At the launch of the project, 26 Year 9 Art & Design students from Christ’s School Richmond and St Bede’s Redhill, both Diocesan Schools, experienced a hard-hitting presentation in Southwark Cathedral Learning Centre, given by Robes, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) that has been serving those experiencing homelessness in Southwark and Lambeth since 2007.
This introductory session engaged the young people, through a range of activities, in the grim realities of life on the streets for rough sleepers and elevated their understanding of homelessness to a new level that would see them forge an authentic and intimate relationships with their designs on this topic.
They were particularly struck by the invisibility and vulnerability of rough sleepers and shocked by their mistreatment by fellow human beings and the fact that many were young people.
Their subsequent activities included a guided tour of the Victoria & Albert’s extensive historic stained glass art collection, focusing on topics linked with the treatment, over time, of people on the margins of society through deprivation and poverty, in various contrasting charitable and despotic ways.
The experiences about which the students and their teachers enthused, however, to the practice of designing and creating a piece of stained glass, working alongside their inspirational teacher, renowned stained glass artist, now the Master of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers, John Reyntiens MBE.
The students learned the delicate art of glass cutting and leading, each creating an individual artefact to take back to their schools, and also practising John Reyntiens’ innovative method for design, using collage and charcoal, culminating in the students making their own expressive designs on homelessness for a stained glass pane.
George Clarke from the Diocesan Communications Team followed the students’ journey through their project with photographs, video clips, and interviews which give it a strong graphic dimension.
Completed designs were submitted to the Reyntiens Studio where they were assembled into a single stained glass panel by the artists on the studio team. Every student had their design or some element of it incorporated into the final panel.
The final reception, celebrating the project’s completion, when the new stained glass pane was revealed by John Reyntiens in the retro choir of Southwark Cathedral was a truly memorable occasion, foregrounding the skill and expertise of the Reyntiens Studio team in this stunning glass artwork.
The Sub Dean of the Cathedral Canon Michael Rawson welcomed the diverse audience, including Councillor Naima Ali, the Mayor of Southwark, Rosemarie Mallett, the Bishop of Croydon, Natalie Walters, the Director of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, key members of the Glaziers’ Company, the Reyntiens’ studio team of artists, the parents of the student participants and the head teachers of the schools.
Students took an active part by presenting highlights of their experience of the project and their art & design teachers publicly commended the progress made in using new artistic techniques and how they had demonstrated empathy and responsibility.
All those viewing the completed panel were moved by seeing homelessness and rough sleeping through the eyes of the young people, ‘making hidden things clear and understood’, using words and images in an expressive way, as in ‘Treat People with Care’ and ‘Seeking Human Kindness’.
The students, or ‘artists’ as John Reyntiens called them, acquired a deep appreciation of the art and craft of stained glass. They also recognised that it can be used to ‘speak for those who cannot speak for themselves’ and will convey their experiences of the project to wider audiences, in the form of collective assemblies and online communication.
The art & design teachers and head teachers of both schools will also spread the message to their colleagues and to other schools about using the medium of stained glass to convey a serious message and perhaps to generate interest in the craft as a career.
The stained glass artwork created through this project has legacy and display value, conveying an arresting message for present and future generations, about a serious social justice issue, as seen through the eyes of young people.
The final pane, like the 2023 glass panel on the topic of serious youth violence or knife crime, is portable for display in a variety of different environments and locations; they are both currently on public view in the Chapel of Reconciliation in Southwark Cathedral.
