Worthing Museum and Gallery are proud to be exhibiting work by participants of The Big Eyed Ears in partnership with Ferring Country Centre. The work is inspired by the painting of Bianca, The Patroness of Heavenly Harmony by William Holman Hunt, which is one of the gems of the fine art collection at Worthing Museum.
The Bianca Project Exhibition was opened with a performance on Saturday 15th October, facilitated by Jo Telling (Superstar Arts co-founder) and drama specialist Nicola Davin. The group behind the exhibition explored issues around perception, communication, trust, and vulnerability between the learning disabled and non-learning disabled communities. Through this project, learning disabled people are provided with the opportunity to communicate their thoughts and feelings to their local and wider community. The exhibition itself offers previously unexplored perspectives of the famous portrait of Bianca.
“The performance and exhibition succeeded in being through-provoking, moving, and also uplifting. It definitely gave me an insight into a world I know too little about.”
The opening performance over the weekend was held against the backdrop of The Bianca Project exhibition, and saw the group exploring themes of perception, consent, and empowerment. The accompanying artwork illustrated the progress of the project with participation reflections and understanding of the issues involved.
The overall project including both the exhibition and the performance was created with the intention of improving confidence and empowering people with learning disability during interactions with the general public.
The opening performance was a delightfully emotional display of empowerment, solidarity, and progression. The intimate setting enabled the performance to be both immersive and interactive, with the audience playing a significant part in the storyline.
Worthing Museum will be running the performance again on Saturday 10th December, so for those of you who missed the original performance, you have the fantastic chance to see it soon.
The exhibition will be at the museum until 29th January 2023.