World Art Collections Exhibition
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Heritage Lottery Fund Grant
for the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
A major Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £316,000 has been awarded to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich, for a 3-year project working with rural schools and communities in Norfolk and Suffolk. The project, Culture of the Countryside, will raise people’s awareness of their local heritage, generate pride in the region’s cultural roots, and encourage a greater awareness of the heritage of other cultures.
“This project will see a host of historical objects and images from rurally based cultures across the globe touring through Norfolk and Suffolk, encouraging young people and community groups to delve into the stories, beliefs and meaning attached to them. It’s a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved to think about how our local heritage relates to cultures and customs from around the world through the ages”
– Robyn Llewellyn, Heritage Lottery Fund Manager in the East of England
The project will be centred on schools in the region and on their surrounding communities. It will use world art as a starting point, to explore both current environmental and heritage issues as well as helping to build community relationships. Young people will be encouraged to see their local heritage in new ways and the project will provide them with the skills to become community heritage advocates for the future.
“We are delighted to receive this generous Heritage Lottery Fund grant which will enable us to deliver Culture of the Countryside. This will be an extensive outreach project making links between global and local communities. We will fill a van with world art objects and creative projects, training participants in observation and research skills and using our resources both to open up a wider world and intensify relationships with local heritage ”
– Veronica Sekules, Head of Education and Research.
The Sainsbury Centre houses the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection of modern European art and world art. The Collection includes objects from across the globe spanning 5,000 years of human creativity. The Centre will use objects made by rurally-based cultures around the world as a starting point for the project. Veronica Sekules said, “the stories that can be associated with them are about the communities who made them, their ancestry, their beliefs, their relationship to the forces of nature and their skills.” As well as allowing people to explore links between their own and other cultures, the objects can be used to learn more about the history of different cultures and to discover the links between nature, culture and heritage. In this way connections can be made across generations and between local residents and recent immigrants, encouraging understanding of different perspectives and life experiences.
One aspect of Culture of the Countryside will be the local and international exchange of ideas using the internet. Participants including schools, families, communities, rural workers, artists and craftspeople will be able share ideas using web technology and will have the chance to assist in creating digital resources, focusing on rural cultural heritage as a stimulus to creativity. The Sainsbury Centre will also be seeking to form partnerships with other relevant organisations in the region to deliver parts of the project and develop complimentary materials.
“The Sainsbury Centre has an extremely experienced education team working with schools, families and local community groups both at the Centre and across the region. During 2005, when the Centre was closed for building work, the Education Team delivered a highly-acclaimed outreach project working with Norfolk and Suffolk schools. The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will allow us to appoint a project manager and the other skilled professionals needed to enable us to deliver this exciting 3-year project”
– Nichola Johnson, Director, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.
