Community Projects

Community Folk Art Projects

Sue Prince specialises in creating and leading community folk art projects. Egg tempera painting is a relatively simple technique and makes an excellent medium in which folk can get involved.

First an agreed story line is arrived at and reference pictures and information is sought. Then Sue works out how to tell that story over the required number of panels. The panels are natural linen, sealed with a tinted acrylic gesso. Sue then paints the outlines of the images and prepares the panels for the event.

Sue holds training workshops for local people to become ‘expert helpers’ at the event. At the community folk art event, held in a public place; town hall, art centre etc, people are encouraged to colour in the prepared images. Usually there are opportunities for those who take part to have their names on the finished work. 

The Story of Bamford 2020

Click for the BBC story

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Leek, Staffordshire 2018

This medieval poem is, apparently, set near Leek in the North Staffordshire Moorlands. So this egg tempera folk art project was commissioned by a group of local ‘Sir Gawain’ enthusiasts! The initiative was inspired by Clive Foden and the author Simon Armitage’s translation of the poem. It was initiated by Lindsay Trevarthen and organised by Lindsay and Andy Collins of Borderland Voices.
This translation of the medieval poem is a joy to read. It is fun, clever, incredibly descriptive and so subtle in its plot. It brings the 1300s to life in dramatic and brilliant technicolour and is thoroughly recommended!
This initiative was funded by a Crowdfunding Project in November 2018. Over 100 people took part in two days of public painting at the Foxlowe Arts Centre in Leek and University of Derby Buxton and Leek College of Art on 16th and 17th November 2018. The lower section of the panels show everyday goings on with medieval people, each named by one of the public painters.
Click to read a blog by a family who took part: ‘How We Became Local Legends’
FITT I

FITT II

FITT III

FITT IV

The Ann Green Festival, St Peter’s Church, Alstonefield, Staffordshire 2018

This project was commissioned as part of the Ann Green Festival. Ann Green’s 1518 gravestone in St Peter’s Church Yard is thought to be the oldest legible gravestone in the country, so to celebrate 500 years of the Church a Tudor festival took place over the Summer 2018.
The idea was to show St Peter’s through time. So the pictures depict people from any time in the past all sharing the same space; we tread where they trod. In the Churchyard picture many families painted their loved ones.
Over 50 local people took part in the community painting in Church in April 2018.

Ashbourne Treasures Festival, 2017

Ashbourne Treasures was a festival where many treasures and historic items about, or created in Ashbourne were brought together for a summer long exhibition alongside a programme of talks about the town and its history.
The Ashbourne History Painting took place over Easter 2017 in the Town Hall in Ashbourne. There were four panels recording the history of Ashbourne from prehistoric times and over 170 people took part. Aluminiun Dibond prints are now displayed around the town and the originals are stored in Derby Records office.

Odensjo Heritage Park, Sweden

The small Swedish village of Odensjo was given a huge old traditional barn, to be moved to theirHeritage Park. This community folk art tells the story of the clearing, dismantling, transportation,and rebuilding of the barn by the community.

The Story of Ebbe Skamelsson

The Viking Saga of Ebbe Skamelsson is very important to the Swedish village of Unnaryd. Thiscommunity folk art was created in the Bonad Museum, in the Heritage Park by many members of thecommunity.

The Ilam Story

Click here to see the story and background of the twelve panels of The Ilam Story now on semi-permanent display in the Church of the Holy Cross, Ilam in the Staffordshire Peak District.