On
the 19th of November 1995 the interior of the Wem Town Hall was completely
destroyed by fire. The structure was rebuilt through lottery funding and now
serves as a community arts centre. Twenty years almost to the day, Linda
and I have a Sunny Side Art exhibition in the Town Hall Gallery.
Emma
Powell, assistant entertainment and marketing manager for the Town Hall saw the
potential of exhibiting Sunny Side Arts prints, ceramic and textiles in
the ground floor gallery and contacted us.
A
couple of weeks prior to the exhibition, we explored Wem and found many
interesting buildings along and nestled behind High Street. We discovered that
the unusual name Wem comes from the Saxon word Wamm, meaning a marshy place.
Linda began to sketch her way around the town and on returning to Shrewsbury,
promptly designed a Sunny Side of the Street illustration of Wem which features
in the exhibition.
One
of the most fascinating and enjoyable requirements for the illustrations is
researching the places Linda features in her designs. The buildings and people
all have stories to tell and it's tapping into these that inspires us.
Recently we
started setting
up for the exhibition. Linda began a window painting of a Wem street scene on
the gallery's High Street facing window while I hung the framed prints. The
gallery has a fair amount of natural light and plenty of space. Here's a few
words from Linda about the window painting:
"Painting
on the window is tricky because everything has to be reversed! I used a
template for the writing but the buildings were drawn freehand. Just take a
deep breath and go for it!"
On opening
night, Emma (a true Wem Gem) on behalf of the trustees of the Town Hall
provided refreshments. Our first sale was a framed print - the Wem
drawing.....nice.
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The exhibition will
continue until 21st December. come along and discover Wem's secrets for
yourself.
