Journeys – Teithiau

In 2018, Jonathan Cooke and friends held an exhibition Fire, Light and Shade at Ilkley’s iconic Manor House. Last year Jonathan was one of the invited exhibitors at the highly acclaimed Inspired by Burne Jones event at the Grange Gallery, Rottingdean, renewing friendships with other stained glass colleagues. These serendipitous connections were the background against which plans were conceived for a new exhibition in July 2020, in the Grade1 listed All Saints Church, Weston, in Wharfedale.

Journeys: to Wharfe from Thames and Tawe – Teithiau: I’r Wharfe o’r Tafwys a’r Tawe

By the time it became clear that CV19 was going to disrupt the project, some the artists had started work, developing their ideas and realising designs on the theme of “Journeys”: with the world almost at a standstill, the theme seemed more than ever to capture the imagination.

Some of the participating artists created here a virtual evolving gallery of work in progress, and there was a virtual vernissage of finished works in July 2020.

This, happily, generated further interest in the project, and as travel opens up again, a new Journey is beginning: from south east England, south Wales and Yorkshire the pieces have now gathered in the beautiful cathedral at Ely, where they hang in the triforium’s stained glass museum ready to come alive when conditions permit, hopefully in May. From East Anglia, they travel north in July to the ancient church of St Mary in the famous market town of Barnard Castle.