Bishops Cannings School celebrates unveiling of heart-warming community mural
On 3 July 2024, pupils, parents, teachers, governors and community members gathered at Bishops Cannings Primary School to celebrate their new mural, which had been hung on the school hall wall over the weekend.
The dream of the mural began nearly two years ago through the Visions and Values Committee, led by RE Lead, Catherine Wallace and the then Chair of Governors, Caroline Martin. The project was kindly funded by the Aldhelm Mission Fund, a diocesan mission that focuses on creative projects linking the local church to the wider community.
The project really began to take off in the autumn of 2023, when creative multidisciplinary artist Penny Chivers Stanley joined the project and worked with pupils of all ages to create a mural from the children’s artwork based on the local community. “Pupils were encouraged to go out into the village and simply capture what they saw in their artwork” said Headteacher Catherine Vardy. “They drew or painted our local church, thatched cottages, the farmland and a multitude of animals from snails to horses.” From two-year-olds finger-painting tree blossom, to older pupils sketching canal barges, and elderly congregation members painting the church spire, this beautiful community mural truly captures the beauty of this rural school and village.
During the service on Wednesday, over 200 pupils, alongside members of the local community, were able to take time to appreciate the artwork, as well as coming together to sing the classic hymn, Be Thou My Vision and thank all who have been involved in the project. At the end of the service, the mural and community were blessed by Revd Sam Park, who was recently ordained in Salisbury Cathedral. Revd Sam drew parallels between God as a Creator and the creation of the mural echoing the beauty of all in God’s world.
Artist Penny Chivers Stanley, commented: “What I really loved from the start is the passion and love that was overarching in this project, and how much people wanted to celebrate what their community was about”. Having worked previously with children in her role as a local teacher, Penny has a firm belief in how much “art can bring people together” as “all the love and energy of the children goes into the artwork”. This is so evident in the final design of the mural, made up from a whole variety of the children’s drawings and paintings, from the smiling pigs to the ringing church bells, all woven together with the school’s Bible verse, ‘over all these things put on love which binds everything together in perfect unity, Colossians 3:14’, culminating in a gorgeous, uplifting community display.
Listen to a feature about the mural on BBC Wiltshire
Bishops Cannings mural
