FURD
FURD celebrated the completion of its Arthur Wharton Heritage Project on 28th November 2013 with an event showcasing a pack of new learning resources produced as part of the project.
The two-year Heritage Lottery Funded project set out to raise awareness of the story of Victorian sportsman Arthur Wharton, the first black professional footballer and world record holding sprinter, and to highlight the relevance of his story today.
Guests at the launch included six Yorkshire descendants of Arthur, young people who have been involved in the project, teachers, researchers and representatives of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Professional Footballers Association, which also made a donation towards the project. Also present was Sheffield United and England Under-21 international Harry Maguire, one of the new young Next 20 ambassadors recruited by the Kick It Out campaign against racism in football.
The event included performances by Newfield School flash mob poets and Rotherham Young Writers showcasing their Wharton-inspired poems, as well as a guide through the online resources and the first chance to see the new Arthur Wharton Story exhibition.
The new resources will all be accessible on a new website, www.arthurwharton.info; see the link at the bottom of this page. Some of them will also be available as hard copies. The pack has been designed so there is something for everyone, from primary school pupils to post-graduate researchers.
The resources are free to use, although donations to keep the resources work at FURD going are encouraged through the site or the Just Giving link at the bottom of this page. Some final tweaking is currently being made to the site which will be live early in the New Year. Watch this space!
The pack includes:
A 12-panel A1 size exhibition - Arthur Wharton:1865 to 1930, the World's First Professional Footballer - now available for hire.
A 16 page comic - Arthur Wharton, Victorian Sporting Superstar - to be published in January 2014 - will be available in print as well as online.
Lesson plans in the form of Powerpoint presentations.
A 30 minute documentary film, The Arthur Wharton Story
A 40 page A5 booklet to accompany the exhibition, including poetry inspired by Arthur, written by young people in South Yorkshire.
All resources will be available from the Arthur Wharton website, containing different layers of information, more film clips and creative material produced by young people during the Heritage Project.