‘Left Behind: Capturing the Moor Hospital’ is an exhibition by Nick Dagger Photography at Lancaster City Museum. It showcases Lancaster’s abandoned 19th Century psychiatric hospital, the first asylum in Lancashire. This project sets the scene of what was left behind after closing its doors in 2000 and before the complex was given a new lease of life and redeveloped as luxury homes in 2013.
The exhibition will run from Friday 2nd December 2016 to Sunday 19th February 2017. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm and entry is free. Lancaster Arts City’s event ‘First Fridays‘ will be hosting an exclusive lunchtime preview from noon on Friday 2nd December, with a special Meet the Artist session and a unique photographic workshop from 12.30-1.30pm.
Natalie Mullen, a PHd student at Lancaster University is also hosting a talk entitled ‘Coping with Confinement: Patient Experience in Lancashire County Asylum‘ at the exhibition on Friday 9th December from 1 – 2pm.
Alongside the haunting and powerful images, the exhibition will also display historical artifacts from the Moor Hospital, a collection provided by Lancashire County Council. The Council’s cabinet member for environment, planning and cultural services, County Councillor Marcus Johnstone said: “I’m sure these photographs will be very evocative for Lancaster residents who remember this landmark building.
“The site has now been given a new lease of life, and so this exhibition provides a great opportunity to take a look at some very poignant images to discover some of the history of the building by what remained. I’m sure that the uniqueness and atmosphere of the building will be sensed from the photographs.”
Nick Dagger said, “As a Lancastrian born and bred, it is such an honour to be working with Lancaster City Museum on this project and to have the opportunity to display this exhibition in the heart of my home city. The Moor Hospital is an iconic building in our city of heritage and for as long as I can remember I have always wondered what lay within.”
“With the support of The Chamber North Lancashire, Lancaster Arts City, The Bay and Lancaster BID, the aim of this exhibition is to invite the curious Lancaster public and its visitors in to the city to look behind the curtains of this once secretive and intriguing building.”
Explore the Moor Hospital for the first time at Lancaster City Museum and let the images take you on a journey of discovery into the history of what was left behind.
For more information on this exhibition and see other work by Nick Dagger Photography, visit www.nickdaggerphotography.com/events