PRESS RELEASE 13.1.15
Ruskin-in-Sheffield wins Heritage Lottery Fund support
Public launch Sunday 1st February 4pm-7pm
Ruskin Hall, Walkley Community Centre, 7a Fir St, Sheffield, S6 3TG
The Guild of St George is delighted to announce an award of £67,100 from the Heritage Lottery
Fund (HLF) for an exciting community heritage project, Ruskin-in-Sheffield, taking place
throughout 2015. Local volunteers will work with historians, artists, environmentalists, members
of the Guild of St George, and Museums Sheffield, to reveal, reconnect and re-imagine the
heritage of Ruskin in Walkley, Stannington, Rivelin Valley and Totley.
A programme of public talks, walks, outdoor performances, archaeological digs, exhibitions and a
pop-up community museum will bring to life and unite the heritage of Ruskin in Sheffield.
Heritage interpreter Bill Bevan will work with volunteers to uncover the impact on people’s lives of
St George’s Museum in Walkley. Sheffield poet, song- and script-writer Sally Goldsmith will lead
a community performance that weaves together the late 19th-Century heritage of St George’s
Farm in Totley with local land and social reform movements. Award-winning environmental
writer, broadcaster and adviser Chris Baines will lead a project to share the heritage of an early
20th-Century colony of artists in the Rivelin Valley; and outdoor creative specialists Growtheatre
will work with Freeman College to offer adults and children the opportunity to learn land-based
skills, traditional tool-making techniques, and bread baking on their Ruskin-inspired horticultural
and woodland site in Stannington. Ruskin-in-Sheffield draws together displays and creative work
from each community in a celebratory exhibition, Ruskin Re-Viewed, to be held at the Millennium
Gallery from 31st October to 8th November 2015.
The Guild of St George, whose Ruskin Collection is housed at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield,
promotes the ideas and values of visionary Victorian thinker, writer, artist and social reformer
John Ruskin, to help create a better world for people to live and work in. Ruskin-in-Sheffield
creates opportunities for 50 volunteers to learn skills including historical research, heritage
display creation, archaeological digs, leading heritage walks, and curating and hosting
exhibitions.
Commenting on the HLF award, Clive Wilmer, Master of the Guild of St George said: “We are
thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and we are confident that the
project will inspire people to discover and share the influence of Ruskin on Sheffield’s fascinating
heritage - an influence which is still alive today.”
Fiona Spiers, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund, Yorkshire and the Humber said: “This project will
really bring to life the heritage of John Ruskin, enabling volunteers to learn new skills and
uncover this hidden part of Sheffield’s rich history. HLF is dedicated to supporting projects that
open up our heritage for locals and visitors to learn about and enjoy”
To find out more details of Ruskin-in-Sheffield, and how to get involved, please come to the
public launch on Sunday 1st February 4pm - 7pm at Ruskin Hall, Walkley Community
Centre, 7a Fir St, Sheffield, S6 5TG. Adults and children welcome. Tea-time refreshments
available. Please contact ruskininsheffield@gmail.com to let us know you’re coming. See
www.ruskininsheffield.com for more details.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Background to Ruskin-in-Sheffield
Ruskin-in-Sheffield builds on growing local interest in Ruskin following the Guild-sponsored Can
Art Save Us? and Force of Nature exhibitions at the Millennium Gallery in recent years. It
precedes a third major exhibition, on Craftsmanship, taking place in 2016 and represents a major
contribution to the events leading up to the bi-centenary of Ruskin's birth in 2019.
This community heritage programme, supported by the HLF award, forms the majority of the
overall Ruskin-in-Sheffield programme for 2015, further details of which will be announced in the
spring. www.ruskininsheffield.com
About the Guild of St George
The Guild of St George is a charitable education trust that promotes arts, crafts and the rural
economy. It was founded in 1871 by the Victorian artist, thinker, writer and social reformer John
Ruskin to create a better world for people to live and work in. The Guild owns and supports the
Ruskin Collection, currently managed and displayed by Museums Sheffield. The Ruskin
Collection was originally housed at St George’s Museum in Walkley, established by John Ruskin
in 1875 (and remained in Walkley until 1890) to inspire and educate the metal workers of
Sheffield. The Collection includes watercolours, drawings, prints, architectural plaster casts,
minerals, illustrated books, manuscripts and coins. From 1876 to1885 the Guild owned St
George’s Farm in Totley with the aim of establishing a co-operative community where they would
grow their own food and make a living from their skills as craftsmen.
Today, the Guild also manages oak woodland and farmland in the Wyre Forest in
Worcestershire, leases a small number of arts-and-crafts properties in Hertfordshire, hosts public
symposia to discuss issues of contemporary significance from a Ruskinian perspective, and runs
the annual national John Ruskin Prize for art with the Campaign for Drawing.
www.guildofstgeorge.org.uk
About the Heritage Lottery Fund
Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) aims to
make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a
resilient heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural
environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has
supported over 37,000 projects with more than £6bn across the UK including £445m to over
3,100 projects in Yorkshire & the Humber alone. www.hlf.org.uk.
For further information, images and interviews
Please contact Ruth Nutter, Producer, Ruskin-in-Sheffield on 07951 578208 or
ruskininsheffield@gmail.com