People all across the region have come together to help John Taylor Hospice celebrate its 110th anniversary with an exhibition which will be on public display during December.

People of all ages and backgrounds have spent the spring and summer creating fabric birds which will be brought together in the Fleeting Moments exhibition.

Created by Birmingham artists Jane Thakoordin and Margaret Murray, Fleeting Moments will be displayed in the windows of the charity’s shops in Erdington and Castle Bromwich.

The project was launched in the spring and initially featured workshops where people could come together to create the birds with the artists. But when lockdown hit, the workshops had to be suspended.

However John Taylor put a call out across the city and beyond, sharing templates and a ‘how to’ film to encourage people to sew their own birds during lockdown.

As a result, the hospice received birds in a huge range of designs and colours from all across the region.

John Taylor Hospice head of brand and media Diane Parkes said: “We were worried that cancelling the workshops would be a problem but in fact it meant that more people could be involved as anyone could create a bird in their own homes and in their own time.

“Over the summer we received not just lots of beautifully hand-crafted birds but also some lovely letters telling us how making the birds had kept people occupied with something fun to do while they were unable to go out and socialise.”

Fleeting Moments forms part of the hospice’s 110th anniversary celebrations during 2020. Other events have included a poetry competition for children and a new history section on the hospice website.

Founded by philanthropists in Birmingham in 1910, John Taylor is one of the oldest hospices in the UK and has provided care for local people for more than a century.

Fleeting Moments will be installed at the John Taylor Hospice Charity Shop at 121 High Street, Erdington until 21 December and will then move to the John Taylor Hospice Charity Shop at Castle Bromwich Shopping Centre until 4 January.

For more information on the hospice’s 110th anniversary click here. For more on the artists click here.