Local community artist Louise Gridley (Sugi Ceramics) has teamed up with local heritage partners to deliver an arts & education project aimed at educating our young people about crime and punishment in and around Bury St Edmunds.

In April over 240 students visited the town to learn about themes including witchcraft, murder, criminal trials, and places of execution. Moyse’s Hall Museum shared all things gruesome relating to crimes and capital punishment, whilst Bury Town Guides provided a timeline of key local events and happenings. Theatre company Magic Floor Productions delivered a sensitive human story about 18th century celebrity convict couple Holmes and Kable who were deported to Australia, narrowly escaping the gallows.

The local CALSA team (Cultural Arts Leaders in Schools and Academies) developed a range of creative resources for schools to take back to their classrooms to encourage learning outcomes within the visual and performing arts. Schools and colleges involved include Abbeygate Sixth Form College, Hardwick Primary School, Sebert Wood Primary School, Sextons Manor Primary School, Risby Primary School, Ickworth Park Primary School and Howard Primary School.

Project lead Louise Gridley says, ‘The outreach project has encouraged students to learn about and reflect upon their local heritage. Observations and ideas have been expressed through visual and performing arts, providing young people with a collective voice within their local community’.

Students will be sharing their outcomes at the Student Showcase kindly hosted by St Edmundsbury Cathedral on Wednesday 12th July, 2023, 10.00 am – 12.00 noon. During the showcase, the Nave will become a catwalk for students to model their fashion creations. Other students will take centre stage to deliver musical and dramatical performances. Magic Floor Productions will re-visit the Holmes and Kable story with follow-up monologue performances.

Following this event, at 12.15 in Hanchet Square, two temporary street art mural banners will be unveiled to the public. As well as responding to the project’s wider crime and punishment theme, the murals respond to works from the current Mutiny in Colour exhibition at Moyse’s Hall Museum which features over 250 works by world-famous artists from the Street Art genre.

In a 3-week long community arts project led by artist Lou Gridley, Year 12 Fine Art A Level students from Abbeygate Sixth Form College collaborated to make two 4.5m long mural banners for the town of BSE. Inspired by local stories and artefacts from the Crime and Punishment collection at Moyse’s Hall Museum students responded with their own ideas relating to historical and present-day social justice. Lou Gridley says, ‘we hope that the artworks initiate a dialogue among local residents regarding the ideas communicated as well as the often controversial artforms themselves’.