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Gateshead’s Shipley Art Gallery throw open their doors to visitors from today
Image: Treasures from the Shipley Art Collection, image by Colin Davison
The Shipley Art Gallery near Saltwell Park, Gateshead welcomes the public back through its doors this month. As with everywhere else, the experience will be a little more socially distanced, but there are still plenty of wonderful things for visitors to enjoy in this engaging space.
The current still life exhibition Excess And The Everyday showcases the Shipley’s stunning craft and design collections. These objects range from teapots to tequila glasses, lunchboxes to lanterns and chairs to candlesticks, and provide an entertaining way to see how design is everywhere in our lives.
For the first time in 50 years collections from the historic Saltwell Towers are brought together for the public to enjoy. The displays include glassware and ceramics, taxidermy, bird eggs, insects, minerals, fossils and geology, as well as objects donated from Gateshead residents. Highlights of the Shipley Bequest include Dutch and Flemish paintings as well as some important Victorian British paintings.
Craft groups still meet in the gallery space, and with activities ranging from jewellery making to basket weaving, there is the opportunity for children and adults to get creative with a range of materials and techniques under the eyes and hands of experienced and friendly local makers.
