Kettering mosaic movie's red-carpet premiere to tell story of artwork and town

Kettering will feature on the silver screen at the town’s Odeon Cinema when the story of an iconic artwork is premiered.

The Lost Mosaic tells the battle to save 1960s artwork from demolition and the trials and tribulations to bring it back to the town.

On Thursday, March 16, Monica Özdemir, the long-standing secretary of Kettering Civic Society and the driving force behind the campaign to save KetteringGrammar School’s mosaic, will be joined by the team behind the project on the red carpet.

It has taken nearly two decades to bring the mosaic back to Kettering – a finale caught on camera for the documentary.

Monica said: “I’m extremely excited. This will be the big ‘full-stop’ on the project. I’m really excited to be sharing this with everyone. People will see Kettering and will be proud. We have got a lot to be proud of.”

The campaign by Kettering Civic Society to save the mosaic began in 2005 when Kettering’s former Grammar School building – taken over by Kettering Boys’ School and Tresham College – was set to be demolished.

Attached to the outside wall was a 45ft by15ft mosaic created by artist Kenneth Budd in 1963 to tell the town’s history.

Public funding allowed the original work to be dismantled in 2007 but the mosaic, not made with frost-resistant tiles, subsequently disintegrated whist in storage.

The story of the mosaic has been made into a documentary film produced by UKFilm School, funded by Historic England and movie-goers will see how Kenneth Budd’s son Oliver, a renowned mosaic artist in his own right, recreated his father’s work.

Narrating and presenting the story is actress Victoria Wicks, literary giant H E Bates’s eldest granddaughter. The Darling Buds of May author attended Kettering Grammar School.

Monica said: “Victoria has been very loyal and has done all of this for nothing. We are so grateful.

"Over the years, fundraising by the civic society and three failed attempts to gain Heritage Lottery Funding made the project seem unachievable until the determination of the society bore success, even though this did not happen easily.”

In 2020, the project to restore the mosaic to the town was given part of the £1,480,000 for the Kettering High Street Heritage Action Zone funding. At the same time the Kettering Cultural Consortium was formed which enabled voluntary groups to apply to Historic England funding for projects. Kettering Civic Society successfully bid to fund a film about the mosaic.

With the original tiles crumbled away, a new smaller facsimile of the mosaic sized at 11ft by 3ft was made by Oliver Budd, now installed in Cornerstone.

Filming took director Gary Halliday to Boughton House, The Alfred East Art Gallery, Wicksteed Park and around Kettering.

More than 100 people are expected at the showing at 7pm on Thursday, March 16.

Monica said: “I’m hoping that I have been cut out as much as possible but it will good for my family to see what I have been doing all these years.

"I can’t wait to see it.”

The Lost Mosaic will be published on DVD after the premiere.

For free tickets email [email protected].