What is a hero? A group of local young people used street art to explore this theme and create commemorative medals.

The Community Room at York Castle Museum is a space for local and regional groups to display historical projects related to our own exhibition, 1914: When the World Changed Forever.

Previous topics have included female war poets, Yorkshire Conscientious Objectors, the Scarborough Bombardment, and commemorative textiles.

The latest exhibition is called ‘ID Project’, a collaborative venture between the City of York Council Youth Offending Team (YOT) and York Minster. M Faye Prior, Collections Facilitator of History at York Castle Museum, helped curate the display:

‘The young people went on a course with professional artists, learning stencilling and painting skills, and – along with a professional artist who made the roses on each medal – they produced six eight-feet-tall medals in total. We have four of these medals on display in the Community Room.’

York YOT help young people who are involved in offending behaviour to recognise, understand and change their actions and perspective with the support of professionals.

In 2014, they worked with the York Minster’s community outreach programme to offer a 10-week art course for young offenders.

To coincide with the First World War centenary, the budding artists took inspiration from the King’s Book of Heroes; a document containing the names of the York citizens who lost their lives during the First World War, which is kept at York Minster.

The group worked with street artists Joy Gilleard (CBloxx) and Jonny Packham (Jaypee) to create the six commemorative medals, earning themselves Bronze Level Arts Awards through the Koestler Trust’s programme Fast Feedback.

The exhibition opened on 1 September 2015 and will be available to visit until 1 November 2015.

Entry is included in the price of museum admission and there is no need to book.