Ken White's Private View

The Friends' committee organised a Private View for Ken White's exhibition currently in the gallery at the museum on the first day of the exhibition. There was a fabulous turn out, with around 90 people attending, and canapes provided by The Olive Tree cafe, situated adjacent to TWIGS. I'll post a few of the photos I took during the evening.

 We had a bar licence for the evening and so were able to sell alcohol from the 'bar' seen above

 Phyllida, canapes in left hand, and Ruth above chatting

 Canapes seen on the right hand side of the photo, and below I asked Graham if he would pose with this picture because his polo shirt was almost the same colour as the smoke in the painting.

 It wasn't easy to get a photo of Ken in relaxed pose, here he is behind Vicky and Sally

 Jeremy and Marion having a chat

 Phyllida with canapes in the entrance to the gallery, with Martin enjoying them

 Sophie Cummings, Curator at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery was kind enough to come and chat about the exhibitions, and when she would be giving lunch time talks, I think.
The next FREE lunchtime talk is tomorrow 18 October from 12.30pm-1.00pm about the exhibition: 'Touring the Swindon Collection 60 years On', about the exhibition in the main part of the gallery

 Here's another photo of Ken White

 and Sophie again, in the photo below, with Angela Atkinson in blue with her back to the camera. Angela has written a book in association with Ken about his life and work, available in the museum shop, booksellers in the town, and online, it's well worth a look with masses of illustrations. I haven't read it yet, just looked at the pictures so far, and they're brilliant.

 Tom Seaward from Swindon Advertiser wrote a piece in the Adver to celebrate the show, and here's Ken below with brother Mike and his wife Sue at the end of a brilliant evening. Thank you to all those who came and made it very special. We raised almost £200 in the raffle donated by Ken, it was one of his linocuts.

After the PV, some of the committee went to relax in the Eternal Optimist where we were able to discuss the highlights of the evening.

Thank you once again to all those involved who made it such a special evening.
Don't miss Ken White in conversation with Andy Binks at 7.30pm on 28 and 29 November. Tickets from Swindon MAG or www.friendsofsmag.org