Fleeting Moments exhibition to go on display.
People all across the region have come together to help John Taylor Hospice celebrate its 110th anniversary with an exhibition which will be on public display during December.
People of all ages and backgrounds have spent the spring and summer creating fabric birds which will be brought together in the Fleeting Moments exhibition.
Created by Birmingham artists Jane Thakoordin (pictured) and Margaret Murray, Fleeting Moments will be displayed in the windows of the charity’s shops in Erdington and Castle Bromwich.
The project was launched in the spring and initially featured workshops where people could come together to create the birds with the artists. But when lockdown hit, the workshops had to be suspended.
However John Taylor put a call out across the city and beyond, sharing templates and a ‘how to’ film to encourage people to sew their own birds during lockdown. As a result, the hospice received birds in a huge range of designs and colours from all across the region.
John Taylor Hospice Head of Brand and Media Diane Parkes said: “We were worried that cancelling the workshops would be a problem but in fact it meant that more people could be involved as anyone could create a bird in their own homes and in their own time.
“Over the summer we received not just lots of beautifully hand-crafted birds but also some lovely letters telling us how making the birds had kept people occupied with something fun to do while they were unable to go out and socialise.”
Fleeting Moments forms part of the hospice’s 110th anniversary celebrations during 2020. Other events have included a poetry competition for children and a new history section on the hospice website. It will be installed at the John Taylor Hospice Charity Shop at 121 High Street, Erdington from 7th-21st December and will then move to the John Taylor Hospice Charity Shop at Castle Bromwich Shopping Centre, 1-3 Timberley Lane, Castle Bromwich from 21st December to January 4th.
“Our hospice motto is every moment matters and when we launched Fleeting Moments earlier this year we aimed to encourage people to come together to celebrate special moments in their lives,” said Diane. “While we’ve not been able to physically be in the same room, Fleeting Moments has brought us together in a different way.
“We have had to re-think this project a number of times but adapting to change has always been part of our hospice story. And we have been determined to share this exhibition with the people of Birmingham in one way or another.
“We really hope the many people who created birds are able to come along and see their artwork in this Fleeting Moments flock. We are so grateful to everyone who took part and we hope they enjoy seeing the final exhibition they have helped us to create.”
For more information on the hospice’s 110th anniversary see John Taylor Hospice. More on the artists here.
