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York Art Gallery
This September we opened the Gallery of Pots with the Three Collectors exhibition showing the strengths of the nationally important collection of British Studio Pottery. The three collectors were Dean Milner White, W A Ismay and Henry Rothschild and drew attention to the difference of each of the three collectors' approach to collecting. Local potters were also invited to donate a piece of work to the gallery so that they can be handled by visitors.
Exhibitions during the year included St Ives which attracted over 71,000 visitors and included works from the Arts Council collection. This was followed by Japanese Sashiko Textiles which is a major international loan exhibition organised by York Art Gallery with financial help from Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. It went on to tour to the Collins Gallery in Glasgow and Plymouth; we also held a symposium on this almost previously unknown subject. We then celebrated 100 Years of Gifts: the Centenary of the Contemporary Art Society drawn largely from Yorkshire collections. The CAS is an important organisation that helps regional museums build collections of contemporary art.
In the Little Gallery we showed two exhibitions A Different View: the Changing landscape in York and Bird in the Hand. The latter included watercolours, ceramics and costume from our collections and contemporary works on loan from Eve Bennett. We also commissioned Simon Periton to create a new work for the stairwell The Anonymous Rose, inspired by works in the collection.
Throughout the year the work in the Studio continued to engage many adults and children especially in our Territories community art programme which works with artists and groups of people who are not regular gallery goers many of whom have social, learning and mobility difficulties. Groups have included occupational and mental health groups, adults with learning difficulties, young travellers, young carers, and homeless people via the Salvation Army. Over the year we worked with 452 participants and 20 artists on 172 sessions. Territories was chosen by Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) as a model of best practice.