Artspace

The Artspace Group, a sub-committee of Chapter, continued to meet monthly throughout most of 2021 overseeing, and preparing various cultural activity. The Group made the decision in 2020 that they would work towards fewer exhibitions and more installations, working proactively with artists to deliver these making the best use of the space within the Cathedral.

Throughout 2021 our photographer in Residence, Kate Abbey, continued to meet people associated with the Cathedral in their homes and will exhibit her photographs in 2022.

For Refugee Week we hosted a simple and effective community installation on the State Gate Steps called, “We can never walk alone”.

In September we were pleased to host the Aire Valley Arts exhibition, “Unfolding” using both the Cathedral and Kala Sangam. This had been deferred from the previous year. We are very grateful to Martin Cosgrove for his involvement with Artspace over many years and for his curating of this exhibition prior to his retirement from the Artspace Group.

The highlight of the year was the very successful “Light Organ Installation”, part of the District-wide series of installations. In just two evenings more than 2,000 people visited. It is hoped to have more such installations in the future.

Another exhibition that had been deferred finally took place in the autumn - ‘Photographs from the Jewish Community’ by Nudrat Afza. This was much appreciated as we were able to organise the exhibition to coincide with the memorial service for Rudi Leavor.