Hauser and Wirth trip

On the 13 June, a minibus load of us went to visit Hauser and Wirth, near Bruton in Somerset which I've been wanting to visit ever since it opened in 2014.
 It's a pioneering world-class gallery and multi-purpose arts centre, which acts as a destination for experiencing art, architecture and the remarkable Somerset landscape through new and innovative exhibitions of contemporary art. A landscaped garden, designed for the gallery by internationally renowned landscape architect Piet Oudolf, includes a 1.5 acre perennial meadow, which sits behind the gallery buildings.
We started by having lunch in the nearby allotments, and then met our guide, Leslie Glenn Damhus, who gave us a very comprehensive tour of H&W for 90 minutes.

 As Helen talked about the history of the gallery, and how it had changed Bruton, I looked round at the lovely buildings surrounding us, and then went indoors to have a look at the exhibition by Rashid Johnson has an exhibition occupying all 4 galleries. If you click on the link, it will explain all of the works. The first gallery was a bit like a floral bookshop, it was hard not to brush against the overhanging plants

 From there we went into a gallery with 4 pictures like this

 here's a close up:

 And then in the next gallery here's Leslie explaining the 'faces'

 and in the fourth gallery there are some large tropical collages:

To give you an idea of the scale of the beautiful gallery space, here are some of our party in the gallery:

 From the galleries, we walked into the garden, which is a delight.

 There is some grass which I'd forgotten about:

 But mostly riots of colour in the wonderful beds

 I loved this Penstemon Digitalis Husker red

 and after being shown around by Leslie, looked at individual beds, identifying plants wiht my Oudolf Field guide.

 There are paths leading up to the structure at the end of the garden

 You can just see the orange Eremurus tails in the breeze below

 At the entrance to the garden, these two Louise Bourgeois Eye Benches III 1996-1997 made from Black Zimbabwe Granite are fabulous, although very hot on that day.

 I loved this trough:

 and these raised veg beds.

I will also mention we had an exceptional cream tea before leaving.
It's also worth mentioning Bruton, we stopped there for coffee before arriving at H&W, I'd like to go back and have a proper look, but here are a few glimpses of what we saw:

 above glorious alleyways, and below Stephen Davy-Osborn suggested we visit At the Chapel for coffee and other refreshments. Checking out the website, I discover you can also stay there. It's worth having a look at the photos of the bedrooms.

 Here we are having coffee

 general views of the chapel

 There's also a river running through Bruton

 The remains of this building can be seen form H&W and from Bruton, so it must be easy to walk from the town to Hauser and Wirth.

 Wonderful day out.

Open Farm Sunday 11 June

Open Farm Sunday is an event held all over the country annually, It is a fantastic opportunity for everyone, young and old, to discover at first hand what it means to be a farmer and the fabulous work they do producing our food and managing the countryside.
I thought it was something that only happened on the Archers until Gill Swanton invited the Friends and  Museum staff to the event, encouraging us to spread the word about the bid for the new building, aided by the model.
Gill was right, it was a wonderful event, with lots of interesting stalls, activities, food. We met lots of people who hadn't realised we were putting in an HLF bid for a new museum and art gallery in November.
We were in a the main barn, and described by the Marlborough News as follows: 'They got too a glimpse of the (possible) future with a model of the striking design for the proposed Swindon Museum and Art Gallery...supporters of the scheme were gathering further support to help their bid for funding.'

You can see Sue Pycroft, of Vox Publicity, and Rod Hebden, Director of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Trust

 Another general photo of people looking at the model and talking about it.

 Outside the barn, there were long queues at the food stalls, I particularly enjoyed my hog roast bap.

 People also took their dogs

 The model is going out to many events this summer, including these:

    

24/6/2017	Dorcan Summer Fete Sat 11am to 4pm	Volunteer(s) needed
29/6/2017	Swindon Business Expo, STEAM – Thurs 9.30am to 5pm	Volunteer(s) needed
1/7/2017	Wroughton Carnival – Sat 1pm to 6pm	Volunteer(s) needed
8/7/2017	Wrde Up Festival, Highworth Sat 2pm to 6pm	Volunteer(s) needed
9/7/2017	Old Town Festival – Sun midday to 6pm?	Volunteer(s) needed
15 or 16/7/2017	Steam, Cider and Sausages festival – Sunday, 10am to 5pm Swindon and Cricklade Railway,Blunsdon	Volunteer(s) needed
15/7/2017	Pinehurst  Fun Day	Volunteer(s) needed
22/7/2017	Stratton Festival, Grange Leisure, Stratton. Saturday 12 to 6pm	Volunteer(s) needed
29/7/2017	Swindon and Wilts PRIDE festival, Town Gardens, Swindon. Sat – 12 to 6pm?	Volunteer(s) needed
12 or 13/8/2017	Swindon and Cricklade Railway Steam and Vintage weekend – time to be confirmed- Sat & Sun	Volunteer(s) needed
19/8/2017	Wanborough Summer Show and Carnival, Wanborough – 12 to 5pm?	Volunteer(s) needed
3/9/2017	Swindon Half Marathon – finish at Wharf Green - afternoon	Volunteer(s) needed
9/9/2017	Prospect Hospice Garden fete	Volunteer(s) needed
10/9/2017 TBC	Culture and Cream teas – Richard Jefferies Museum	Volunteer(s) needed
Date to be confirmed	GWH	Volunteer(s) needed

Obviously some have taken place, but if you feel you would like to help in spreading the word about the plans for the new museum and art gallery, please email Sue Pycroft at sue@voxonline.co.uk

Professor Gill Clarke on the Bishop Otter Art Collection.

Professor Gill Clarke was our speaker in May. She gave us a fascinating insight into the Bishop Otter Art Collection housed at Chichester University.
The history of the Bishop Otter Art Collection at the University of Chichester is the history of a vision held by two remarkable women: Sheila McCririck (1916-2001) and K.M. Elisabeth ‘Betty’ Murray (1909-98). In this the centenary year of the birth of Sheila McCririck, Head of Art at Bishop Otter College from 1949-77.
There are great similarities between the Bishop Otter Collection and the Swindon Art Collection, as Gill illustrated with slides of works in the Otter collection. In some cases she admitted we had a better example of an artist's work than they had!
Photos difficult in the darkness, here's Gill photographed during the talk:

 A fairly packed house:

 I do love these jugs by Alison Britton, they are buff earthenware with incised and inlaid black underglaze drawings.

 William Crozier's 'Dark Fields, Essex' is also a beautiful work, although very difficult to appreciate here!:

Gill had 3 books available to buy:

Next talk 'Order from Chaos: Behind the Scenes at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery' by Stefanie Vincent tonight, 29 June at 7.30pm

Madresfield Court trip

The first of our Friends' trips took place last week to the little known Madresfield Court set in glorious rural Worcestershire with the dramatic backdrop of the Malvern Hills..
Madresfield Court is a moated stately home which has been in the Lygon family for nearly 900 years and is currently home to the 29th generation of that family.
The house is an architectural masterpiece and played a significant part in nurturing the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as acting at least in part as the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh and Brideshead Revisited. It also contains a fine collection of paintings, furniture and ceramics.
It's possible to book a guided tour around the house, but it's not open to the public in the way many other stately homes are, there's no cafe, and a very basic shop.
Our tour was booked for 2.30pm, so having left Swindon at 10am, we arrived at Madresfield at 11.30am. On ringing Madresfield Court, we discovered they didn't want us to arrive before 1.30pm because otherwise we'd spoil the experience for the other group who had a morning tour.
It was suggested we went to Malvern for a couple of hours, so we could grab a coffee and eat our packed lunches, it's difficult to convey the splendour of the hills there

 As we left the coach, the driver decided to turn the coach round, and unfortunately hit the lamp post in the centre of the car park, removing a wing mirror and shattering some of the windscreen, this meant that we couldn't be driven to Madresfield Court in this coach, so by the time we returned to the coach, we had a different coach and driver.
While in Malvern, we walked through Priory Park and admired the wooden sculpture carved into a damaged cedar tree by Tom Harvey. Initially you just see a leg, and then from different angles, there's lots more to see

 and a close up

 Prior Park also has a band stand.

 This is Prior park an impressive Gothic building housing the council offices

 Refreshed by the trip to Malvern, we were quickly at Madresfield, here people are seeing their first views of the house

 and here it is:

 Is this a better view?

 There's lots of wonderful topiary in the garden

 The nearer you get to the house, the better the views of it. I like this one

 There are busts in the grounds

 This is the entrance to the house with the most glorious Wisteria around the entrance.

  That's the last photo because there's no photography allowed inside, however I've found photos of the interior here it's worth a look. 11 May was the first day of Malvern Show, which meant there was a lot of traffic to negotiate to get home. However, it was a wonderful day out.
Next trips: 13 June Hauser and Wirth and 13 July The Watts Gallery

Creative Wiltshire exhibition

Last week  the official opening of the Creative Wiltshire exhibition at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery was held in the downstairs front rooms. It's a lovely exhibition celebrating some of the wonderful creativity in Wiltshire, with quite a lot of work from Swindon. Refreshments included ginger beer which has become quite a feature of events at the museum, celebrating the many ginger beer makers once operating in the town. The drink, while very refreshing, has an almost alcoholic hint about it, and makes me wonder if there could be a revival of locally produced ginger beer, maybe I'll ask Old Town Brewery what they think about brewing some.

Looking at the museum's website, they describe the exhibition as follows:

Creative Wiltshire: Celebrating modern art and design from Swindon and Wiltshire

 The landscape and character of Wiltshire has long inspired artists and designers. This exhibition celebrates artists from Swindon and Wiltshire who feature in our Collection of Modern British Art and includes many recent acquisitions.Since 2015, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery has worked with Wiltshire Council and museums across the county to acquire modern and contemporary work by artists from Wiltshire and Swindon. This exhibition brings together new acquisitions made through this scheme and includes work by Ken White, Patricia Volk, Sasha Wardell and Katharine Pleydell Bouverie, artists who live or work in Wiltshire.The exhibition also explores the Swindon Artists Society and Swindon Sketch Club, two organisations which between the 1940s and 1980s brought together some of the town’s most exciting artists, including Leslie Cole, Carleton Attwood, Harold Dearden and George Reason.Discover modern British art with a Wiltshire flavour!

Here's a sample of some of the gems, with number one, George Reason's wonderful depiction of the diving platform at Coate Water, entitled 'The Polluted Lake', painted in 1969. 

 These ceramic pieces above are made by Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie and were acquired for Swindon through the Creative Wiltshire project.

 Above with far too much reflection Gerald Gardiner's Towards Wiltshire, Early Autumn, interseting view of the window though!

 Above E.Bampton's painting of 'Coate Water' painted in 1948, it looks very tranquil

Below more ceramics in a case.

 Below in the other room, the maquette used to make a Carleton Atwood sculpture, The Watchers.

 Below in this cabinet there are 2 Desmond Morris paintings and the 2 works bought with funding from this project by Patricia Volk.

 and on the side wall, quite hard to see is an aquatint by Howard Hodgkin

 There's a lovely painting of a magnolia in flower on the other side of the cabinet with the maquette in it.

 There's much more to see in this lovely exhibition, and an alternative view by Martin Parry who was taking photos there last week. Martin has also produced a compilation of photos of Swindon Sketch Club in 1950 where you can glimpse some of the pictures in this exhibition on the walls.