York Museums Trust

York Art Gallery

This year we continued the programme of gallery refurbishment which we began in 2004. The Burton Gallery was the last gallery to be refurbished and this has been kindly funded by the DCMS/Wolfson Fund. The result is a much lighter and more attractive space with seating and interactive activities for families and children. The Friends of York Art Gallery generously funded the conservation of a number of key paintings in the permanent collection that are now displayed in the gallery and we are always grateful for their continuing support.

Exhibitions during the year included 100 Years of Gifts: the Centenary of the Contemporary Art Society drawn largely from works given by the CAS to Yorkshire collections, attracting 45,969 visitors. China, a British Museum touring exhibition, was our summer show, featuring works that highlighted the impact Chinese history and culture has had on our lives. We supplemented the exhibition with objects from York's collection. The exhibition attracted 55,527 visitors. Our next show was Hats which featured pictures from the permanent collection, displayed alongside actual hats from York Castle Museum's collections which explored the etiquette of wearing hats over the last 400 years. The exhibition attracted 48,469 visitors.

In the Little Gallery we had two displays, York Mystery Plays, featuring views of York along the Mystery Plays' wagon route and Once upon a Time, displaying the art of fairytales and stories. The Gallery of Pots featured An English Country Garden, a family friendly display of ceramics with a garden theme, followed by Honest Pots displaying handmade, functional pots, from the medieval period till the present.

In February 2011 we opened David Hockney's Bigger Trees Near Warter which went on to become one of the most popular exhibitions at York Art Gallery attracting over 143,000 visitors during its run. We were lucky to welcome David Hockney himself to the opening of the exhibition which was held at the same time as the launch of Art in Yorkshire -supported by Tate. Both were launched by Nick Serota, Director of Tate. Art in Yorkshire is an initiative of York Museums Trust involving 18 galleries throughout Yorkshire. It is a year long celebration of the visual arts in Yorkshire with works from Tate's collection of historic, modern and contemporary art. These loans have been showcased through a programme of exhibitions and events throughout the partner venues.