THE COVID MONTHS| CURATOR
Julie Harding
Northern Guild Curator, Julie Harding, talks about her new role.
My name is Julie Harding and I am the curator of the Northern Guild. Behind every person there is a story and I marvel sometimes at how I ended up being a curator of an organisation that tends to people’s mental health. How those places, those buildings, the people within became part of my life, feeling like home and my chapel.
Just before lockdown we got instructions to take down all the miniatures from every room that had a sand tray.
For those who do not know me I am a sand tray fanatic. Sand tray work became my obsession during my training. It started at a conference I attended called the emergence of hope which was to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Northern Guild. I was mesmerised when Jennie Mcnamara stood in front of a very large audience in bare feet and lifted the sand from the sand box and let it run through her fingers. She asked the audience
“Where does sand come from?”
At that moment I needed to find out more. I ended up doing my MSc on sand tray interventions.
I was given permission to fill sunlight with miniatures, and I certainly did that. It gave me great joy searching for pieces in second hand shops, markets, skips, on ebay. Everywhere I went they were on my mind and I brought a little something back and found a space on the shelf in Sunlight. When that got a bit too full I would sneak them into other rooms, lobbying for all rooms to have a sand tray. Shoe boxes were filled for the sand tray workshops and all of this collecting fed my child within and gave her great satisfaction.
I cried when I had to remove the miniatures from Sunlight because of Covid. I did it with great sorrow, emptying the shelves in Sunlight while other therapists went and collected everything from the other rooms. The terrible reality hit me, I cannot work in the sand… I cannot work in the way I am used to.
I believe buildings absorb what happens in them, they somehow take on a presence of their own, they become a part of the whole life that goes on within them. They are the holders, the containers the shelter, and often the secure base from which the people whose inner lives they share return to for comfort, release and sanctuary. The American Indians believe that all things have spirit - earth sand, stones, air, water, fire, animals, trees, plants, so that will of course include buildings. Spirit has to fed and nurtured. We need to bring spirit back into our hallowed buildings.
The Northern Guild has two buildings that hold the history, contain the work, and provide the sanctuary and secure base for all who share them and have trusted them with their deepest feelings and innermost dreams. Being the Northern Guild curator is to keep those buildings alive for the people of the past the present and the future.
Just now those buildings seem dormant quietly waiting for more people to return. This is a good time to start planning and thinking about new ways of being and doing and experiencing.
Some of my ideas are setting art clubs where people create a painting, sculpture, a model that captures what the past few months have been for them. We can put them in the Guild to showcase them. (think Grayson Perry’s Art Club)
Singing together, learning a song or singing songs is fun and inspiring, and if you’re brave enough, dancing either five rhythms or free style or a routine we could learn either via zoom until we can get together. Give me a little of your energy, ideas or inspirations and together we can make something happen. I am sending out a call to my fellow Northern Guilders , harness your creativity and get in touch.
In the meantime, I am joyfully putting all the miniatures back on to the shelves. As I place each piece on the shelves I say mantras to give the rooms spirit, I sing cheerfully to myself imagining the buildings coming back to life and thriving again.
You can contact Julie at julieharding@northernguild.org
