Summer 2008 was a very unusual summer. I expect some of you are thinking about the lousy weather, our "white Easter" and the number of Gold Medals that Great Britain swept up in the Beijing Olympics!
For those of you local to Norwich, i know you will be thinking about the largest public arts event that Norwich has ever seen! From June 23rd until August 31st, 53 life size fibreglass baby elephants took up residence at various strategic points throughout Norwich. Many were in the city centre, but some you had to hunt further afield to find! These elephants were all decorated by community groups and individual local artists, the event was organised by "Wild in Art" and the Forum Trust, and The Mall was one of the main sponsors.
The locals soon fell in love with them, as it became apparent that no two were alike, they all had names, and they each had their own individual characters. (We had one disguised as a bumblebee, and another with the Tardis on its back! To name but two!) People said that this was the best thing they'd seen happening in Norwich. Tourist trade shot up big time, and throughout the summer holiday, families and children made it their outing, to follow the Elephant Trail (There were official Guide Books and maps available in the Forum), and one regularly saw foreign visitors and children posing with the elephants to have their pictures taken.
I was one of a number of people who fell in love with them, and would pop out in my lunch break to see the ones nearby. Over three days, I walked the whole safari and took a photo of each one! This included going up hill and down dale to the one tucked away in St. Julian's Alley, my one and only trip to the Football Stadium (no offence to Norwich City supporters!) and a car journey to the one at the hospital. I regularly saw Aimee-Mimosa, the Mum and Baby pair at the Library. One one occasion, two funny little girls ran up to them, flung their arms round the baby one and they both said "aaaaahhhhh". As I arrived in the city each morning, the three travellers atop the one outside Cinema City always smiled at me!!
At the end of August, all the elephants were taken away, much to the despondency of all who had grown to love them, as they were being cleaned up in readiness for the Auction on September 23rd, where they were sold off to raise money for the Born Free Foundation (helping maintain their natural habitats in the tropics) and Clic Seargent, the charity for children with Cancer. The Staff, patients and visitors to the Hospital grew so fond of "Rena", that they chained themselves to her in protest, that she would not be taken away!
On September 23rd, a very unusual phenomenon occured in the city centre, when all the Elephants were paraded in front of the Forum, so those of us who were around, had an opportunity for one last look at them before they were all auctioned off to their new homes. Apparently, the money raised at the auction was double what was predicted. The one who got the highest bid, was Jemima, a rather magnificent Black and White Mosaic one, who resided in front of the Library Restaurant on Guildhall Hill. She now has pride of place in a office on Prince of Wales Road. I have uploaded four of my favourites, so feel free to view them for yourselves!
................................................................................................................................................................................
STOP PRESS!!!!
You'll be pleased to know that the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital were successful in purchasing Rena the Elephant so now she is a permanent resident there. She has pride of place not far from where she was on display during the exhibition.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Norwich "Prayer for the City", February, 2008
At the beginning of the year,, all the churches in Norwich took part in a prayer event for the city as part of the Hope '08 Initiative. St. Lukes Church chose the week commencing Sunday, 3rd February, and every one of us took part, not only in spoken prayer, but in a practical way too. We were encouraged to make prayer boxes for our households, using photos and objects as a means of reminding ourselves of the subjects and the people we were praying for. Each family had a prayer chart where we set ourselves a subject for each day, wrote it down, and stuck on a "done it" sticker, when we'd brought the concern to God. We were each given seven coloured strips of paper, which we used to make papaer prayer chains - writing a subject on a link each day!! On Sunday, February 10th, these paper prayer chains were all brought to church and attached together in one long chain to represent the whole of St. Luke's Church praying for the whole of Norwich. We chose subjects like the Homeless, Local Doctors and Hospital Workers, Schools, Neighbours, Reycling and the Litter Problem, and local organisations such as the All Saints Westlegate Drop in Centre, Y.M.C.A., Street Pastors, Pregnancy Crisis.
The Tree of Life had been our Christmas tree for 2007. It was brought back and positioned in front of the Cross, and over the course of three separate events, we wrote our prayers on cards and hung them on the branches. This was symbolic of us offering our prayers to Jesus. Look carefully at the photo and notice how the tree is superimposed int o the Cross. I feel this points to the fact that the Cross is now empty, because Jesus is alive, and the tree represents the Risen Jesus!!
The Tree of Life had been our Christmas tree for 2007. It was brought back and positioned in front of the Cross, and over the course of three separate events, we wrote our prayers on cards and hung them on the branches. This was symbolic of us offering our prayers to Jesus. Look carefully at the photo and notice how the tree is superimposed int o the Cross. I feel this points to the fact that the Cross is now empty, because Jesus is alive, and the tree represents the Risen Jesus!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
