At the end of a tough year, Gourmet Foods decided to brighten up a somewhat muted Chanukah with a morale-boosting display in its Harrogate Road shop window. Teaming up with Leeds-based artist John Jones, manager Sam Brightbart oversaw the street art project which received tremendous feedback from the community, with Brodetsky Primary School teacher Sagi Yechezkel particularly “thrilled” at the uplifting atmosphere it created.
The ever-enthusiastic head of Jewish Studies suggested his school partner up with Yorkshire’s only Kosher butcher to give pupils a welcome creative diversion from lockdown life. With the whole school pitching in their artistic ideas, the top prize was taken by Year 5 pupil Eva’s fiery display: “Art is my favourite subject so I really enjoyed doing this as part of the school day at home,” said the nine-year-old. “It makes me feel good because when people go past, they’ll be happy, and I want to make other people happy.”
Eva based her design around Purim, hoping her colourful work of art would help to fill the gap as she and her friends were unable to dress up and celebrate the festival in person. Eva’s mum Carolyn accompanied her talented daughter to watch John Jones bring the painting to life on the shop front: “I think it’s so nice that Gourmet chose a child from Brodetsky to design their shop,” said Carolyn. “It’s a really lovely thing to do to help with homeschooling through the pandemic.”
Gourmet has announced it will continue its special window displays for festivals throughout the year, as the community is excited to see what artistic flair is set to emerge next.
