Scottish Catholic Observer

This year’s Lentfest in Glasgow Archdiocese—set to be the biggest and best celebration of the Church in the arts to date in Scotland—will be broadcast in part to a national audience for the first time.

Archbishop Mario Conti (above at last year’s launch), overseeing what will likely be his final Lentfest as Archbishop of Glasgow, said he was very proud of ‘the amazing growth and development of the festival.’

Now in its sixth year, Lentfest this year has academic, creative and media partners and more events than ever before. This year’s festival, which will be officially launched on February 21, encompasses dozens of events throughout Lent from a Stations of the Cross art exhibition to major theatre productions, from classical music to jazz, from poetry to lectures, in what is the biggest religious-based arts festival in Scotland.

Supporters

From small beginnings, the festival has established itself ‘as a regular celebration in the cultural life of Glasgow, a fact made evident by the range of supporters for this year’s events,’ the archbishop said.

This year the several new partners have added their backing to the festival, and the archbishop paid special tribute to them.

“I wish to acknowledge first and foremost the support of the University of Glasgow, the host for the launch and for many of the events of this year’s festival, and the media sponsorship of Premier Christian Radio whose efforts will bring Lentfest to an even wider audience,” he said. “I wish also to thank for their participation Strathclyde University, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow Caledonian University. A special word of thanks should also go to the long-time sponsor of Lentfest, Dumbreck Decorators, whose support from the beginning was essential to the festival’s growth.”

Peter Kerridge, CEO of Premier Christian Radio, said he was delighted his organisation had had the chance to become involved.

“Premier was the official faith media sponsor of The Way, the film release in May last year starring Martin Sheen,” he said. “At that time Premier hosted an exclusive preview screening in Glasgow, attended by representatives from the Archdiocese of Glasgow and AGAP. This presented an opportunity to open discussions with a view to building a relationship between Premier and the Christian churches in Scotland and in particular with the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Lentfest has a similarly inclusive appeal as Sheen’s film, and we hope to help promote it in such a way that will get both the local and wider community behind the festival.”

Mr Kerridge said that he believed this new partnership could help the festival go from strength to strength.

“We are now very happy to be working with the Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project (AGAP) on this year’s Lentfest,” he said. “Premier recognises the importance of this great ecumenical event… Furthermore the opportunity to broaden the outreach of the festival through on air broadcasting is wonderful.  Some of our on air guests from the festival will be actor and playwright Stephen Callaghan, artist Richard De Marco and Fr Guy Nichols, amongst others. We will be featuring highlights from the festival as they happen, broadcasting nationally.”

Director’s insight

Stephen Callaghan, Lentfest’s director, added that the involvement of Glasgow University, Strathclyde University, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow Caledonian University was particularly important to him.

“It is great these bodies have agreed to become involved,” he said. “For me I just want one student who is there to study, and is maybe feeling there back is to the wall regarding their faith, to see the institution they are at being involved with the Church and finding that encouraging for them.”

He is hopeful that students will take the involvement of the universities as a vindication of their faith.

“I had a hard time when I was at Glasgow University, because of individuals rather than intuition I should stress, but it is not easy to be Catholic student in arts discipline so I hope in some small way students see these things and it will put a different spin on things for them,” he said.

Festival highlights

The Lentfest Art Exhibition at Glasgow University Memorial Chapel, which will run throughout Lent, is a 2012 highlight and a central feature of this year’s festival. It focuses on the Stations of the Cross and features work by many top Scottish artists including John Lowrie Morrison and Peter Howson.

“It is amazing that these different artists from different backgrounds and traditions have all agreed to produce work based on these traditional themes,” Mr Callaghan said. “I think there is a powerful ecumenical discussion that can be inspired by this.”

Though there are a number of large classical events, including famous pianist Alessandra Pompili performing The Way of the Cross by Franz Liszt, Mr Callaghan said that he was keen to ensure a wide range of entry points for people of all backgrounds.

“The work done by Fire.Cloud in is worth flagging up,” he said. “They are doing a great thing where they build a choir form scratch at two different sites. That is a great thing for  people to be part of, and helps bring people into the festival.”

That interactive element is something he is very keen to maintain as part of Lentfest.

“For me heart and sole of the festival is work with the community,” he said. “But also something like the James MacMillan concert, which is very popular offers something quite unique, in that it is a chance to interact first hand with the composer as he will talk and answer questions.”

Another interactive series of events is the talks being held at the Glasgow University Memorial Chapel. Archbishop Conti, filmmaker Norman Stone and artist Professor Richard Demarco will all give an insight into how they have been shaped by both their faith and their love of the arts.

A key part of the festival, which is returning this year, is the play produced by AGAP which tours the parishes and this year is focused on the life of St John Ogilive.

“It begins with someone looking at the new picture of St John Ogilive in the St Andrew’s Cathedral and trying to imagine his life,” playwright Mr Callaghan explained. “It is something there has been a lot of interest in already and though the production has been a turbulent hopefully it will be a success.”

Deeper meaning

Although Lentfest has grown hugely in the last six years, Mr Callaghan is keen to stress the festival still runs on a tiny budget and that it is not about spending or making money but something much deeper.

“Pope John Paul II said that the history of art is a history of people’s souls,” he said. “I really believe that artists are bearing their souls when they work, whatever medium they are in, and the Church more than anyone should be involved in that.”

—     For full details of the Lentfest programme visit http://www.agap.org.uk/lentfest/

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—Pic: Paul McSherry