Exhibition archive

Katie Spragg: Plants, Porcelain, People

18 May 2021 - 12 June 2021
St Peter Hungate Church, Princes St, Norwich NR3 1AE
Supported by EAAF - if you're not a member and would like to attend this event Join Now.

Plants, Porcelain, People is a new ceramic commission and exhibition which will open at St Peter Hungate church, Norwich in May as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. This new, collaborative installation has been made by Katie Spragg in response to, and in partnership with, a group of extraordinary young refugees through the Norwich based charity, Norwich International Youth Project.

Katie Spragg is an established ceramicist working in porcelain to create delicately beautiful plant sculptures. She has undertaken a number of commissions and work with communities, notably a major commission for the Garden Museum, Lambeth in 2019. She trained at the Royal College of Art where she herself is now a lecturer on the MA in Ceramics and Glass.

My involvement in this project will provide an opportunity for a sustained period of research and development, responding to a particular site. Developing ideas for the work in response to Norwich International Youth Project participants will be particularly valuable. A number of projects I was involved in last year were cancelled due to Covid, and this project will give me chance to find new ways of working and responding to participants. Katie Spragg

Between February and March 2021 and in line with Government guidelines on social distancing, Katie undertook a series of clay workshops with the young people over Zoom, taking as inspiration the ways in which plants play a part in our lives. Exploring ideas of plants for food, healing and enjoyment, the young people have learnt with Katie how to express themselves, by creating sculptural objects in clay that Katie will include in the installation.

Following the workshops, Arts Council England has funded a period of making for Katie to realise a commission that will be installed for all to enjoy in Norwich during the Festival. The work will take on ideas around the medieval plantsman’s garden at St Peter Hungate and will bring the garden into the church in porcelain and other types of clay. The pieces made by the young workshop participants will be incorporated with Katie’s own work to make a piece that fills the beautiful, light space of the decommissioned church, and which visitors will gradually discover as they journey through the church and garden at St Peter Hungate.

Exhibition credits

A ceramic commission by Katie Spragg with Caroline Fisher Projects. Supported by Arts Council England, EAAF and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

Katie Spragg in her studio
© the artist

/ Exhibition archive / Katie Spragg: Plants, Porcelain, People

Katie Spragg: Plants, Porcelain, People

Exhibition credits

Free Admission

EAAF Newsletter