by Grace Macrae, reporter

The UK’s only national festival of the humanities has been taking place across Kent for the past couple of weeks.The Being Human Festival is aimed at re-engaging the public with humanities.

The flight and refuge exhibition at Folkestone Museum is a part of the festival, displaying a presentation of photos, news articles and information is about the local Belgian refugee presence during World War One.

The presentation was curated by local students, drawing parallels with the modern immigration crisis, and how our response to refugees may have changed.
There presentation analyses a famous painting featured at the museum called “The landing of the Belgian refugees” painted in 1914.

Being human events coordinator and humanities professor Carolyn Oulton said:
“The picture was created after the event as a way of saying thank you to the people of Folkestone… We can look back and say, do you know what? Folkestone welcomed Belgian refugees and the sky didn’t fall on their heads”.

Museum manager Jennifer Bunchman said:
“The history of the WWI Belgian Refugees is an emotionally mixed story with moments highlighting the good nature and enormous generosity…Somehow, however this history has faded from memory. That is why it’s important to retell.”

Other parts of the Festival held here in Kent included a writing workshop at Canterbury prison, an immersive drama on the suffragettes in Folkestone and the history of dreamland.
The humanities festival draws to a close tomorrow and will return to Kent next year.