21st Century Street Culture meets 8th Century Legacy
Exactly a year ago St Wulfram’s Church in Grantham was gearing up for the Wulfram2020 celebrations to mark 1300 years since the death of St Wulfram and approximately 900 years since the building of the church commenced.
All kinds of exciting, dramatic and significant activities and events had been planned for the year, but then – as we all know only too well – we were all thrown into a global pandemic and events, projects and festivals across Grantham, South Kesteven and the UK and indeed the whole world were either postponed or completely cancelled.
One of the very first events that was going to be staged as part of Wulfram2020, originally over Easter 2020, was an extraordinary exhibition, featuring artwork created by local community groups and schools working with local professional artists, alongside a special live art performance by an international Islamic street artist and an award-winning jazz musician.
St Wulfram’s is very excited to announce that this project, now called THE SAME BOAT and funded by Arts Council England and South Kesteven District Council, is finally going ahead and will be running from the end of March until the end of April.
CONCEPT & IDEA
Inspired by the incredible story of St Wulfram himself (who is Patron Saint of the Dangers of the Sea) and also by the Christian ritual of the Stations of the Cross, THE SAME BOAT is a special exhibition for Easter 2021, that will also acknowledge the extraordinary collective experience we have all been through in the last 12 months. Encouraging us all to consider a wider perspective on these events, the project will also feature an Islamic artist creating artwork live inside the church.
The exhibition itself will consist of four initial art installations, created by participants from Barrowby Primary School, Bluecoat Meres Junior School, Day Break adult social care group and Grantham College Visual Arts Dept who have worked with local artists Anne-Marie Kerr, Claire Carrington & Emma Chippendale. Each group has focused on one of the project words that were chosen by Father Stuart Cradduck, Rector of Grantham and were all inspired by the Stations of the Cross, a series of images often used by Christian churches that depict Jesus during his journey to the crucifixion. The words that were chosen to be the inspiration for the art installations are:
Betrayal, Suffering, Vulnerability, Hope & Courage.
A fifth and final installation will be created ‘live’ by internationally renowned Islamic street artist Mohammed Ali with music provided bythe award-winning composer & musician Cleveland Watkiss with selected members of the St Wulfram’s Teenage Choir. This event obviously won’t be open to the public due to current Covid19 restrictions, but will be filmed and streamed as a short live presentation on Saturday 27 March. The film will then be available to view and share on social media and also via the St Wulfram’s website.
During Holy Week and Easter itself, the exhibition will be on display in the church for those attending services or for private prayer and then from Monday 12 April (if the Government roadmap timetable doesn’t change) until the end of April, local people will be able to come and see it when the church will be open for longer hours, though still with Covid restrictions in place.
Father Stuart commented “St Wulfram’s is so proud to be hosting this amazing exhibition and so thrilled that it has involved many people from across Grantham. We are also very excited to be welcoming the internationally renowned artist Mohammed Ali to the church to add an even wider interpretation to the project themes of betrayal, suffering, vulnerability, hope and courage. The story of St Wulfram is not well-known but is an extraordinary one and Wulfram, like Jesus himself, would most certainly have experienced these five powerful human emotions.
In many ways these emotions have been part of our own lives too over this past very difficult year and we hope that by experiencing our exhibition and short film, people will learn something about each other and how our own experiences connect with others. I am truly delighted that we are finally able to commemorate the anniversary of St Wulfram in this unique and moving exhibition that will help us all look forward to the future.”
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 for the exhibition by local communities, the project has also secured the involvement of two international artists with world-class reputations.
“Mohammed first came to Grantham two years ago as part of the Bridge project launch and he loved working inside St Wulfram’s Church. Although it was a great shame that the project couldn’t take place last year, we are thrilled that we are now able to go ahead – and because we are now creating a mini film rather than staging an event, we hope very much that even more people will be able to see the exhibition and experience the project. Mohammed and Cleveland are big names in their fields and we are absolutely delighted that they will be coming to Grantham to complete the project in this way” added Simon.
Mohammed, who is based in Birmingham and creates art works for communities across the world, is delighted to be creating his latest piece inside Grantham’s main church. Commenting on the project and some of the reflections it will now also be drawing in light of all our experiences of the pandemic, Mohammed asks: “Are we all in the same boat? At first Covid was presented to us as a storm that we all had to shelter from; as a great equaliser. We are certainly all in the same storm, but not necessarily in the same boat. I want to draw on parallels between the story of St Wulfram from hundreds of years ago and our current troubled reality. Expect dynamic spray-painted images with gritty vocal-soundscapes presented within the confines of St Wulfram’s spiritual home.”
The project has been made possible thanks to creative & community funding that St Wulfram’s Church has secured from both Arts Council England and South Kesteven District Council and the organisers would like to thank both ACE and SKDC for their support.
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