Festival takes moth-ematic approach to promote engineering

Workmen installing one of the decorated moths.

ENGINEERING heavyweights including Siemens, Spencer Group and BAE Systems are all playing a part in the soaraway success of a festival which celebrates the achievements of Amy Johnson – and which uses her exploits to promote careers in industry.

Backing for the Amy Johnson Festival has also come from the world of education including the University of Hull and Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA) as well as from businesses which see the event as a chance to promote Hull as a place to live and work.

The Festival, which opened in Hull over the weekend and will run until late August, features a packed programme of art, culture and entertainment in keeping with the standards set in 2010 by the spectacular Larkin with Toads.

Many of the people behind the toads project – which generated around £1-million for Hull’s economy – are also involved in the new venture, but Festival Director Rick Welton said the motivation this time had a different edge.

He said: “People in business have said how much toads opened their eyes to what cultural regeneration is all about and the effect that good art can have on the business attributes of the city. It’s all about making Hull a vibrant and attractive place for businesses to invest.

“But businesses have primarily become involved as big sponsors of the Amy Johnson Festival because of the importance of getting young people involved with engineering as a career and that in turn is because of the future of this city at the heart of green energy in Europe.

“Amy Johnson is the perfect role model. A young woman from an ordinary background who went out there and was gripped by the engineering and aviation bug. We want to try and use her to inspire young people.

“There is a difference in the UK about our attitude to vocational training as opposed to the academic route and someone like Amy can help people to realise that engineering is imaginative and inventive.”

Businesses have supported the Festival in many ways ranging from sponsoring brightly coloured moths which decorate buildings around the city to providing funding and expertise for exhibitions such as Da Vinci Engineered – a display of 12 pieces from the Niccolai Collection at the Da Vinci Museum in Florence now housed in a 4,500 square-foot marquee which is the largest pop-up gallery in Britain.

Rick added: “We think of Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and we forget about his skills and his amazing prescience as an engineer. Flight has always been a spur for creativity and engineering is key to so much of what an artist does.”

Prof Stephanie Haywood of the School of Engineering at the University of Hull added: “Engineering is about creating practical solutions to everyday problems. It is underpinned by science and maths but also needs art and design.

“With young people often asked to choose between the arts or the sciences the Da Vinci Engineered exhibition shows we should embrace many different approaches to learning.”

Rick Welton, Festival Director of the Amy Johnson Festival, outside the main exhibition marquee.