2025 marks the fifth year that Wycliffe Hall has participated in Oxford Art Weeks, and we look forward to welcoming you to our College. This year we are featuring pottery, ceramic sculptures, oil and acrylic paintings, iconography, pastels, watercolours, textiles, fashion design, digital art, and drawings. Some of the artists will be available to discuss their work with guests and visitors.
Pablo Picasso once described art as ‘a lie that enables us to see the truth’. Wycliffe Hall is committed to fostering a New Renaissance, a vision of fresh thinking, scholarship, new wisdom and inspiration to inspire our culture. The beauty and creativity that artists bring frequently initiates profound revelation; a new strength that shines light and joy into our daily routines, the responsibilities and challenges which are an inevitable part of life.
Theologian Abraham Kuyper stated that art is ‘one of God's richest gifts to mankind’ commenting that the best art is designed to inspire us with the good and beautiful. It’s a restoration of something our world has lost through the corrupting influence of neglect, evil and wrongdoing. The current world crisis, uncertainties and challenges facing us give pause to reflect upon his wise words.
‘Beauty will save the world’, to slightly misquote Fyodor Dostoevsky! The truth remains that inspired art always has the power to move and motivate us, to communicate the power of love through creative beauty. The highest forms of art transcend the ordinary and mundane, pointing to a greater inspirational Light, encouraging engagement, thought, interaction and personal response.