Wells Community Day
Come and join us for a day of entertainment and information and see how you can get involved.
CHAT 18 Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
Art critic and writer, James Russell, introduces the first full-length feature documentary film on Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), one of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, who was killed in a plane crash while on commission as Official War Artist in 1942.
CHAT 17 Earthly Delights - Jonathan Jones on the Renaissance
A stirring exploration of the Renaissance by the art critic of The Guardian
The eminent Guardian art critic explores the history of the Renaissance as a network of connections across Europe. Here artists from the north and south were products of the brilliantly fertile mix of classical inspiration, observation, and self-consciousness that set European culture alight from the fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. From Leonardo da Vinci to Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel to Titian, this stirring narrative sets the lives of artists against a period of great change across the continent.
CHAT 16 Doug Allan - An Eye Below Zero
An Eye Below Zero is a presentation by award winning cameraman Doug Allan about how artistic creativity mixes with science to produce those big television series that excite everyone who loves wildness and the animals that live there. How do you approach polar bears without being eaten? Or make sure you don't lose that important dive hole when you’re filming seals under the ice? Can you really talk to whales and are they interested anyway? What freezes first at minus 35 degrees – your eyeballs or your shutter button? Climate change is affecting both poles - is there still time to turn the tide? Can we all become better caretakers of our environment?
CHAT 15 - Olivia Fraser: A Journey Within – an artistic journey with stunning works of meditative calm and beauty
Contemporary artist Olivia Fraser moved to India in 1989. Initially she was a travel painter before apprenticing herself to miniature and pichwai artists from Jaipur. There she learnt the language of a fabulously rich, rigorous and intricate painting tradition on which she has drawn deeply. Combined with her great interest in yoga and meditation, Olivia has produced profound works – paintings that could be considered spiritual road maps to reflect a journey within.
The Lotus, a defining motif, brings alive worlds of sensation in her paintings. She was encouraged to become an artist by her great aunt, the renowned British Surrealist, Eileen Agar (1899-1991).
Olivia will also be signing copies of her book A Journey Within after the talk. Cash or cheque only.
Gormley Schools Project
Throughout May half term, the children’s ceramic figures will be installed in various locations around Wells Cathedral. Some will be easy to see; others will be hidden or less conspicuous, so will need to be searched for.
Silent Echoes: Notre Dame
American artist Bill Fontana is known internationally for his pioneering experiments in sound art. His assumption is that in any given moment there will be something meaningful to hear. The terrible fire that gutted Notre Dame in April 2019, left the bells of Notre Dame astonishingly undamaged, and they seemed to wait silently, listening to the sounds of Paris. In a continuous live stream Bill Fontana captured what he called the 'secret ringing’ of ’the heart of Notre Dame’.
We are therefore very excited that the international art installation ’Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame’ will be coming to Wells in May. The sound sculpture will be installed in the Undercroft until July.
CHAT 10
CHAT 10 - Curator of the Ingram Collection and writer Jo Baring in conversation with sculptor Olivia Bax
Light Up Wells Lantern Parade 2022
Join us for our annual lantern parade and light up the skies of medieval Wells. This year the parade will start under Luke Jerram’s Gaia in Wells Cathedral.
Could you use a little extra support from the Wells Coronavirus Network?
The Network was established back in the first lockdown in 2020 and has been busily providing support for the residents of Wells and the surrounding areas in everything from collecting and delivering groceries and prescriptions to providing a friendly listening ear on the phone.
And, of course, if you’re able to volunteer to become a part of the support network, we’d also love to hear from you.
Get in touch with the Wells Coronavirus Network to find out more.