Action Women - the travelling exhibition

Yesterday, my good friend Diana sent me a leaflet advertising the travelling "Action Women" exhibition, currently on at the Newport Museum. I had heard of the exhibition of course, but hadn't really thought of going along, especially when at last year's National Council we were warned that it was small and, to be truthful, not really worthy of a special journey or day out. However, we had no plans for today, Saturday, and I felt interested enough to suggest we go along and take a look for ourselves and make up our own minds about it. Not only that, but I had a long-felt need to go and have a closer look at the Transporter Bridge!

Hmmm. What can I say? I realise, of course, that I am not a "typical member", being so closely involved in the organisation, so perhaps I'm not the best person to view the exhibition objectively. It was certainly very interesting to see exhibits and read information relating to events and activities of which I have only sketchy knowledge, but I found the exhibition as a whole to be rather lifeless. We'd arrived fairly early on a Saturday morning and appeared to be the only visitors in the whole museum - maybe a few more souls browsing would have enlivened our experience.

A series of these beautifully produced information banners, together with some interesting displays from the Gwent and Glamorgan Federations formed the basis of the exhibition and though we thought the whole thing was well put together, we could understand why some comments have been made.

I don't know what could have been done differently in such a travelling exhibition where the security of our real treasures just can't be risked. Perhaps having a couple of WI members around, able to explain and clarify things to visitors would have added a little life to the show? Surely it wouldn't have been too difficult to include a looped video or slideshow? All I can say is that, for me, the buzz and magic I feel when I see some of our archive material on show or read the stories of the early days simply wasn't there.

I don't want to discourage you from visiting the exhibition at all. Far from it. What didn't work for me might well fascinate you and anyway, I encourage you to see for yourself so that you can form your own opinion! Entry to the exhibition is free, there is a (admittedly, rather grim) multistorey car park adjacent to the Museum and some lively shopping nearby.

And just down the road, there is this fantastic piece of Edwardian engineering!