Arts Articles
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Venice: a city marked by genius
Legend has it that saint Mark was once shipwrecked upon an island in the Venetian lagoon. An angel came to him saying: ‘Peace be with thee, O Mark, my evangelist’, whereupon the angel predicted that on this very spot would arise the most beautiful city the world would see. Cynics… -
Earth at the Royal Academy
By the time you read this, we shall know what deal, if any, was done at Copenhagen, and what part popular campaigning played in achieving it. But whether art works played any part in influencing either governmental or popular opinion, we may never know. A year ago, reviewing the year…
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Deborah Warner: an interview
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Hard Rain
We learn a lot about big environmental disasters but we may overlook the pollution we ourselves cause. Lights left on in empty rooms, car journeys that could have been cycle rides, heat pouring out of badly insulated homes, shopping taken home in single-use plastic bags. Our small acts of pollution…
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Festivals in poetry: Menorah
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Of truth, teacups and wineglasses
The first programme of his BBC television series on the history of Christianity (5 and 8 November) showed professor Diarmuid McCulloch pouring oil into a glass of water and a few minutes later adding red wine to water in another glass. He was presenting the difference between two fifth century…
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Child of Light
Anyone who was in Bull Street Meeting House, Birmingham on Saturday 24 October – and around forty of us were – had another musical treat from The Leaveners. A choir of some twenty-four people, all ages and backgrounds, had gathered at 10am that morning and worked hard with John Sheldon,…
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Gathering - an exhibition of painting and poetry in Lewes
The Hop Gallery in the East Sussex town of Lewes is an ideally light and airy exhibition space for ‘Gathering’, a collaborative venture where the work of three creative Quakers can be seen from 6 to 21 November. The exhibition has been staged by Ann Johnson and developed around twenty-five…
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Status QUO
Inspired by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (actually an octet) and their performance of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at the Proms last August, Forest Hill Friends in south London have formed their own Quaker Ukulele Orchestra, or QUO. The twelve beginning strummers have as their teacher the ‘beginner-in-chief’, Chris…
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Sheila Hancock inspires Friends during Quaker Week
Sheila Hancock does not mince her words. This much was clear from the moment she opened her mouth and told the capacity audience in the new Quaker Centre that she had a wet bottom from getting caught in the October rain. And this was not just an ice-breaker, although it…
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