A community arts project celebrating diversity, connectivity and care is being launched in Shepton Mallet.

'The Gleaning' is an inclusive arts project inviting people from all walks of life around the Shepton area to participate in making elements for a cooperative exhibition.

Large-scale translucent textile artworks will be suspended in front of 11 clear glass windows in Shepton Mallet's beautiful church. These windows represent light, looking beyond, raised vision, different perspectives.

Each panel will relate to a theme, all interconnected visually and conceptually. Themes include Harvest, Creation/the Earth, Home, Peace, Ruth's Story, Place, Care & Repair, Journeys.

Stories will reflect different styles and cultures, using found and recycled materials, all created with local inhabitants. Processes will include drawing, collage, print, tie dye, batik, stitch-on fabric, paper and plastic.

'The Gleaning' references the Biblical rule of leaving a portion of one's crop for the poorest to glean (Leviticus 19:9-10). The central thread of Harvest Festival celebrates plenty, gratitude, generosity, sharing, social cohesion, giving voice to the marginalised.

The project addresses Somerset Art Works' theme 'Sanctuary', with its key strands of the Spiritual, Sustainable and Social. It is centred in St Peter & St Paul's Church, a spiritual venue, welcoming, safe, sacred. The oldest building in town, it offered sanctuary throughout history, including to workers in the town's famous textiles industry.

Co-curators Gill Sakakini and Fiona Campbell, both local to Shepton Mallet, are weaving this heritage into current lives, particularly those from other cultures, welcoming diverse people and processes into community workshops.

As practising artists, Gill says: "Core to my practice is creativity as human flourishing. Through making with natural and reclaimed materials there's potential to resist demise in our world and imagine hopeful ways of living."

Fiona adds: "My approach is a form of suturing, repair. Materiality and process are central. My use of recycled and found materials relates to waste, our relationship with matter, nature, and ourselves."

Preparations are in progress for the first workshop at Collett Park Day, Shepton Mallet, on June 11, and a collaboration with those who attend Gill's weekly Drawing On sessions in the park, where sketches will inspire prints on recycled fabric and paper.

The Gleaning will gather momentum through further community workshops, culminating in a final exhibition as part of Somerset Art Weeks' Festival, from September 24 to October 9, supported by events including a jazz concert, film, and dramatic presentation of The Book of Ruth. It will provide engagement for audiences to respond to the positive connections between art, nature and well being; an opportunity to reflect, repair and renew.

For further information, please visit The Gleaning's Instagram page: @thegleaning_shepton