Art on Tour Exhibitions and Talks

Art on Tour is hosting three exhibitions, the first of which is at STEAM, and opened yesterday. Please have a look at the Swindon Borough Council website for details. I tried copying and pasting the information, but it's too wide for the page!

 The first exhibition, 'The Art of Industry' is at Steam Museum, it opened yesterday, and features work by Ken White and other artists. It celebrates Swindon's railway and industrial heritage. 

I am grateful to Barbara Swann for these photos of the exhibition:

There's also a free lunchtime talks programme which can be found here. Note they do need to be booked in advance of the talk. Hope to see you at a talk!

Spreading the Word

 There are still lots of people who don't know Swindon Museum and Art Gallery exists, and if they do are unsure where it is located. During the Covid pandemic, it has been difficult to advertise somewhere, like many other venues, which cannot be open at the moment due to lockdown. The Friends have been looking for ways to publicise this fabulous place to a wider audience, and one of our newer committee members, Angela Atkinson, kindly agreed to put an entry onto the great We Are Swindon site, so here we are, please take a look, I think it's an excellent piece:

https://weareswindon.co.uk/swindons-charity-hub/friends-of-swindon-museum-and-art-gallery/

 For a flavour of the art in our Collection of 20th Century art, please take a look at Art On Tour led by Katie Ackrill and Mags Parker, this aims to share the collections wile the venue is closed.

I've included 'Winter in Pendlebury' by LS Lowry, it seemed apt in the freezing cold weather, although we haven't got the snow.

Art On Tour Goes Outdoors!

Yes that's right, the fabulous Art On Tour duo, Katie Ackrill and Mags Parker bring you Art on Trees in Swindon Parks for the whole of October.  It's a great idea, and of doesn't involve actual artworks being strapped to trees, but photographs of 10 paintings appear on banners with extra information, and they are then tied to trees. It's a great way to encourage families to get outside into parks before we descend into winter.

This initiative started last week in the Town Gardens, and somehow the week flew by, and I suddenly remembered last night that I hadn't been to photograph all ten of the artworks. I was up bright and early this morning, arriving at the Town Gardens before 9am, and was pleased to see the poster on the gate advertising Art on Trees, but on entering the park, I noticed the first poster featuring the work 'Girl Selling Flowers' by Desmond Morris had disappeared. I looked round and saw that 'Studland Bay - A Black Sea Coast' by Roger Fry was still on its tree. Walking towards the rose garden, I noticed Katie and Mags beside a tree with 'Ship Amid Tall Waves' by Alfred Wallis, they were in the process of taking down the display and moving it to Coate Water.

Here are the photos I managed to take, sadly I'd missed quite a lot of the pictures, you can see them on the website, or by visiting Coate Water this week, a much better option.

 

After this I went round with them as they took down the rest of the banners:

Above 'Back of the Granary, Poland' by Robert Bevan, and below Katie undoing the ties

I did manage to see half the works

It's worth a trip to see all of them at Coate Water this week, then they move onto Stanton Park, and Lydiard Park. To find out more about the outdoor activities offered by Art on Tour, do have a look at their website. 

There's a post about outdoor sculpture, and information to start you thinking about it. Which brings me neatly round to our next Zoom talk on 22 October, by sculptor Joseph Ingleby on his sculpture 'Turtle Storm' which has been in Queens Park by the pond for quite a number of years. Here's a reminder of what it looks like:

I've also found a poster with all the dates on it:

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Art on Tour Talk

 Katie Ackrill and Mags Parker were invited to give us a  talk via Zoom on Thursday 6 August to explain what the Art on Tour project was intended to achieve, and what has happened since it was partially hijacked by everything closing down due to Covid 19. Katie and Mags were appointed at the end of 2019 . Both appointments were part time, and with a slightly different emphasis,  Katie Ackrill is the Project Engagement Officer for Art on Tour, which aims to help more people in more places engage with Swindon's collection of modern British art, in unique and meaningful ways. Katie has an MA in Art History from the University of Reading, leads Art History leisure courses at New College, Swindon. Mags Parker is the Learning Officer for Art on Tour and has developed materials for use in schools and other educational settings.

'Art on Tour at Home' is a digital engagement and education project, which brings Swindon's nationally significant art collection to audiences in the comfort and safety of their own homes. This includes art appreciation in the form of the Art Snaps podcast and the Art on Tour Blog, and access to a large number of family activities and education resources, including a Families in Residence Programme. I have engaged most with the art snaps podcasts and wrote about them here until I couldn't keep up with the sheer output. They are well worth watching, and I will catch up with them.

Katie and Mags took us through the history of the project via a series of slides which I photographed, and here thye are in order. I had hoped we would have been able to record the talk, but apologies in the heat of changing hosts, we didn't manage to do that.

So you can see the point of the project, it was to go out into schools and other places...

There are exhibitions in STEAM and at the Civic Offices through the sliding doors. I'm not sure if the Civic Offices is accessible yet.

Examples of works at the Civic Offices include 'Aerobots' by David Bent and 'Icelandic Scene' by Roy Bizley

Katie and Mags had worked with various venues where works could be loaned out and displayed. I'm not sure how the insurance and transport and security would work, but these were the suggested partners

Above is a list of all the activities and things Mags and Katie have done since they started, the job hasn't been what they expected to be doing, but they have certainly achieved a lot.

Add caption

I think there are two more artsnaps since they recorded the talk

I have written posts about the Swindon Spring Festival talk and the wonderful Great British Art Quiz in the Guardian. Wasn't that a pleasant surprise?

Lastly they reminded us that we can find them on Facebook, Instagram and the Museum and Art Gallery website

Great to hear about this initiative while the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery remain closed due to Covid restrictions.
 

Art on Tour: The Story of Swindon's Modern Art Collection

You will be aware that Swindon's Spring Festival became a Virtual Festival due to Covid-19 restrictions. What you might not be aware of, is the fact that you can still watch the whole festival online, buy clicking on here
Art On Tours, Katie Ackrill gave an excellent account of Swindon's Modern Art Collection on  Saturday 16 May at 11am, and you can watch the whole video here.
The introductory information on the Spring Festival site says:
'People are often surprised to hear that Swindon owns one of the best collections of Modern British Art in the UK, with artworks by both nationally known and local artists. This vibrant talk for the Swindon Spring Festival will tell the story of Swindon’s art collection, through 12 fascinating artworks. Katie will reveal stories interwoven with these pieces, and reveal how they came to be in Swindon This talk will be available, free of charge, via Swindon Museum and Art Gallery’s YouTube Channel, and Swindon Spring Festival’s YouTube Channel.
Wiltshire-based exhibitions coordinator Katie Ackrill works out of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.'
Katie gives a great account of the fascinating stories behind the acquisition of the collection in true festival style. I will include here a few of the works Katie talked about.

This is 'Composition in Black and White' by Ben Nicholson

 and the Patrick Hayman's 'Captain James Cook in New Zealand'

and also 'Port of Bristol' by Paul Methuen

But do click on the link above to hear the whole talk
If this has whetted your appetite for more, quite a few of the works in the collection are listed on the ArtUK website, why not have a look?

Highlights from the Civic Offcies - Podcast 6

In her sixth podcast as part of getting the Swindon Collection online, Katie Ackrill, the museum's Art on Tour Project Engagement Officer has selected three paintings from those displayed at the Civic Offices in Euclid Street. This exhibition was open to the public before the Covid-19 lockdown, and I wrote about it in my personal blog last December.

Katie selected two absolute favourites of museum visitors: 'The Printer' by Sylvia Gosse to talk about, giving fascinating insights into the painting and Sylvia's life.

The second painting is 'Tower Bridge- A Wartime Nocturne' by Claude Francis Barry seen below.

and thirdly the Jack Smith's painting entitled 'Sounds and Silences', painted in the early 1980s it captures sound using visual means.

To listen to what Katie has to say about these three paintings, please click on the link : Podcast 6