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David Sparrow has enjoyed tremendous success throughout his professional career as a photographer, a career with obvious artistic leanings, but it was not until keyhole surgery rendered him inert that David applied his talents to achieving artistic success.
David first came into contact with Arts Development through Revnd Dr Andreas Loewe, a former curate at St Mary's Church in Slough, when the initial idea for the Via Dolorosa project had been proposed.
The Via Dolorosa project was the artistic interpretation of the Stations of the Cross (the story of Jesus' journey from condemnation by Roman Governor Pontius Pilate to the cross) by artists drawn from different faiths. Each artist adopted a particular Station and expressed their understanding of it through their particular art form.
Given the ironic parallels between the story of the Via Dolorosa, the suffering of one man to bring hope and happiness to others, and the story of David's own involvement with the Via Dolorosa project you have to wonder if a little divine intervention wasn't at work. After undergoing surgery on his shoulder David was forbidden from using a camera and lifting heavy objects. 'After a weekend I thought, 'I can't stand this! This is just totally, mind-numbingly boring.' So I phoned Rebecca Cairns (Arts Development Manager) and asked if she had room for me on the Community Arts Training Scheme (CATS).'
Whilst David was working through the CATS he learned an application to fund the Via Dolorosa had been unsuccessful but in a fortunate twist of fate an officer from Arts Council England was speaking at the CATS course and David directly appealed for a second chance. David re-submitted the application, which was approved in October 2004.
David was both Project Manager and an individual artist on the project, a position that could have been untenable if his temperament was of the artistic variety, but there was never any question of David's ego taking centre stage. He might not have agreed with other artists' interpretation of a Station but to behave in a censorial fashion would have undermined the integrity of the project. 'That was a learning curve,' David says, 'the realisation that you were there to facilitate artists whose views you may not agree with, or in at least one case, that I strongly disagreed with.'
Since completion, the Via Dolorosa has been exhibited at St Mary's in Slough and also at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford to critical acclaim from the wider community. It has been featured in its religious interpretation at Michaelhouse in Cambridge, in Pforzheim Germany, and in a secular setting, at South Hill Park, in Bracknell, where it shared a gallery with 'Spectacular Miracles, one of the Independent Newspaper's 'top five - must see' exhibitions. The project also won the Mayor's Arts Awards for Project of the Year in Slough in 2006.
David continues to work with the community through Art Beyond Belief and is now involved with Music into Upton, a project that takes live music into the geriatric wards of Upton Hospital.
Interview by Andrew Unsworth