Partner Projects
The Mayflower 400 programme is a city wide effort – here you can find out more about projects our partners have worked tirelessly to produce.
Mayflower Musicals
Mayflower Theatre commissioned two new musicals and a dance production to be performed on the Mayflower Theatre stage in August 2020. Due to COVID-19 these productions did not take place, but the theatre still offered four groups of young people the opportunity to explore the new musicals in their Mayflower 400 Summer Workshops in August 2020. Watch their performances here
Westgate Tower Exhibition
SeeSouthampton spent much of 2020 transforming Southampton’s fourteenth century Westgate into a temporary Mayflower museum. The Westgate was where the Mayflower and the Speedwell left Southampton in August 1620, bound for America.
Symphony 400: The Voyage and Big Sing: The Journey
The Mayflower year launched on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 March 2020 when Mayflower Theatre hosted 1,000 young performers, brought together by Southampton Music Hub. These two show-stopping performances saw young people at the heart of the start of a year of cultural programming for the city. Find out more about the show
A selection of songs from those musicals are available for you to learn at home thanks to Southampton Music Hub, in partnership with Mayflower Engage. Follow this link to find out more
All About Sea
Artist Deborah Goatley-Birch was invited to work on a project ‘All About Sea’ with children from Maytree Infant School.
90 children collaborated with the artist, to create this largescale painting. The work, which took inspiration from the sea and the Mayflower voyage, was displayed in Southampton City Art Gallery throughout the summer of 2020.
Exploring the work of painters synonymous with seascapes such as Turner and Maggi Hambling, pupils aged 5 – 6 years, learnt how to mix primary colours from powder paint. They practiced mark making on paper and then, in small groups, were able to work on the big canvas with Deborah’s direction. During this messy and exciting day, the children contributed to the colourful collaborative painting which will now go on permanent display at the school.
Navigating a New World – The Story of an International Print Exchange
Inspired by the Mayflower’s epic journey in 1620, two print studios, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, remembered the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower with an exciting international, cross-cultural print exchange project and exhibitions of contemporary printmaking. Artists from Cowprint of Red Hot Press, Southampton, in collaboration with Inky Hands Print Studio and Gallery of Plymouth, MA, planned to present an exhibition of prints at God’s House Tower titled ‘Navigating a New World’ in August 2020. Unfortunately, this was not possible – however there are now a selection of prints available from the Gods House Tower shop.
Mayflower FOLK – Southampton STORIES
Mayflower FOLK: Southampton STORIES took place in 2019, run by writers Nazneen Ahmed and Susmita Bhattacharya. They worked with Banister School Hounsdown School, Black Heritage Association and Women’s Integration Group, and Southampton City Libraries to explore Southampton’s contemporary and historical connections to the rest of the world as a city of journeys. As Susmita and Nazneen are of Indian and Bangladeshi origin, they used folk forms from South Asia, including Warli mural painting and naksi kantha embroidery, to enable participants to tell Southampton’s stories in new, imaginative ways.
The artists worked with 10 community groups and three schools/universities to create work. 14 of the embroideries feature in Southampton City Art Gallery’s open exhibition: In Search of a New World.
Hampshire in the Time of Mayflower
Explore this online exhibition, curated with items from the Hampshire Archives. It delves into Hampshire in the time of Mayflower, and an outline of the life of Hampshire’s Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins, illustrated with some examples of archives which can be used to shed light on the period.
One Man’s Mayflower
A one man performance that tells the story of the passengers that sailed onboard the Mayflower ship in 1620. By Martis Productions.
Watch Video
The Mayflower Monologues
Take a look at some of the key people who travelled on the Mayflower and explore their stories. By Martis Productions.
Watch Video
