
There are pictures of The Limit, recalling its sticky floor. And it’s not just his paintings. He’s dug out original memorabilia from the time, including one of those bright orange, plastic footballs that all youngsters seemed to own. Sadly, it’s in a display case so you cannot relive the unique smell those footballs seemed to have, especially on hot summer days.
For people who remember the Sheffield that Pete describes, it’s a nostalgic experience, and his own personal experiences add another dimension.
There is plenty for children too, with a chance to draw, and a chance to take a look at the children’s TV and comics that passed for entertainment for previous generations, from Camberwick Green to Take Hart. There’s even the chance to have a go on a ride that was at Castle Market.
Pete’s raised the bar for the temporary exhibitions room. He’s going to he a tough act to follow when it ends in November.