The Watersheds exhibitions essentially served as a memorial to my grandad - he didn’t have a funeral as he donated his body to science. Not consciously at the time, but in hindsight that’s what they were and it was incredible to go through his photographs, slides, articles, maps, drawings and his poetry. I spent hours typing it up to send out to artists contributing to the exhibition, and read them all, selecting ones to create work from myself.

At the install, I met family I’d never seen before, and relatives from Australia flew over for the private view who I had not seen since I was a child - it really was amazing.

Here are my mum’s words for those who are unaware of the origins of the Watersheds exhibitions.

"‘The idea behind the Watersheds exhibitions began in 2019 after the death of my dad, Tom Bowker. We began to realise what a vast legacy of words and images he had left with us. What to do with these captivating poems?

Suffering a bout of creative block in 2023 I rashly booked the beautiful gallery at The Storey, Lancaster and planned to use his poetry to inspire me.

It soon dawned that filling this vast space was far beyond me and I called in family and friends to join in. Togher we created Watersheds: Mountains & Moments in Time and made it a great success and a fitting tribute to dad’s legacy.

Having said ‘never again’ here we are in 2024 with Watersheds II: Works about Words and we have invited more artists to join us.

A publication of dad’s poetry has been a truly cathartic and inspiring experience which, along with this exhibition, wraps his legacy in a way we can share with you all’