What connects the British singer Eds Šīrāns with the Latvian painter Laimonis Mieriņš?

Did you know that one of the most famous British singers and songwriters today, Ed Shiran, already knows from a child’s feet who Latvians are, what they are like, and has been closely connected with Latvian art?

Astrīda Rogule, an art historian, custodian of the Contemporary Collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, and an assistant professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture, knows this. In his Latvian Radio 3 cycle “Do you know?” says Ed and his brother Matthew were born in a small town in Hedenbridge, Yorkshire. Their mother, Imodenaun, and their father, John, are art scholars who once met while working at nearby museums: John was a specialist at Westminster Abbey, while Imoden Loka worked at the National Portrait Gallery. Both young people have figured out that they will take their family’s nest far away from London so that the children have a healthy environment and can develop well. But what to do yourself? They decide to set up their own artist consulting office, and it becomes “Sheeran Lock”, lsm reports.

Latvian painter Laimonis Mieriņš, who was once educated at the Goldsmiths College of Art in London, and worked as a drawing teacher at the Leeds School of Art, known for his revolutionary views, lived near them in Yorkshire, Shippley.

When he retired, Laimonis Mieriņš thought that he would use his pension savings to promote his artistic efforts, and turned to John Shiran, who agreed to become his agent. Both planned a plan worthy of Napoleon – to create an exhibition in both Riga and Bradford …

So that the Riga exhibition was planned at the Latvian National Museum of Art, I was commissioned to this project and went to Hedenbridge with John Shiran, living in a nice house for his family for a whole week with the babies, who knew very well who Laimonis Mieriņš was – his little one. the Latvian accent amused them.

However, my accent completely surprised both boys, because when I put them to sleep and read a book in English with songs to fall asleep, little Eduardiņš also asked: “Aunt, do you read English at all?”

Thanks to John Shiran, Laimonis Mieriņš also created an exhibition in Riga – John has visited here several times, organizing it. After that, this exhibition also took place in Bradford with great success, and everything was crowned in a now long-forgotten friendship.

The Vidzeme suburb also co-financed this project, becoming a Bradford twinning partner. I don’t know if Riga still remembers that Bradford and the suburb of Vidzeme once signed an agreement.

But one thing is clear – we remember Laimonis Mieriņš as a great artist, and the whole world knows who Eds Šīrans, to whom I once sang “Aija, the children of the gossip, bear” … Of course, he did not fall asleep at that time, but he remembers it gan!

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