Patrick Comerford
Tucked away in a corner of the garden behind Erasmus Darwin in Lichfield, I noticed for the first time this week a sculpture by Hannah Golding that I had not noticed before.
The sculptor Peter Walker, who has worked closely with Lichfield Cathedral, made Lichfield City an artwork in its own right ten years ago, turning the streets into an art gallery and establishing Lichfield as ‘The City of Sculpture’ in 2014. This involved creating and developing a City Sculpture Trail, 52 weeks of art working with schools and community groups, creating three modern bronze statues, and creating and establishing sustainability for the arts in the area.
Hannah Golding from Rugeley is a self-employed visual artist now based in York. She has experience in facilitating community engagement alongside large-scale art projects and producing artwork in different mediums for galleries and private buyers. Her large-scale commissions have included installations, bespoke paintings and sculptures.
She studied at Staffordshire University (BA) and has been involved in running art workshops for adults and children, and has working with schools, colleges and museums. From 2016, she was the assistant artist to Peter Walker for the art installations in cathedrals, including Lichfield Cathedral, and helped to build the artwork and run the community engagement sessions.
Hannah was the first artist to turn the Edwardian Boat House at Stowe Pool into an art installation and studio in 2017. She led workshops at Lichfield Cathedral where she created willow and paper angel sculptures as part of the cathedral’s 10,000 angel installation for Peter Walker.
Hannah Golding’s ‘Nautilus’ has been in the Garden at Erasmus Darwin House for the past five years. It was funded by Swinfen Broun Trust and was unveiled on 13 April 2019 as part of a month-long exhibition exploring the development of the piece and all the art work created by the local community.
Hannah Golding based her work on the theme of Erasmus Darwin’s Lunar Legacy. Her sculpture was formed around Erasmus Darwin’s evolutionary motto, E Conchis Omnia (‘Everything from Shells’). Using the Nautilus shell as a symbol of expansion and efficiency, Hannah used metal cogs to form the body of the work to reflect the Lunar Society’s industrial achievements and represent the enlightened thinkers working together to drive improvements across society.
The project began in March 2018 when Erasmus Darwin House was awarded a grant for £25,050 by the Swinfen Broun Trust, facilitated through Lichfield District Council, to produce the sculpture and exhibition.
When the sculpture was being unveiled, Jenny Arthur, chair of Erasmus Darwin House, said it was ‘an amazing project for the Museum, it has fostered a real sense of community within the museum, with various groups visiting the museum to make artwork and find out about the achievements of local man Erasmus Darwin.’
The project encouraged the local community to get ‘hands on’ with various mediums, and enabled the museum to provide valuable work experience for students from the University of Birmingham. Hannah Golding worked with local groups such as Charnwood Children’s Centre, Together the Mental Health charity and the art students from the Lichfield Campus of South Staffordshire College.
Ruth Buttery of Erasmus Darwin House, who worked closely on the project, said at the time that it ‘revealed that the theme is still relevant to today’s society – working together to collaborate and design something new creates a unity within these groups and a sense that together they can achieve new things and feel like they can go on to develop more ideas for the future, which without participating in this project they would not have discovered.’
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