Rev’d Theodora Songhai will be guest preacher at St Paul’s Sunday Morning Service
Created and performed by the community of St Paul’s, 'Seasons' is an extraordinary performance in three short acts with interludes for food and drink
A chance to hear one of the UK’s most exciting poetic voices in an introduction and reading of her own poetry.
The Women’s Art Collection is one of the world’s largest collection of modern and contemporary art by women artists, housed at Murray Edwards College. The Art Collection is spread all around Murray Edwards striking modern buildings. There’s no ‘gallery’ as such, rather students, staff and visitors are immersed in the art wherever they are. Much of the Collection and the gardens are open to the public every day, with a guided tour available from the Porters’ Lodge. However, this tour, taken by one of the College Fellows, will take you into parts of the College not open to the public.
Murray Edwards College
Using the art form of collaging, participants are welcomed into a contemplative space, allowing curiosity and the often dismissed and neglected inner wisdom to emerge.
Whether you are a beginner at drawing the human body or have experience, all are welcome to explore and learn from an experienced educator.
Explore how poetry can show us the magic in seemingly unremarkable things with renowned poet and novelist Helen Mort.
Jazz composer and performer Tim Boniface and his quartet perform Tim’s latest work ‘Psalter: Themes for Peace’.
Exciting and interactive dance and movement workshop for children, inspired by nature and the seasons.
Come and hear internationally-renowned artist Issam Kourbaj. Since 2011 his artwork has related to the Syrian Crisis and reflects on the destruction of his cultural heritage.
The human figure in art is renowned for its difficulty to depict but this workshop will help you discover reliable rules to getting the proportions right!
Come and create a self-portrait collage. Reflection and discussion will be part of the process along with taking inspiration from other artists.
Create your own illuminated letter and explore a range of art and craft materials. No artistic or craft experience necessary.
Award-winning Justin Butcher unveils Scaramouche’s life, taking us on a profoundly epic and moving voyage of 20th century’s tragedies and ecstacies.
Breakin' is Hip Hop's cultural, creative and energetic dance form. Pull on your favourite dancing trainers and join SIN Cru in the breakin' circle.
Celebrated author Jo Browning Wroe in conversation with ARTSFEST festival co-founder and artist Martin Evans.
A hands-on workshop in printmaking with ordinary objects, no prior experience is necessary - participants will be creating from the start!
Cambridge-based professional classical pianist and flautist Victoria Royce presents a 'Seasons'-themed chamber music programme for piano, flute and singers.
Join bestselling author Jo Browning Wroe in this workshop full of activities designed to loosen and free your imagination. No previous experience necessary.
A hands-on workshop in printmaking with ordinary objects, no prior experience is necessary - participants will be creating from the start!
Hospitality is at the heart of St Paul's and of the ArtsFest. Our inviting café space will be open every day offering tea, coffee, soft drinks, cakes, biscuits, fruit and cheese scones. Between 12 - 2pm, lunch will be served including soup and a variety of sandwiches. Come and drop in between workshops or around viewing the art exhibitions. A chance to meet others and enjoy delicious homemade food in an artistically rich space.
Lower Hall
Come and get creative in the ArtsFest Café! There will be an area set aside for gentle crafting activities every day of the festival and suitable for all. Everything from mindful colouring to collage and textiles.
Lower Hall
Rowan Williams, a leading thinker of our time, offers a talk on ‘Faith in the Imagination’, followed by his own poetry readings and Q&A.
With the world in much turmoil this green entrance space provides a peaceful ambiance for quiet reflection. It invites you to wind down while watching the gentle movements of paper birds made by members of the congregation out of recycled liturgies. Enjoy a moment of peace to collect your thoughts before moving on to the workshops, performances and other exhibitions.
St Paul’s Community Art Exhibition celebrates the amazing talent of artists in our local community and neighbourhood. It will show over thirty selected works on the theme of seasons, whether in nature or in life. They will be displayed on St Paul’s new Exhibition Wall in the Lower Hall.
ArtsFest is about performance, participation and hospitality – a time to celebrate the wonder of life. It is also a time, for some, to grieve. This art exhibition is the work of three members of St Paul’s: Mark Rigby, who lost his wife, Rachel, a short while ago; Martin Evans, whose daughter, Jenny, died just over a year ago; and Kip Gresham, who died in May 2024.
Take time to view the work of these St Paul’s artists in the Foyer and reflect on the reality that life presents us with both a time to celebrate and a time to mourn.
ArtsFest 2024 launch event with an introduction by Tim Boniface, the opening of the exhibitions for browsing and a bar available.
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with a lacquer dusted with precious metals, such as gold or silver. Rather than hiding the joins, Kintsugi highlights them and makes the pottery more valuable by virtue of the fact it has been broken. As a practice, Kintsugi teaches us that repair is part of our history. In this exhibition, you see portraits of people who have visible scar tissue from either accidents or surgery. That scar tissue has been overlaid in gold leaf.
The Kintsugi People project was devised by Dr Carol Holliday, psychotherapist, and lecturer at the University of Cambridge (now retired) and produced in collaboration with photographer Ryan Davies and the Arts team at Cambridge University Hospitals. Through her 30 years of clinical practice, Carol found that people often used metaphors of brokenness, fragmentation, splits or cracks to express distress or describe traumatic events. Finding a poetic relationship between this language and the art of repair, Carol was inspired to create the Kintsugi People project as a positive representation of how we can heal and learn to embrace our own histories, both inside and out.
