Banbury area school pupils collaborate to commemorate VE Day with ceramic poppy art exhibition

Bloxham School is taking part in a display of more than 400 ceramic poppies this week at Kingham Lodge’s sculpture exhibition, which originally was due to commence on May 8, 2020, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

A year on and the poppies along with other sculptures will be on display from the 1st – 9th May 2021. It is still to commemorate VE Day, but it was due to take place last year, and the event was postponed due to covid.

The poppies along with other sculptures will be on display from the May 1 to 9. They were created by pupils from Bloxham Primary Church of England School, Hook Norton School, St. Hugh’s Preparatory School, Swanbourne, Winchester House School and Bloxham School.

The poppy workshops were led by Bloxham School’s art teacher Rachel Lehmann and her husband Will Lehmann, who was one of the potters involved in the production of the 880,000 poppies created for the Tower of London art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red in 2014.

The poppies are purple in remembrance of animals that served during wartime. The poppies have been arranged to create a sculpture at 2/3 scale of a 7.2m wingspan Spitfire, the iconic fighter of the Royal Air Force in World War II.

Bertie Matthew, director of art at Bloxham School, said: “The Art department at Bloxham is excited to have created this ambitious display inspired by the Tower of London memorial. We are delighted to have been able to involve over 150 pupils from local schools in the production of over 400 poppies with a view of helping them to reflect on remembrance.”

The purple poppies from the exhibition will be sold to raise funds for Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

To attend the exhibition in the following week, pre-book your tickets on the Sculpture at Kingham Lodge website: https://www.sculptureatkinghamlodge.com/