‘LET THE FLOWERS SPEAK’
Over the weekend of 2-5 July Norham Arts Group, in collaboration with Norham in Bloom and Norham Natural Environment Group, put together a whole host of exhibitions and events celebrating all things floral.
In the village hall, there was an exciting exhibition of artwork by local artists.
This included a display devoted to the Victorian Botanical Artist Margaret Rebecca Dickinson, who was a Norham resident.
In Norham St Cuthbert’s Church, there was a beautiful exhibition of artwork by the children of Norham St Ceolwulf’s Church of England First School.
They had been out and about studying and collecting plant and flowers before creating their delightful paintings, prints, drawings and models.
'The art exhibition was excellent, a very high standard, as was the children’s exhibition in the church, well done.' A Norham resident
Also in the church was an entertaining talk by the broadcaster and Chair of Scotland’s Garden Scheme, David Mitchell. This was on the topic of the art, gardens and plants of the Impressionists and provided some fascinating insights into the language of flowers.
On Sunday afternoon,15 residents kindly opened their lovely gardens to the public. Along with plant and flower stalls, and delicious refreshments (which raised almost £400 for the new play equipment appeal), a bouquet of beautiful flowers was raffled.
This was won by Carol Smith. Congratulations Carol!
Planning for 'Let The Flowers Speak' began before the pandemic, so it has been a long and fairly tortuous journey. However, despite the weather taking a turn for the worse, people turned up and enjoyed themselves. That makes all the hard work worthwhile. Thank you to everyone who came and supported our efforts!
We had a fantastic team of volunteers who helped with setting up and taking down the exhibitions, organising the school visit, stewarding and generally helping to make our village look amazing. Our thanks to everyone who gave their time. It was a huge community effort and we couldn’t have done it without you!
Was it a success?
'Beautiful’ ‘wonderful’ ‘lovely’ and ‘great exhibition’ were repeated refrains in the Art Exhibition Visitors Book.
Other comments included: ‘An absolute delight. So thoughtfully put together and so unexpected to see such high quality work in this context. Norham is punching well above its weight. Thank you for an inspiring day.’
‘Really well put together. An informative display. Nice that the subject matter had links with Norham. I liked the paintings.’
‘Beautifully laid out and a delightful selection of paintings, cards and flowers. Thank you.
‘A wonderful display of artistic skills. The Village Hall makes a great gallery!’
‘Most enjoyable. Some fine art work. Loved the flower displays.’
‘Beautifully hung in your wonderful village hall. Lots of work to love here.’
‘So well displayed and set out.’
‘A lovely exhibition with beautiful posies amongst the display.’
‘A thoughtfully presented exhibition with some beautiful exhibits of different styles all showcasing the theme. Loved every painting!’
And from the artists themselves:
‘The exhibition organisation seemed very efficient and the paintings were well hung - I felt honoured to be with Keith’s lovely work.’
You’ve had a terrific response to your exhibition and talk. I think you may be setting the gold standard for other towns and villages to follow now!
It was a lovely exhibition and just reminds me how many good people there are around here who are painting away. A nice opportunity for some to be shown publicly.
The Talk by David Mitchell was very well attended. Many more tickets could have been sold had we not been under COVID restrictions. Our beautiful church looked heavenly thanks to exquisite arrangements of flowers from Ginger House Gardens. Thank you to the church flower arranging team.
The children’s visit to the exhibitions went very well. It is so good for children to see art at first hand and impressive to see such young children really looking and discussing art. They enjoyed visiting their own beautifully presented exhibition too. Thanks to the Head Teacher, staff and children of Norham St Ceolwulf's Church of England First School for participating in 'Let The Flowers Speak'.
What's next? Watch this space!