A photographic exhibition telling the remarkable stories of people who moved to and settled in Morecambe will be unveiled this week at a famous ice cream parlour.
'Destination Morecambe' will open at Brucciani coffee shop and ice cream parlour on Marine Road Central this week.
The exhibition by renowned photographer David Stewart will tell the tales of those who found ‘home’ in Morecambe; from the Spanish bullfighter-turned-tapas-bar owner, the Australian soprano seeking stardom and the Brucciani family themselves.
Subjects of the exhibition include Paolo Brucciani, who now runs the Brucciani cafe on Morecambe Promenade set up by his grandparents in the 1930s, alongside other members of the family.
Also featured is the man behind the West End's legendary Spanish tapas bar, Jose Luis Calvo.
Jose, now 83, is a former star bullfighter who moved to Morecambe in the early 1960s and runs Jose's Tapas Bar on Marine Road West. He is pictured below.
Also part of the exhibition is 89-year-old Maureen Elliot, a retired soprano singer from Sydney, Australia who lives in Morecambe.
Comedy icon of the mid-20th Century, Tommy Trinder, invited Maureen to join him in England to perform should she ever travel, so impressed was he by her singing talents. A four-week journey by ship began her adventure that hasn’t yet ended, first performing around the UK, including at Morecambe Winter Gardens, then settling into family life with her husband Byll and five children 10,000 miles from where she grew up.
Inma Elliot, Maureen's daughter-in-law, is also part of the exhibition. She was a translator from Madrid who moved to Morecambe after meeting her husband, Alasdair, while touring in the company of Holiday On Ice (see below). The Elliot family are also known locally for running the successful business Water Sculptures, famed for providing water effects for stage shows and events all over the world.
Pete Moser, known locally as the founder of More Music and one-man band extraordinaire, is also included in the exhibition, as a Londoner who settled in the town.
Also part of 'Destination Morecambe' are Michel Gueyrard, a writer from Toulouse, Olesya Krijenovskaya, a clinical support worker from Uzbekistan, Neil Pickup, a retired energy professional who was born in Lancaster and then lived in Somaliland, Aden and Hong Kong as a child, Gina Thistlethwaite, who returned to her home town of Morecambe after living in Nashville, Tennessee, Nelli Watmough and her daughter Karina Velichko from South Russia, who run Keegan’s café in the Poulton area of Morecambe, Wren and Stanley Rawcliffe Kemp, from London, and Nicola Garrett, a massage therapist from Liverpool.
The photos will hang on the walls of Brucciani's throughout the summer.
See the project video here:
The project has been commissioned and curated by Morecambe arts producers, Deco Publique, in partnership with White Elephant Contemporary.
“I have called this area home all my life and have always been aware, being of Polish descent, of the presence of people who have come into and enriched our communities," said Lauren Zawadzki, director of Deco Publique and Destination Morecambe curator.
"Not least the Brucciani family and the café that has been a feature of families’ lives here for generations. It’s not easy to leave the place you have grown up and each of the stories told in and beside these photographs show as much risk and sacrifice as they do joy and the happy-ever-afters. It's been a pleasure and an honour to meet and work with the participants who have shared their journeys with us."
The photo below by Ginny Koppenhol shows photographer David Stewart at work in Brucciani's.
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