This year has seen Sutton’s Cultural Services embark on an epic programme of events focused on exploring science through art and culture. Here in the Archive we’ve been proud to support and contribute to a number of these events, and this week, we are taking a moment to cast an eye back to some of these, and highlight some of the wonderful work achieved by our colleagues and partners. We also want to let you know about an amazing opportunity for fans of Glass Plate Photography coming up. So what is Sutton Steams Ahead?
In 2020, the London borough of Sutton was a recipient of a prestigious Cultural Impact Award from The Mayor of London. Sutton achieved the sought after prize with a proposal exploring science through art and culture. The council subsequently won an additional grant from the National Lottery Fund, and the result has been an astounding collaboration between the Cultural Services team and literally hundreds of community partners, STEAM professionals, schools and residents.
For the archive, this has been a brilliant opportunity to refocus on our wonderful Knights-Whittome glass plate collection through the project strand THEN, NOW, NEXT. Then, Now, Next has sought to improve understanding around the science of photography, as well as raise awareness of all the photographic collections in the London Borough of Sutton’s Archives. We have worked with artists and creatives, local schools and communities to add to and improve our contemporary photo collections – ensuring future generations have access to sources about life in Sutton now. And, we have been able to be a part of some truly wonderful creative film and projects which have shown past present and future life in Sutton through the eyes of not only artists, but the ordinary people who live here. Links to some of these amazing projects can be found in a post going out early next week, but, as the programme draws to a close there is still time to take part in a couple of wonderful events:
On the 25-26th January we are thrilled to welcome British Journal of Photography, Portrait of Britain winner Dave Shrimpton to Honeywood Museum in Carshalton, to photograph some of our 2023 Sutton Community Award winners, on Glass Plate, for the archive collections. Dave will be setting up studio in our Edwardian Drawing Room, and will welcome drop in visitors throughout the sittings to observe his technique, talk to him about his practice, and see a short film about his work which will run on a screen in the Billiards room. The finished portraits will provide a contemporary mirror to the historic Knights-Whittome Glass plate collection on which this blog was founded, and which can now be seen in its entirety on our Flickr site. If you have an interest in photography and would like to see a professional glass plate artist in action then please come on down and say hello. There is no need to book for this event. And if you can’t make it along, don’t worry, we will publish the finished portraits on this blog when they are archived.
The Past on Glass & Other Stories... 