St. John the Baptist Church in Clowne were awarded a Tesco Bags of Help grant and as a result, have been able to begin an exciting new community project. Vicar Bryony Taylor approached Junction Arts with a request for support with their application and we’re now working with Bryony and the community to realise their ideas.

The proposal is to design and make a large mosaic panel to stand in front of the alter in the Miner’s Chapel, which lies within the main body of the church and hasn’t been used for many years. Most residents of Clowne have a connection with mining and Bryony wanted to involve as many local people as possible in the refurbishment of the space and make it a fitting memorial to those who worked in local collieries and who lost their lives in mining disasters.

We engaged Sheffield based mosaic artist Coralie Turpin to lead the project and work with us to develop a design celebrating the local mining heritage. Coralie has also taught everyone some basic mosaic skills to enable the participants to bring the work to completion.
The finished mosaic will be revealed at the St. John the Baptist Patronal Festival in June.

Throughout the delivery of the workshops we have been supporting local photographer Sophie Marples. Sophie is currently studying photography at Chesterfield College and has been engaged to document the project for us. This is a valuable opportunity for Sophie to get genuine experience working on a professional project. She will be credited for her work, as well as getting increased exposure for her photography. You can see more of Sophie’s work by following this link to her website.