View BBC Sheffield radio and tv page for St Luke

Following interviews on 29th October, BBC Sheffield and South Yorkshire did a great page of presentation of the windows.

Press release and photocall

THE ART HOUSE / ST. LUKE’S CHURCH GRIMETHORPE

PRESS RELEASE AND PHOTOCALL on 29 October, 2009

GRIMETHORPE MUM IS MADONNA IN NEW WINDOWS

Members of the congregation of St. Luke’s Church, Grimethorpe, have been immortalised in new windows created by glass artist Nathalie Liege.

Sarah Crawshaw and her son, Lee, are featured as St. Mary and the baby Jesus, while the Vicar, Father Peter Needham, Nathalie and congregation members Audrey Bailey and Peter Squires also feature in the windows.

The idea for the windows grew out of a project instigated in 2003 by The Art House, a visual arts organisation based in Wakefield.  Glass artist Nathalie Liege, who lives in Shrewsbury, won a commission to work with the congregation at St. Luke’s to develop ideas for the refurbishment of the Church.  In a series of workshops Nathalie photographed members of the congregation in a variety of poses and later developed the design for the two Lady Chapel windows from these photographs.

It took a further three years for Father Peter to raise the money to fund the production of the windows, with much of the £47,000 budget coming from an Arts Council England Awards for All grant.  Further fundraising was undertaken by the Mothers’ Union and a grant from the Co-operative Community Fund went towards associated workshops with children at two Grimethorpe schools: Milefield and Willowgarth.

The windows are not made of traditional lead and glass stained glass but use a series of ground-breaking new methods.

Firstly Nathalie worked in clay, using the photographs as reference, and created the iconic image of the Madonna and Child in low relief.  The clay image is then used to make a rubber mould which, in turn, is used to cast the glass for the windows.

The second method involved Nathalie working with David Huson of the University of the West of England in Bristol, an expert in digital fabrication.  The figures on either side of the cross are created using moulds formed directly from Nathalie’s photographs utilising software designed to produce high definition reliefs by controlling a high-tech milling machine.  The glass used for the panels can be selected and mixed from a range of colours.

Finally, the photographic images were made using a process from Norway.   The photographs are made into coloured transfers, which are made in a special Xerox system in four colours.  The transfers are placed between layers of glass and fired.  Nathalie worked with glass craftsman Detlef Tanz, based in Germany, researching methods to create depth and 3-dimensional effect.  In the melting process the transfers are fused to the glass and become part of it, giving photographs in glass.

continued ….

St. Luke’s Windows … 2

Having worked with experts nationally and internationally to apply these processes to her artwork, Nathalie believes that the windows are unique in the UK in using these cutting-edge and innovative processes all together.

Nathalie was thrilled to be able to produce windows showing the Virgin Mary, “The windows are for the Virgin Mary, which makes the windows really special for an artist working in the 21st century.  Most churches already have their window for the Virgin Mary and as architectural glass artists we are once in a life time asked to work with such a subject.”

The commissioning of innovative and high-quality artwork underlies Father Peter’s approach to the continuing refurbishment of St. Luke’s.

“I want to bring the best of things to people in Grimethorpe” explains Father Peter.  “It is important that people in Grimethorpe understand that they are as deserving of good things as anyone else.”

“St Luke’s Parish Church is in the very centre of the village and was built in 1904 ‘by the miners, for the miners’.  With the decline of the coal industry, and the final closure of the pit, coking plant and power station in 1993, the church, like the rest of the village experienced deep degeneration.  By 2001, the church community came to a decision to demolish the parish church.  In 2002, this decision was reversed with vigour, with the view that the parish church was, and is, the spiritual heart of the Grimethorpe community, holding those spiritual and divine attributes of quality, worth and value, which are not just found in a church building, but in every human soul. The re-ordering and saving of St Luke’s was therefore vital in presenting to all the people of the community something that all could be proud of.”

Father Peter explains: “The Liege windows offer to the whole community a work of art that people can have pride in. They are not the average Church glass windows, rather images you can continue to look in and through, and constantly find something new. The fact that the images in the windows are based on members of the Grimethorpe community who were involved in their development, at the start, means that this work of art is truly alive, inspired by the people, for the people – the People of God.”

“This has been a brilliant project from start to finish” said Liz Whitehouse, Director of The Art House, who managed the project on behalf of St. Luke’s. “This project worked so closely with the congregation that they are actually featured in the artwork.  The workshops with the two schools, conducted by artist Alison Brearley, also involved children from Grimethorpe and they produced their own ideas for windows, made in clay tiles, and these are also on show in the Church alongside Nathalie’s stunning new windows.”

Karen Durham, Resource Development Officer, Arts Council England, Yorkshire, said “We are really excited that our lottery funding is supporting  artistic activities in Grimethorpe, enriching the lives of the people who live there and giving them a sense of pride in their community. This high quality and

continued…

St. Luke’s Windows … 3

innovative new artwork in St Luke’s Church represents a new approach to the creation of architectural glass, which will be enjoyed by the community for years to come.”

Photo Opportunity

On Thursday, 29 October, between 11 a.m. and 12.30 p.m., the artist Nathalie Liege and people featured in the windows will be available for photographs/interview at St. Luke’s Church, Grimethorpe.

For further information please contact:

Father Peter Needham, Vicar of St. Luke’s Church, Grimethorpe on

01226 717561

Or

Liz Whitehouse, Director, The Art House on 01924 377740 / 0790 3821791

Email: lizwhitehouse@the-arthouse.org.uk

See more of Nathalie Liege’s work at http://saintlukesmary.wordpress.com

talk Thursday 29th October 2009

I will be speaking about creating St Luke’s Church architectural glass artwork for the Chapel of The Virgin Mary , from concept to completion.

Join us at 6pm at The Art House, Drury Lane, Wakefield, WF1 2TE

info@the-arthouse.org.uk