“Sacred on Location”,
Central Lending Library, Belvoir Street, Leicester,
Friday 16 January - Friday 6 February 2009
This was a touring version of the British Library’s most successful ever exhibition (on show at the British Library’s St Pancras site, April to September 2007). It visited Leicester’s Central Lending Library for three weeks. The exhibition brought together some of the world’s most important and beautiful religious texts, exquisite and rare examples of Jewish, Christian and Muslim sacred texts from the British Library’s collections were presented in a unique and compelling modern context, which included a distinctive interactive element, enabling visitors to leaf virtually through some of the Library’s greatest treasures and even to hear extracts from the texts chanted aloud in their original languages. It also provided people with the chance to explore information about customs and rituals from the three faiths featured in the original exhibition: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I was commissioned to run a series of workshops on behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths, for several schools and colleges who were booked in to visit the exhibition. Unfortunately, this coincided with the worst snowfall in England for over 25 years; a fairly small amount of snow brought the country to its knees for days on end. So only two of the workshops went ahead, with Crown Hills Community College and Regent College. This was an excellent exhibition to have come to Leicester and it's a pity that more people didn't see it. Of those who did get to see it, many complained that it didn't reflect the nature of religious diversity in our city, focusing as it did only on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But that was missing the point and there are always plenty of people who will do that, sadly. To counteract any such feelings of omission or misrepresentation, we were able to display our full series of leaflets, featuring all eight of the religions represented on Leicester Council of Faiths, in the entrance to the library. Loads of these were taken away by visitors to the library over the course of the exhibitions.
Sacred on Location launched at an event split between the The Mitchell Library and Botanic Gardens in Glasgow on 27 April 2007 before touring the UK for more than two years in all.
In your last point about the event you make the comment that "Of those who did get to see it, many complained that it didn't reflect the nature of religious diversity in our city, focusing as it did only on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But that was missing the point and there are always plenty of people who will do that, sadly."
ReplyDeleteI think you misunderstood the nature of the complaints. The theme of displaying Judaism, Christianity and Islam history was welcomed but what annoyed many who made the comment was the fact that on the window display you had Hindu Gods paintings or statues and Buddhist and Sikhs. It led (confused) many to believe that these religions were also being covered. After all your display title was called "Sacred on Locations".
So it was annoying to see nothing about these other religions and the window display appeared to be a gimmick to attract these people from other faiths to go and see the display.
I hope now you understand the nature of these complaints.
I'd like to respond to the anonymous posting above. Firstly, I want to say thanks for reading the blog and for taking the time to make your comment.
ReplyDeleteI should clarify that the exhibition wasn't designed, booked or mounted by Leicester Council of Faiths. We were approached by the City Council's Libraries and Museums Service to present workshops for classes from local schools and colleges who'd been invited to visit the exhibition. We were also asked to publicise the exhibition among our members and contacts. Leicester Council of Faiths wasn't responsible for the content of the exhibition or the promotional material or displays that accompanied it.
I agree that it was misleading to have books and artefacts in the window of the Central Lending Library for religions that did not appear in the exhibition itself. We not only understand that, but also agreed with it and spoke about our concern to relevant members of staff at the library. To some extent, they were trying to make up for the omission of these faiths from the main exhibition by at least having them represented on site, and showing that the city's libraries have books and material on all the faiths to be found in Leicester. They were conscious of the fact that the exhibition, while clearly impressive and worthwhile, didn’t in itself reflect the religious diversity of Leicester. But, of course, their window display couldn't help but be misleading, since it made it look all these faiths were be covered in "Sacred on Location". Perhaps my statement that “there are always plenty of people who will [miss the point], sadly" looks a trifle harsh. My intention was to say that no matter what arrangements are made, it won’t be able to get the complete message over to everyone in the way the organisers intend.
I hope you'll know by now that, when the Council of Faiths itself had the chance to mount a public display in Highcross during National Inter Faith Week in November, we ensured equality of coverage and exposure for the eight religions that make up our membership. If you’ve not seen coverage of this event, go back to the beginning of this blog and see a whole week’s worth of entries on National Inter Faith Week and the exhibition in Highcross in particular.
"Sacred on Location" was the first time that the British Library had offered this kind of touring exhibition; plus this was allowing locations outside London the chance to host an accessible and manageable version of its most popular exhibition ever. Despite the problems which we both acknowledge, this was a great opportunity for Leicester and the Council of Faiths was glad to be asked to support it.