The Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange is an artist-led initiative founded in 2012 by John Yeadon from Coventry and his Dresden counterpart Jean Kirsten with the aim of developing dialogue and communication between artists from our two cities. Since then there have collaborative partnerships, exhibitions, educational projects and forums. The partnership was very much strengthened by the Artists… Continue reading Arts Exchange: the close link with Dresden

During World War II, Oradour-Sur-Glane lay in the German-occupied zone of France. On June 10, 1944, troops of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division massacred nearly the entire village of 642 people.. It ws not clear if this was a reprisal for activity by the French resistance or simply barabrity for the sake of barbarity. Immediately following… Continue reading Remembering Oradour

The blogs that follow are snippets from our visit to Dresden to develop links with partners and to take part in events to commemorate the destruction of Dresden 13- 15 Febrauary 1945. (Please note that the visit was completely self-funded by members of CAIF)

From 9-18 February 2024 a consortium of Dresden cultural institutions (Weltoffenes Dresden or WOD) have put on a joint ‘banner art project’ – these are public displays of art dotted around the city centre. The initiative is in remembrance of the destruction of Dresden (13-15 February 1945) in the second world war, and falls under… Continue reading ‘Tomorrow and the day after’

13 February is the date on which Dresdners commemorate the destruction of their city in air raids carried out in 1945 at the tail end of the second world war. [1] The day is marked publicly in several events : the ringing of church bells, special concerts and no doubt through private reflection too. An important… Continue reading The Power of Silence

One of the more unusual places to stay in Dresden is on the boat hotel Poppelmann. The boat took to the water in October 1963 and was used for day trips from Dresden, sailing, well chugging, up and down the River Elbe. The boat was first named the Karl Marx and was one of four… Continue reading Schiffsherberge Pöpelmann: A niche place to stay

arkrun is a free 5 kilometre timed event to encourage us to do a bit of running. In UK it has  become a bit of a phenomenon and there are over 1,000 events around the country every Saturday. It is estimated that that over 3 million people have done a park run at some time or… Continue reading Parkrun in Dresden and Coventry

What is Lidice? A village that was destroyed by the Nazi in what was then Czechoslovakia during the second world war.  This was in retaliation of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by British-trained Czech resistance fighters. On 10 June 1942 Nazi soldiers entered Lidice and executed all 17 men – males over 15 - while 307… Continue reading Visiting Lidice