Hidden Art Exhibition
Between 7th June and 30th August 2014 we put on an exhibition of art works by past Barnsley artists at the Cooper Gallery, Barnsley in South Yorkshire. This means those who were born in or who were strongly connected with the District. It was the first time that this had ever been done.
Our five themes were Decorative Art, Portraiture, Outdoors, Mystery and Worship and finally Industry and Art.
View into the first of three rooms of the Hidden Art of Barnsley exhibition at the Cooper Gallery, Barnsley. Two of the five themes can be seen namely Portraiture and Decorative Arts.
The hidden art exhibition highlighted the brilliance of the achievements by people from South Yorkshire. With the help of the Gallery, we assembled the original work of 28 artists mostly paintings but also drawings, sculpture, book illustration, ceramics, and images of architectural decoration.
Visitors were surprised by the artists’ originality, by the different ways they have expressed themselves and by the beauty of the art.
We showed how they worked with the leading national artists of their day. We claimed for Barnsley some artists who have been acclaimed elsewhere both nationally and internationally. We told stories about what the artists achieved in their lives.
Most of all we made everyone aware of the inspiring artistic history that Barnsley people have.
We supported young people to make a significant contribution to the exhibition in the following ways:
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- A screen showed a digital representation of Gawber Hall and Gawber Glass-making cone, created by the talented students of Barnsley College on the BTEC Extended Diploma in Games Design Level 3 course. Did you know that glass was manufactured at Gawber in the 18th and early 19th centuries?
- Our film, directed by a 16 year old Horizon Community College student, showing imaginary scenes in the lives of some of our artists, with the cast including volunteers with the project, was displayed on another screen.
- The third screen showed the wonderful short films about children working in Barnsley industries and dreaming of becoming artists. These were written and performed by Barnsley pupils attending KidzRLoud at Horizon Community College during the holidays.
- The stories of the travels of Thomas Witlam Atkinson and his wife Lucy through Central Asia fascinated children and adults alike. We exhibited the winning map produced by school children from our competion about these travels. They were brought to life by our storyteller Helen Sant, dressed as Lucy to relate their adventures.
- There was also the winning illustration by children of where the 28 artists lived in the Barnsley area.
We were happy, too, to welcome relatives of our artists and some of the generous people who have loaned us their paintings and other artefacts. Our visitors have been pleased that the exhibition shows our artists in relation to their Barnsley heritage and the industries that shaped it.
We had a large number of visitors and there was a real buzz about the gallery. On most days, one of our volunteer researchers was on hand to answer any questions from visitors. Feedback from very many visitors both from the Barnsley area and wider afield, was extremely positive.
These are three of the numerous comments that visitors left:
‘’Congratulations on a wonderful exciting, and brilliant exhibition. It’s been at pleasure collaborating in some small way on this and it’s clear that your hard work and dedication have paid off.’’
‘’Thoroughly enjoyed both the art side of the gallery and the insight into Barnsley’s history and development. Fascinating to see the wealth of talent that has come from the area. Everything beautifully presented and staff extremely helpful.’’
‘’ A fascinating informative and well mounted exhibition. We have much to be proud of in the Barnsley area and this exhibition really celebrates it. Excellent.’’
From our exhibition, a panel of selected mages of the artists and their families whose work was displayed in the exhibition.
The central section was the winning entry in the schools competion to show a map of where the artists all lived in the Barnsley District.
The names from top left to right are Lionel Percy Smythe, Abel Hold and his daughter Florence Hold, Gertrude Spencer Stanhope, her uncle John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Alan Wade, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope by Lewis Carroll, Ernest Moore, Edward Mossforth Neatby, Barker Fairley with the Group of Seven in Canada, Alice Gunyon (painted by Lionel P Smythe), Carmela Shortridge (painted by John Wood Shortridge), Archibald J Stuart Wortley, Brian Fitzpatrick, John Wood Shortridge, Kenneth Leslie Graham, Archibald J Stuart Wortley, William Neatby, Nelly Stuart Wortley, Brian Fitzpatrick, Brian Fitzpatrick, Barker Fairley, Sheila Graham, Samuel Swift, Gilbert Daykin, John Spence Ingall, Thomas Witlam Atkinson, John Wood Shortridge and a possible image of Richard or William Tate.
Plan Of The Exhibition
We had devised a detailed plan for the hidden art exhibition, dividing it into themes. Some of the artists were so versatile that they are represented in more than one of these themes.
Industry and Art
We grouped together those artists that came from families who were deeply involved in Barnsley’s industries. These included 18th century glass makers from Gawber, 19th century linen weavers and artists from the 20th century who had been either been coal miners or glass designers. We showed examples of glass made in Barnsley including fragments excavated at Gawber by Denis Ashurst in the 1960s which are stored at Experience Barnsley in Barnsley Town Hall.
From left to right, Barnsley Main by Alan Wade (private owners), and three paintings by Gilbert Daykin (Choke Damp, Markham’s ponies (top) and The Results of Labour, all courtesy of the Science Museum) (from a photograph of our exhibition).
Portraiture
A selection from the portraits on display. The cello player by Barker Fairley (private owner), William Thorp of Gawber Hall attributed to William Tate (private owner), and Halliwell Sutcliffe by Ernest Moore (Grassington Folk Museum).
Barnsley has produced many portrait painters over 250 years. We contrasted the different styles of painting and choice of subjects by Barker Fairley, Abel Hold, Ernest Moore, John Wood Shortridge, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, William Tate, and Archibald Wortley. We also showed the original works on paper of Sheila Graham.
Outdoors
Many of the artists painted or sketched the outdoors: landscape, old buildings of Barnsley, sporting activity and even birds’ nests. There were stunning contrasts between how past Barnsley artists painted the countryside. There are also artists who travelled abroad, as near as France but as far as Central Asia, and we told their story.
Pinfold Hill, Shambles Street, Barnsley drawn by Kenneth Leslie Graham (Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council)
Decorative Arts
Our fourth theme involved illustrations like drawn designs, cartoons and the design and manufacture of functional objects such as furniture, wallpaper, tiles, industrial design or architectural decoration on buildings. Often this could only be shown by photographs. Barnsley town centre has a lot of decorative art on its buildings and we put together a booklet about it to encourage people to ‘look up’.
A design drawing by Sheila Graham for a costume for His Excellency Wang Yun in the play Lady Precious Stream (private owner).
Mystery and Worship
In our fifth theme we included artists who created stained glass, church design, church carving and paintings from ancient myths including the stunning original pulpit paintings from Cawthorne Church by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope. These original paintings are not in Cawthorne Church currently and the pulpit has copies of them.
The original pulpit panels from Cawthorne Church painted by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (Cawthorne Church).
Exhibition Guide
We made an exhibition booklet available during the exhibition with information about the artists, and this can be downloaded here: Exhibition Leaflet>>
Work inspired by the artists
A late extension to the hidden art exhibition came in the form of an agreement with St Mary’s Church. We were very grateful to be able to use St Mary’s church to display works created by Barnsley families with Barnsley Adult and Family Learning Service as part of our project. The service worked in schools with local adults and children who were inspired by the work of our artists to produce some wonderful artwork of their own. We were able to extend this part of the exhibition to the end of September 2014, a month beyond our main exhibition in the Cooper Gallery.
Adult and Family Learning page>>
Returning the artwork
As our exhibition finished, we arranged to return all our artwork to our lenders. These were very varied and included many relatives of the artists (including from New Zealand), famous public galleries (including amongst others the Cooper Gallery itself, the Jubilee Museum in Cawthorne, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, Grassington Folk Museum, the Science Museum in London), Marylebone Cricket Club Collections, Sheffield University and many other private individuals.
Throughout we valued greatly the installation skills and constant support of and advice from the staff in the gallery.