Covid artwork exhibition opens at Jarrow Hall

Earlier this month communities gathered as South Tyneside Council revealed six permanent Covid memorials in: South Marine Park in South Shields; Fountains Park in Hebburn; West Park, Jarrow; Cornthwaite Park, Whitburn; Front Street, Cleadon, and Boldon Colliery.

As part of the project, the council commissioned The Cultural Spring to work with communities to create bespoke wording for each of the six memorials. Artists Lindsey Grieves and Claire Finlay worked with communities on behalf of The Cultural Spring to agree wording for the memorials, and then led creative artistic sessions in response to the pandemic.

Lindsey led workshops in Shields and Jarrow, while Claire worked with people in East Boldon, Cleadon, Boldon Colliery, Hebburn and Whitburn.

Some of the artwork created in Lindsey’s sessions is now on display at Jarrow Hall, while rainbows mosaics created during Claire’s sessions using ceramic hearts will soon be on display at venues throughout the borough.

Lindsey explained: “It was a really interesting and moving project. I worked with people of all ages in the classes and we started by talking about the impact Covid had had on their own lives, their communities and families.

“We looked at words they would use to describe their experiences, and I was impressed by how expressive the young people were in particular about describing what they’d been through.

“Themes included mental health, grieving, guilt, boredom and isolation.

“We condensed the list down so we eventually came up with the wording for the top of the memorials we were given to work on, and then chose the words for the centre of the stones too.

“Once we’d completed the words, we then moved on to the art workshop – the classes were basically the same people.

“We used the words the groups had come up with as themes for workshops in ceramics and art. We had people working on pieces aged eight to 94 – some had experiences in creating artwork, others had none, but I was incredibly impressed by what they produced and they should all be proud of the exhibition at Jarrow Hall.”

There are 45 piece of art in the exhibition, the majority created by individual artists, but other pieces created by groups.

Another exhibition at the Ocean Road Community Centre in South Shields has also opened, featuring artwork produced in youth groups led by Lindsey. Wording for the Shields Covid memorial, in Marine Park, partly reflects their reflections around lost connections, missing school and friends.

The project was a very personal one to Lindsey as she lost her mum during the pandemic: “We got her through her 80th birthday and her 60th wedding anniversary during Covid lockdowns, but then she caught an infection and because of restrictions we could only see her for half an hour a day – she died on Christmas Day, 2021.

“My dad came with me to the memorial unveiling in Jarrow and it was very emotional. So the project was something very personal to me, and it was lovely working in Jarrow which is where I’m from.”

Jarrow Hall is open Thursday to Sunday (10am to 4pm). For more information go to https://jarrowhall.com

The Cultural Spring was launched in 2014 and is funded by Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places project. It aims to increase participation in arts activity in Sunderland and South Tyneside, and its partners are University of Sunderland, the Customs House (South Shields), Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust, Sangini, Sunderland’s Young Asian Voices (YAV) and The Cultural Spring Charity.