A Year at...
York Art Gallery
York Art Gallery reopened in March 2005 after a period of refurbishment. It has been transformed into a visitor friendly public space with a new learning space, a welcoming café and exciting temporary exhibitions that are inspired by York’s designated fine and decorative collections.
The main ground floor gallery is now the main exhibition gallery which has displayed an on-going programme of temporary exhibitions. The new café has been an immediate success with tables and chairs spilling from the gallery in good weather onto Exhibition Square. For the first time ever we now have a dedicated educational space with the Studio, which is used for school groups and workshops. The total project cost £445,000 with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (£272,400), City of York Council (£85,000), Local Trusts and Foundations (£12,950), Friends of York Art Gallery (£10,000) with the Trust making up the rest from its own resources.
Reflections
The gallery has been extremely well received with 152,000 visitors during 2005-06. The opening exhibition Reflections, was sponsored by Gerrard, and featured paintings from the York collection paired with paintings from national and regional collections including artists such as Monet, Rembrandt and Titian. A wonderful exhibition of historic quilts Through the Needle’s Eye from the York Castle Museum collection was part of the opening celebration which coincided with the publication of the Trust’s first book which illustrated all of the collection of historic quilts. Reflections was succeeded by Forest, a contemporary art show curated by Wolverhampton Art Gallery. This was followed by Fired Up which was part of the Celebrating Ceramics project in partnership with Wakefield and Scarborough Art Galleries. Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation these three concurrent exhibitions were selected by Lars Tharp from York’s fabulous ceramic collection. 13,500 pieces were selected from the objects in the broad-ranging collection which includes everything from Prehistoric pots to contemporary works. The significant collection of WA Ismay collection of 20th Century studio pottery, which was recently bequeathed to York, was also a rich source for these exhibitions. This is a huge collection, with some 3400 pieces plus an archive. We have now relocated this to purpose-made ceramic storage enabling easy access and it is currently being catalogued with the help of a grant from the Paul Mellon Foundation. The start of 2006 saw Spanish Masters, which showcased the gallery’s collection of Spanish paintings, alongside a significant number of works from The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, and other paintings from Fairfax House, York, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, and The National Gallery. This exhibition was sponsored by the Friends of York Art Gallery.
Fired Up, part of the Celebrating Ceramics project.
The Trust is very keen to encourage more people to come to the gallery regularly. The café has certainly made the gallery more attractive to first time visitors and the changing exhibition programme gives reason for people to return. The Studio has been a great boon to what we can offer: Family First days on the first Saturday of each month have been really popular and the Territories project has enabled us to work with local community groups introducing them to the gallery and the collections, often for the first time. The groups have included Baby Gap, Blind and Partially Sighted, Informal Carers, Dads and Lads and Future Prospects.
The night time facade of York Art Gallery has been given a ‘light lift’ with an architectural lighting scheme. Weather Patterns, a contemporary digital commission by loop, responds to the changes in the weather. This was commissioned by the Renaissance Group as part of the Tourism Investment Fund and was funded by Yorkshire Forward.
Weather Patterns