Young artists bring the Face of Jesus to life

23 February 2009

On Wednesday 4 February the art exhibition 'The Face of Jesus' was opened by the Mayor of Westbury, Councillor Mike Hawkins, in All Saints Church, Westbury, Wiltshire.

Around 60 people came to the opening night, in spite of very bad weather, to enjoy a wide variety of artwork that had been produced by students from Matravers Secondary School – a specialist art college. The exhibition was set to music which was provided by musicians from the school.

For four months, Church Army Evangelist Steven Baggs had been working with twelve students, and staff from Matravers art department, to interpret the idea of the human face of Jesus Christ. In Steven's words: "The exhibition itself focuses on the facial expressions of Jesus, and tells the Gospel story by looking in detail at the many emotions and moods that Jesus expressed throughout his life. During these after-school art sessions the young artists were given the creative challenge of depicting the 'very human face of Jesus', thus also thinking about who and what Jesus is for them as individuals."

One of the artworks, entitled 'Compassion' is shown here.

Approximately 100 children from three of Westbury's primary schools also visited the exhibition, on separate occasions. They took part in a 'Godly play' style presentation on the life of Jesus, using miniature copies of some of the artworks. Then they were given the chance to create their own face of Jesus, using art materials in church which they were able to display later in their schools.

The result of this project was an experience in sharing faith with the whole community, as well as a first class art exhibition that has attracted coverage from the Church Times, the  Wiltshire Times, the Warminster Journal and Sarum Link (Salisbury's Diocesan newspaper).