News in Brief
11th Persian Painting Nat’l Biennial to open today
ISNA – The 11th Persian Painting National Biennial will open today at Tehran’s Saba Cultural and Artistic Institute.
This year, 221 works by 152 artists will go on display.
The exhibition will host 77 taz’hib (illuminated manuscript) artworks from 55 artists, 23 miniature designs by 12 artists, and 58 miniature paintings by 40 artists.
Organized by Visual Arts Center, the cultural event is to develop and elevate the status of miniature painting in contemporary Iran, and create an appropriate platform for the growth and flourishing of miniature painting. The biennial will run through April 9.
Wuthering Heights church to be restored
Church Times – A crumbling redundant church, which appeared in a film version of ‘Wuthering Heights,’ is to be restored as part of the cultural heritage of the Yorkshire Dales.
Lunds Church, in High Abbotside, was built in the 18th century to serve the farming community in the remotest corner of Upper Wensleydale, but the rural population declined, congregations shrank, and the building was deconsecrated in 1981.
The Grade II listed building has little to distinguish it as a church. It could at first glance be mistaken for a historic school; only the graveyard, with its few remaining headstones, gives away its former function. It was the smallest church in Ripon diocese, seating just 60 people, and featured in the 2011 film version of ‘Wuthering Heights,’ by the Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold.
The cost of the work is likely to run into five figures, but is expected to be covered by grants: its exterior will be protected from the elements; its single door and windows will be replaced with period replicas; an inscription, “God is Love”, will be reinstated above the east window; and the tiled altar floor and wooden rail will be reinstated. The bell, currently in the Dales Countryside Museum, in Hawes, nearby, will be rehung, and electricity reconnected for heaters to combat damp.