Keep The Flame Burning Launches at the WCML

On Thursday 17 July, we were excited to launch our brand new exhibition, ‘Keep The Flame Burning’. This exhibition, part of our ‘Big Flame: Inspiring Community Organising Then and Now’ project, has been co-curated by eleven wonderful working class people aged 16-25, who in the course of the project have dubbed themselves the Little Flames – an homage to the OG Big Flame. 🔥

The exhibition explores Big Flame’s history as an organisation and focuses on key areas of struggle and particular campaigns they aligned themselves with. Featuring a dynamic range of material organised into four key themes, segmented by key ‘spotlights’, the exhibition shows the resounding impact that Big Flame had on their contemporaries and gives us a clear idea of how their message is relevant today.

You can also listen to memories from 13 members of Big Flame, who were graciously interviewed by the Little Flames and WCML team for our oral history programme.

The launch night featured performances from poets Gabriel Oyediwura (Griot Gabriel), and Seni Seneviratne. We also had speeches from the WCML team, Project Coordinator Amie, and the Little Flames themselves.

Jack Clarke, a creative from Kersal and one of the Little Flames, took some lovely snaps of the launch night – check them out!

The exhibition continues until Friday 10 April 2026 and will be supplemented with an events programme, which kicked off on Saturday 26 July with a Little Flames-led ‘scanathon’.

A huge thanks to everybody that joined us for the launch, and to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for funding the Big Flame project.