Museum launch for Inspired by Lindisfarne
Inspired by Lindisfarne is on the move again!
The calligraphic tribute to the Lindisfarne Gospels has gone on display at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.
It’s the final stop-off for the collection of more than 20 artworks and over a dozen handmade books created by two of my weekly calligraphy groups.
The exhibition is the culmination of a three-month project launched in September last year, which was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
A successful £2,664 Project Grant bid enabled the groups to work with guest artists Yvette Ja and Carrie Dennison, on bookbinding and Celtic knotwork respectively.
It also funded travel and entry to the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery.
The Lindisfarne Gospels, the most spectacular surviving manuscript from Anglo-Saxon England, were written on Holy Island, Northumberland, in the early eighth century and are now part of the collection at the British Library.
The return of the iconic tome to the north east last year inspired the project.
Group members were encouraged to use what they had seen and learned to create their own individual response to the Lindisfarne Gospels, prompted by the question: What do you take as Gospel?
The exhibition features calligraphy, bookbinding, Celtic knotwork and illuminated lettering.
It was first shown at The Customs House in South Shields in January and February of this year before moving to 17 Nineteen (Holy Trinity Church) in Sunderland in March.
Geoff Woodward, museum manager, North and South Tyneside, for Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, said: “Through the monastery at Jarrow the borough played a significant role in the Anglo-Saxon golden age that produced the Lindisfarne Gospels.
“We’re delighted to be able to host this exhibition that presents a response by a very talented group of local people to this great artistic and cultural milestone.”
Inspired by Lindisfarne will be on display in The Stairwell Gallery at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery until September 30, 2023.
The groups will be working at the museum, in Ocean Road, South Shields, in support of the exhibition, on Thursday, June 15 and Friday, June 16, between 10am and noon.