As part of a year-long celebration throughout 2020 to mark 1300 years since the death of St Wulfram, Grantham’s iconic church is running a range of special projects and events for the people of Grantham and beyond. The first event, which will launch Wulfram 2020, takes place on Friday 20 March when Jean-Charles Nault, Abbot of Wandrille in France, will bring the relics of Wulfram himself to Grantham for a special procession from the Guildhall to the Church.
Then on the evening of Saturday 4 April, the church will host a very special live art event that will open an exhibition that will remain in place for two weeks either side of Easter.
The event and the subsequent exhibition will be the culmination of an ambitious community project that is taking place throughout March with four different schools & community groups across Grantham, each of which will be working with local artists Anne-Marie Kerr, Emma Chippendale and Claire Carrington. Each group has been given a word by Father Stuart Cradduck, the Rector of St Wulfram’s, which are all inspired by both the story of St Wulfram and the ‘Stations of the Cross’, a series of images often used by Christian churches that depict Jesus during his journey to the crucifixion.
Father Stuart commented “The last journey of Jesus on the way to his crucifixion is a horrific and yet tender experience in which we see all the emotions humanity can experience. Jesus like us in our own lives experienced the five keys words we will be exploring through art; betrayal, suffering, vulnerability, courage and hope. Wulfram would have certainly experienced these emotions and it is our hope that through experiencing these ‘stations’ that we may learn about each other and how our own experiences connect with others. I am truly delighted that we are kicking off this year when we mark the 1300th anniversary of the death of Wulfram in a way which is engaging, challenging and creative”
The project is being produced by Creative Producers Simon Hollingworth & Emilie Nunn, who are very excited that in addition to all of the creative work that is being made locally for the project and the exhibition, the project has also secured the involvement of the international Islamic street artist Mohammed Ali and award winning composer & performer Cleveland Watkiss.
“Mohammed came to Grantham a year ago as part of the Bridge project launch and he loved working inside St Wulfram’s Church and got on really well with Father Stuart. Although we had already been talking about a project along these lines as part of Wulfram 2020, this specific project emerged directly from that event and Mohammed is really excited to be coming back to Grantham to create work inspired by the story of Wulfram and the Stations of the Cross, live in front of a local audience. Mohammed and Cleveland are big names in their fields and we are absolutely thrilled that they will be coming to Grantham to work alongside our community groups and to complete and open the exhibition in this way” said Simon.
The project has been made possible thanks to creative & community funding that St Wulfram’s Church has secured from both Arts Council England and the SK Community Fund and the organisers would like to thank both ACE and SKDC for their support.
More details about the exhibition and the live art launch event on the evening of Saturday 4 April (which will be free and open to all) will be released soon.
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