This evening I'm at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, for the official launch of an exhibition of portraits by Claire Jackson. The display features a number of worthies from city and county, many of whom come from some of the diverse communities for which this part of the world is famous. Among the faces on show, I recognise a Buddhist, a Druid, two Jews (one Orthodox, the other Progressive), a Mormon, a Muslim (Cllr Abdul Osman, Leicester's first Muslim Lord Mayor), a Quaker, a Seventh-Day Adventist and - last but not least, a Sikh.
Pride of place goes to a full-length portrait of Resham Singh Sandhu (former Chair and current Director of Leicester Council of Faiths). There's Resham, as pleased as Punch, posing beside Claire's portrayal of him as High Sheriff of Leicestershire, a role which he filled in 2011-12. This picture is the first one visitors see when they arrive at the exhibition.
You can see more of the portraits on display in this exhibition on Claire Jackson's website or in this review of the exhibition from the Culture24 website. "Claire Jackson: Recent Work" runs at Leicester's New Walk Museum and Art Gallery until 26 August 2012.
