 THE JUST1 SPIRIT OF ROMERO GALLERY at St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School in Bracknell UK |
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............................................................................................................................................................................................................ GALLERY HOME PAGE HOW THE GALLERY HAPPENED GUIDE TO THE FIGURES PALMADITAS & PLAUDITS CONTACT ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
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A
hugely
enjoyable collaboration The unique Just1 Spirit of Romero Gallery was created specially for St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School in Bracknell, Berkshire UK. The Gallery has been a pleasure to paint - and I hope you'll enjoy browsing this on-line version. And maybe think about your own school or community growing one for yourselves. The initial aim was simply to replace the wire crucifix on the panel above the white screen area in the school hall. But the Gallery has turned into a visual treasure; a thank-you to the school for its many years of support for CAFOD and other social justice action; and an extra, long-lasting and on-all-the-time resource for PSHE, RE and Citizenship Studies. It's also been a great silent and unseen collaboration between pupils, staff and a one artist in a garage 120 metres away. Above all, the figures are there as representatives - voices, maybe - of all sorts of people whose lives enrich others. So the Gallery pays tribute to - and thanks - all of them. It's also intended as a way of raising awareness of the life and legacy of Oscar Romero, and of his homeland El Salvador - encouraging people to aspire not to have more but to be more. The arrival of Pope Francis I has stirred a lot of interest, as he's known to be a great aficionado of Romero. All the Just1 Spirit of Romero activities are about taking action for social justice - not just saying that he was a nice man and martyr but doing things of which it's reasonable to say he may well have approved and applauded. The Gallery was fixed in place at 4.24pm on 4 July 2013. Enjoy a wander - and this is one gallery where you can rest your feet at any time. Hugh Gibbons Conductor of Just1 and Spirit of Romero hughgibbons@just1.org.uk |
 is Hugh Gibbons' one-person organisation offering schools different ways of supporting the work of campaigners for social justice - but completely independent of them. The annual budget is around about £20. CONTACT hughgibbons@just1.org.uk Recent Just1 Spirit of Romero and other activities for schools include... Acclaim Social Justice Campaigners each 24 March - the UN's International Day for the Right to Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims (and for the life and legacy of Oscar Romero) Commend End Hunger in the 2013 Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign aimed at the G8 Make a Kind Heart Award for a Leaver in Schools & Colleges Sing We're Carrying a Candle The Spirit of Romero Song Sing Happy Birthday to Malala Yousafzai on 12 July Speak Out for Fairtrade each February/March Stand Up & Sing Out Against Poverty on or around 17 October each year - the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty NB The Trustees of the UK's Archbishop Romero Trust have asked to have it made clear to schools that Just1 Spirit of Romero activities are Hugh Gibbons' initiative alone, and that these do not have the backing of the Trust. |
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Thinking laterally, literally Like so many others, the school hall at St Margaret Clitherow is multipurpose and busy - used for assembly, PE, dancing, music and other lessons, and dining. On occasions it's a setting for PTA and other public events, parents' evenings, and Mass. In February 2013, RE Co-ordinator Christine Duerden approached Hugh Gibbons about replacing the wire crucifix. She suggested one of the familiar CAFOD Romero Crosses in many schools and homes, painted by Lazaro Rodriguez and his family in La Palma, El Salvador (below, left). But even one 30cm high would be visually slight - as with the one on the left resting on the piano. Hugh suggested thinking laterally - literally. He proposed a wide wooden panel with the Romero Cross at the centre, flanked by figures - all painted in the Salvadoran style. Christine was familiar with the 2.4 metre Romero Cross Hugh had painted to go outside the church of St Francis of Assisi in Ascot (left, showing Hugh's Added Romero and St Francis). Hugh had seen a table-top triptych painted on a wooden panel by another artist in El Salvador, telling the story of Romero's life in pictures and words. He realised a potential inherent in this. Similar home-grown permanent pieces of art might appeal in schools of many sorts - as a complement to the wonderful visual galleries produced by pupils and teachers on display in classrooms and corridors. ...................................................................................................................................... A snapshot of the school ethos Hugh also felt a Gallery might also have echoes of the statues of Martyrs of the 20th Century over the West Door of Westminster Abbey - in which Oscar Romero features (left) But it would be snapshot of people held in high regard by pupils in 2013 - and therefore a useful tool in PSHE, RE and Citizenship studies in years to come. He showed a very simple outline to Christine and head teacher David Masters. (What he couldn't share was the visual oomph that the Gallery would have in its blue across the top - echoing the colours of the flat of El Salvador as it glued the main figures together). Trust me, he said. Both said Yes, please - and we had lift-off. ...................................................................................................................................... |
 St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School in Hanworth, Bracknell in Berkshire, was opened in 1976, and has 200+ pupils in seven classes. The extensive school grounds make a lovely setting for outdoor activities - to complement the happy ethos of the school inside! |
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Figuring it out Hugh then said he would like the Gallery to include Romero and St Margaret Clitherow - but that the other big figures should be specified by each Year in the school. By the end of March 2013, these were settled as: Reception, Our Lady; Year1, Florence Nightingale; Y2, The Good Samaritan; Y3, HM Queen Elizabeth II; Y4, Sir Isaac Newton; Y5, David Beckham; Y6, Malala Yousafzai. The staff asked for Anne Gibbons - a long-time school governor and a former parent. Each Year is represented by a little Y figure in red alongside their choice. Hugh thought it would be good to have smaller figures as well - each of them to have their own interesting story, and to be representative of others. Christine bought the Cross from CAFOD. Hugh put it on a life-size paper panel (left). It was now up to him to commit Art. ...................................................................................................................................... |
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       The Gallery in action on 5 July the day after being put up. Part of the happy background at the StMC leaving party for long-serving teaching assistant Maureen Anscomb in favoured leopardskin - the last figure to be added, as a leaving present. Unlike the Mona Lisa, the Gallery has a dozen hooks for banners and bunting. |
Garage not the Sistine
Chapel Hugh cleared a space in his garage, bought a 2400mm x 300mm softwood panel from Wickes, gave it a couple of coats of varnish, set out a few tubes of acrylic paint, and drafted some outline 30cm versions shapes of the big figures. He decided that all the figures would have a hand raised in greeting or holding something up. After a couple of weeks of classic artistic dither and terror, in mid-April he finally started to place and outline the figures, and then to block them in. The first thoughts were have have the main figures all with upraised hands facing inwards to the Cross. But it then seemed better to group them in twos. That way the Queen got to high-five with the Good Samaritan, and Romero was close to Beckham. Acrylic meant he could easily re-paint figures and areas if necessary (a dangerously helpful facility which led to it being mid-June before the Gallery was ready to be presented to the school...) A dramatic moment came when the rich blue - the national colour of El Salvador - went in all along the top of the Gallery, giving the anticipated visual punch. ...................................................................................................................................... Primary colours The biggest brush was 5mm wide, and the smallest 2mm - and what with everything being painted over several times, it's thought the Gallery has upwards of 50,000 brush strokes. One problem was being unable to stand away from the Gallery and get a sense of its overall impact - so occasional outings were made to the garden and sitting room (left). To maintain the Salvadoran feel, Hugh used flat areas of primary colour paint encased in a black line. (The clouds and hills were left unlined, as they would have exacerbated what was going to be a visual clutter.) The figures also painted as simply as possible, all facing out to the viewer save one (the Queen, in profile as on a coin). Nearly all have their hands raised in greeting - and pupils at St Margaret Clitherow have been encouraged to wave back...) Hugh was also conscious that Picasso said he had spent a whole lifetime learning to draw like a child. Planned Naivety is the term Hugh had in mind as a way of explaining the lumpiness of paint, strange postures, and the colour ingenuity that only someone colour-blind can produce. Hugh's basic hues were blue, yellow, red, black and white. Naples Yellow proved a great help, and umbers and siennas helped get some grays. Greens were the bugbear that many professional artists have commented on when using acrylics. ...................................................................................................................................... The first Wow! By early May, the small figures were going in - many of them occurring to Hugh while he painted. David and Christine were allowed a peek in mid-May - and went Wow! In early June, Hugh put a wood frame round all the sides: partly to protect the panel, and partly to neaten the look. Then the first of several coats of plain varnish. On both sides of the Gallery brass rings were fixed in place - as attachment points for bunting or banners which the Sistine Chapel lacks. On Wednesday 19 June 2013, pupils and staff at St Margaret Clitherow were shown the Gallery for the first time - at eye level - and taken briefly through all the figures. (On the left is a photo of the Gallery resting appropriately on the school piano.) The pupils took the opportunity to put the Gallery into practice, by singing Happy Birthday to Malala in advance of 12 July. And as a final touch that Romero would have liked, the youngest child in the school carried the Romero Cross and placed it in the centre of the Gallery. The Gallery was finally put in place on Thursday 4th July. Amazingly, the USA celebrated! All pupils got one of these Romero postcards to put up at home - giving the link to this website.  For a detailed Guide to all the figures, click here ...................................................................................................................................... |
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A timely afterthought! On 20 June 2013- the day after the Gallery was first shown to the pupils - this article appeared in the Bracknell News.  |
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A right royal and other responses |
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As
part of spreading the word about the wonderful choices of the pupils,
Hugh has been writing to people connected with the figures on the
Gallery. The responses have been models of thank-you letters - as you can see here. Hugh says that writing the letters has been immense fun, with lots of potential to surprise and amuse the recipients. For example, mention of corgis and the 1926 halfpenny may well have helped with this reply: "The Queen would like me to write and thank you for the letter sent on behalf of the pupils and staff at St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School, in which you tell Her Majesty of the Spirit of Romero Gallery. "The Queen was very interested to hear about your artwork and was very touched to learn that the children of Year Three chose Her Majesty to be one of the figures to be included in this special piece." The letters are now an extra treasure in their own right for the school. |
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If you need further information any time, please contact The Conductor of Just1, Hugh Gibbons hughgibbons@just1.org.uk |
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If you would like