Friends' January Social

To mark the opening of the exhibition, Pop and Prosperity:1960s British Art from the Swindon Collection, we held an opening night, and also took the opportunity to introduce two new part time outreach workers at the museum and unveil a new painting we had been given by our Patron, Desmond Morris.
We started the evening with an opening of the exhibition by Katie Ackrill who has been appointed Art on Tour Project Engagement Officer at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.

 Art on Tour is a project to advertise our Collections more widely, currently at STEAM Museum and also the Civic Offices in Euclid St.

 Mags Parker, seen in the picture above near the wall, also spoke about her new role as Education Officer at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. On a recent visit to New College, she asked how many of the students studying art had been to the Museum, out of a group of approximately 15 students, 2 had visited the gallery.

 I took a few photos of the assembled Friends, it was a very popular evening, with about 80 present.

 After Katie and Mags introduced themselves and how they saw their roles, the big event of the evening for me, was to unveil the painting we had been given by Desmond Morris, the choosing of the picture is written about in the previous blog post. The painting had been very well wrapped by Rona Marsden, who runs Rona's Gallery where Desmond's work was being shown, but was finally revealed. Erik Burnett-Godfree kindly agreed to talk about Desmond Morris and the painting, and a bit about why we had chosen it.

I love the painting and think people were very pleased with our choice.

 There was then time to chat and look at the Glyn Uzzel exhibition in the smaller part of the gallery

We now have three paintings by Desmond Morris, from his early period, Girl Selling Flowers, 1948, currently in the Civic Offices as part of the Art on Tour project

 and Mysterious Gift, 1965 which is in the current exhibition

Wine and Cheese Evening

Our December Friends' event was a fundraising wine and cheese evening. The evening was based on a similar event a year ago hosted by Old Town Business Association and organised by Friends of Twigs. I talked to those involved in organising it last year, and was offered the loan of small plates and wooden circular cheese boards from Olive Tree Cafe. Wine was supplied by Magnum Wine Shop in Wood Street, and there were some fabulous raffle prizes donated, including a hamper from Da Paolo's Delicatessen, mounted prints from David Bent, a linocut from Ken White, 100 Views of Swindon book from Tim Carroll, there were 2 bottles of wine, a miniature oil painting and a clock on offer as well. You can see below some of the prizes:

 and Ken White's linocut

 having set out the cheese, pate, plates, grapes, celery, bread, tomatoes, biscuits and wine Kathy and Martin take a breather before anyone else arrives

 Another view of the tables

and Rosemary checking everything is alright

 I had mentioned there would be speakers during the evening, somehow thinking I'd be able to persuade some of the artists taking part in the Collective Open Art Exhibition to talk. This needed more thought, and was not going to happen. Fortunately for everyone present, Erik Burnett-Godfree was able to save the evening by talking about what an interesting painting Lisa Milroy's 'Small Objects' is when scrutinised.

 I took a photo of the assembled crowd listening to Erik, and afterwards took a photo of David Ash with his photograph of an old boat.

What a brilliant evening, thank you to all those who came along. We raised over £600 which was great.