Lead Artist Alan Wright observes:

I proposed to run a workshop, in the Hastings Friends Meeting House, exploring the theme partly with colour exercises, (following silence and seeking/journeying through line), asking the questions such as what is the colour and quality of light of the soul, spirit and sanctuary for you? It was interesting to see how different the responses were; from very positive pure colour, to watery or muted light colours. Sanctuary was interpreted in different ways from an inward bounded protective space, to expansive as in Nature or Infinity.

As well as working individually, the participants worked collaboratively as a group in the last session, designing a theoretical window combining journeys and aspects of Sanctuary. This was both challenging and rewarding in helping to understand the dynamics of group work. How do we manage the tension between our inner processes to outer goal orientated aims and objectives?

The Retreat & Seeking Sanctuary:
(a longer piece of writing also about commission which I was working on at the time)

As a stained glass artist, & Quaker, I was approached by The Retreat in York which is a Quaker establishment for mental health problems. I was invited to design and make windows for a new meeting room for use by staff and patients as a room for meeting for worship and multi-faith room. The brief was to create a feeling supporting peace of mind and not to be “Churchy”.

I decided to do this by using colour rather than imagery associated with any particular faith tradition. In the process of thinking about this I tried to imagine colours which may correspond to aspects of the body, mind, soul and spirit. A thought occurred to me that it would be an interesting exercise to ask patients to respond to these questions and make a synthesis of the responses in a final design. It was not possible to do this in the time, hover two designs were put up to invite comments by staff and patients.

A design was chosen, and after deciding on choice of glass during a site visit, I started etching the outer panes of glass. In the meantime, an opportunity came up to facilitate a community art workshop in my home town of Hastings. The theme was “Seeking Sanctuary” and this spoke to me and chimed with concerns I had in the design process for The Retreat.

And so I proposed to run a workshop, in the meeting house, exploring the theme partly with colour exercises, (following seeking/journeying through line), asking the questions such as what is the colour and quality of light of the soul, spirit and sanctuary for you? It was interesting to see how different the responses were; from very positive pure colour, to watery or muted light colours. Sanctuary was interpreted in different ways from an inward bounded protective space, to expansive as in Nature or Infinity.

As well as working individually, the participants worked collaboratively as a group in the last session, designing a theoretical window combining journeys and aspects of Sanctuary. This was both challenging and rewarding in helping to understand the dynamics of group work. How do we manage the tension between our inner processes to outer goal orientated aims and objectives?

Coming back to the commission for The Retreat: as I was working on the last stages of kiln fired staining and enamelling at the same time as facilitating the workshop. The tension of working with the inner and outer became a metaphor, and the challenge was how to resolve this in order to create harmony.