The Art Workers’ Guild
The Art Workers’ Guild
Table Top Museum
Material Witness
Collage Workshop
Table Top Museum
London Craft Week
Darning Workshop
Master Rob Ryan’s Salon of Doubt is back on Tuesday 12 November!
The Salon of Doubt is a meeting place where we can talk about and listen to each others thoughts on our current work and projects. An evening when we can share our excitement and enthusiasm, our fears, our uncertainties, anxieties and misgivings; the Salon will reveal the passion we have for our work and the love we hold for its creativity.
The evening will consist of a curated program of people talking about their creative work and it is open to all. We ask that contributors represent themselves and their work with honesty and a questioning curiosity, and that the audience attends with open ears and open hearts.
Find more information and book tickets here.
Monica Grose-Hodge will be holding her first exhibition of rag-rugging pieces this winter at the Guild. 25 years after finishing her surface pattern degree, Monica learned the traditional rag-rugging technique during lockdown, inspired by her good friend Rachael Matthews.
Monica’s three dimensional and tactile art pieces are inspired by plants, medieval crewel work and black embroidery work and are made from unfinished sewing projects, clothing that could no longer be used and fabrics that people have donated over the years. Monica will also be exhibiting unfinished work, sketchbooks and other projects that led up to this exhibition so that you can see what goes on behind the finished works.
Our ‘Creative Connections’ exhibition, showcasing work by participants of our newly launched initiative of the same name, is closing on Saturday 26 October so we are opening our doors to the public for a final viewing.
Creative Connections is a year-long programme which creates a space for creative people who are beginning to establish themselves professionally. Programme participants meet and connect with Guild members, build supportive networks with each other and develop their professional practice.
The programme includes hands-on workshops, talks, discussions and social events - all opportunities to connect with other creative people to share insights and ideas, encourage each other and navigate the challenges of sustaining a career.
Visit the exhibition to gain insights into this new initiative, and explore the specialist skills involved in furniture design, millinery, stone and wood carving, letterpress, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and much more.
Read more about our exhibitors here.
The Art Workers’ Guild Outreach committee invites you to help us celebrate marionettes.
Join us for an evening of displays, talks, demonstrations and short performances with marionettes. There will even be a chance to have a go at operating a marionette puppet.
We will be exploring topics such as:
You can download a full programme of the days events here.
Find details about the displays and demonstrations here.
Contributors include:
Alicia Britt & Anna Smith, Charlotte Cory, Sue Dacre, Michael Dixon & The National Puppet Archive, Keith Frederick, Roger Lade, Ronnie Le Drew, Laura Mathews, Quanimals Theatre Productions, Tatwood Puppets, Tony Sinnett, Jan Zalud and Soledad Zárate.
Entry is free, but booking is essential as places are limited.
This event is now fully booked.
Displays/demonstrations open from 5.30pm.
NB: Please note that we will be filming and taking pictures at this event.
If you are attending and would prefer not to be filmed, please let us know so that we can take appropriate steps to ensure you are not included.
We are very happy to announce that the Art Workers’ Guild Table Top Museum is back for 2024.
This inventive celebration of the madness and the individual and extraordinary rules of those who collect will take place on Saturday 12 October, 11am - 5pm.
Come and delight in an exhibition of 30 installations, curated by Guild members and others, featuring museums of petrified spuds, alarm clocks and smiling rocks and much, much, more!
We will be open to the public for one day only on Saturday 12 October, 11 am – 5 pm. Refreshments will be available throughout the day.
Venue :
The Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square
London
WC1N 3AT
For more information contact Gemma Lodge on info@artworkersguild.org
020 7713 0966
We look forward to seeing you there!
This year for the Open House Festival, we will offer tours of our Georgian building at 6 Queen Square in the heart of Bloomsbury, led by the Guild’s Honorary Architect, Simon Hurst. Also on show will be an exhibition ‘Creative Connections’ showcasing work by participants of our newly launched initiative of the same name. Creative Connections aims to provide space and support for creative people who are beginning to establish themselves professionally.
The exhibition is open to the public on Saturday 21 September, and there will be tours of the building on the same day. We will also be hosting a closing event on Saturday 26 October. Between these two events the exhibition will be open by appointment only.
Creative Connections is a year-long programme which creates a space for creative people who are beginning to establish themselves professionally. Programme participants meet and connect with Guild members, build supportive networks with each other and develop their professional practice.
The programme includes hands-on workshops, talks, discussions and social events - all opportunities to connect with other creative people to share insights and ideas, encourage each other and navigate the challenges of sustaining a career.
Visit the exhibition to gain insights into this new initiative, and explore the specialist skills involved in furniture design, millinery, stone and wood carving, letterpress, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and much more.
The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday 21 September, 11am – 5pm, to coincide with the Open House Festival, and will continue by appointment until Saturday 26 October. On the final day, we will be open to the public before the exhibition is closed at 5pm.
Read more about our exhibitors here.
The Art Workers’ Guild was founded in 1884 by young architects and designers who wanted to create a meeting place for the fine arts and the applied arts on an equal footing. Many of the prominent figures of the Arts and Crafts Movement were active members of the Guild and its principle of ‘learning by doing’ soon spread through art education and had a worldwide influence.
The Art Workers’ Guild today is a unique body of more than 400 artists, craftspeople, architects, and academics working at the highest levels of excellence in their professions. We represent over 60 creative disciplines, including sculptors, architects, textile artists, potters, graphic designers, glass engravers, jewellers, furniture makers and printers. We are a registered charity that advances education in all the visual arts and crafts by means of lectures, meetings, demonstrations, and discussions.
The Guild’s home consists of a Grade ll* listed 18th century London town house, linked by a newly refurbished courtyard to the lecture hall, seating 100 and built in 1914 in what was the garden. Designed by F. W. Troup, the hall is a fine example of Arts and Crafts design. It houses portraits and sculptures of the Guild’s Masters from its foundation to the present day.
We are offering tours of the building given by the Guild’s Honorary Architect, Simon Hurst.
This is a free event and tours will take place at 12 pm and 2pm.
Booking for the tours is essential.
Please see the Open House London website for more details and how to book.
We are very happy to announce that the Art Workers’ Guild Table Top Museum is back for 2024. This inventive celebration of the madness and the individual and extraordinary rules of those who collect will take place on Saturday 12 October, 11am - 5pm.
We are now calling for submissions from anyone who would like to exhibit their own table top museum. The only limitation is that your museum must fit on a table top (roughly 150cm x 60cm).
To exhibit your museum, please answer the following questions and submit your entry to leigh@artworkersguild.org.
The deadline for submissions is Monday 16 September, 6pm.
Please note that there is a very limited number of museum spaces available, and submissions will be selected on the basis of the narrative, explanations and classification provided, as well as the quality, quirkiness or interest of the collection itself.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Lara Maiklem’s Museum of mudlarking
Nicholas Cooper - Bannisters
Caitlin Hazell - Art gallery toilet paper
Come along to Queen Square on Saturday 17 August and revel in fun filled, ingenious and creative games designed and run by Guild members!
Our new exhibition has now been installed - a collection of work by students taking part in our Schools Project, which is part of the Guild’s Outreach Programme.
Following the success of last year’s pilot Schools project, over recent months the Outreach committee has been running a second Schools project at the Sir John Heron’s Primary School in Newham and St Bede C of E Primary School in Winchester, in which six Guild members ran sessions for 28 children from Years 1 - 6, teaching them craft. The aims were to help the children develop their motor skills, introduce them and their families to the idea that careers in the arts are viable options for their futures, and, through the activity of making, help with their general social and emotional development.
Our teachers were as follows:
Sir John Heron primary School
Julie Arkell - Papier Mache
Carolyn Gowdy - Passports for Citizens of the World
Paul Jakeman - Stone Carving
St Bede C of E primary school
Ruth Martin & Rachel Warr - Paper Puppets
Thuyha Nguyen - Jewellery Making
The children’s work will be exhibited at the Guild in the Master’s Room from now until the end of September, and the school children made a trip to Guild on Monday 8 July to see the exhibition and take part in a workshop together.
The Salon of Doubt is back! A space where we can talk about and listen to each others thoughts on our current work and projects. An evening when we can share our excitement and enthusiasm, our fears, our uncertainties, anxieties and misgivings; the Salon will reveal the passion we have for our work and the love we hold for its creativity.
The salon will start at 6.30pm on Tuesday 11 June at the Art Workers’ Guild. Entry is free, but booking is essential and there will be a paying bar.
For more information and news about upcoming Salon of Doubt events, visit the website here.
During London Craft Week we will showcase the wide range of craft disciplines represented by our members with a series of talks, demonstrations and an exhibition.
Visit us to gain insights into the specialist skills involved in bookbinding and artist books, furniture design, weaving and textiles, ceramics, jewellery and much more. The exhibition, which is free to enter, includes fourteen artists and makers, who will be showing, demonstrating and selling their work.
The talks - all given by our members - will take place over the two days and are £5 each. Book here.
Join the Guild’s Hon. Architect Simon Hurst for a tour of the Grade ll* Georgian townhouse which is home to the Art Workers’ Guild. Tours are £5 and booking is essential. Book here.
Click below to explore the programme of exhibitors, talks and tours, and to book your place:
Our latest exhibition showcases a collection of bold, richly textured works from East London Textile Arts (ELTA) - a participatory textile project run by Rachael Matthews, Sonia Tuttiett and Celia Ward who are Members of the Guild. The pieces in the exhibition were made in collaboration with a variety of community groups and organisations in Newham. They explore a range of themes and textile techniques, including embroidery, rag-rugging, and costume making.
ELTA provides long-term textile teaching, free of charge, to many different communities in East London. They have worked with the Watts Gallery, Tate Exchange, The V&A, King’s College London and will be showing this spring at the Louvre, Abu Dhabi.
Visit:
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment. Please email gemma@artworkersguild.org or call 020 7713 0966 to book.
Our latest exhibition at the Guild, Crafting Circularity, explores sustainability through the use of material and process.
It features an eclectic mix of work for sale by members of the Art Workers’ Guild, featuring painters, illustrators, jewellers, sculptors, architects, furniture makers, textile artists and many more. You can find a full list of exhibitors below:
Vicki Ambery-Smith
Prue Bramwell-Davis
Philippa Brock
Hannah Coulson
Tessa Eastman
Sean Evelegh
Monica Grose-Hodge
Daniel Heath
Nicholas Hughes
Janice Lawrence
Rachael Matthews
Tom Samuel
Jane Smith
Lincoln Taber
Maiko Tsutsumi
Anne Thorne
Julie Westbury
Private View:
You are invited to attend the private view on Monday 18 December, 4pm - 7.30pm.
Please RSVP to leigh@artworkersguild.org.
Public open day:
The exhibition is open to the public on Saturday 13 January, 12pm - 4.30pm.
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment at all other times.
Please email leigh@artworkersguild.org or call 020 7713 0966 to book.
Annabel Maunsell - Gunby
Brigid Edwards and Annabel Maunsell are holding an exhibition of their Mezzotints, drawings and photographs at the Guild from Monday 23 to Saturday 28 October.
There will be a private view on Wednesday 25 October from 6pm - 8pm, and an open day with the artists on Saturday 28 October from 2pm - 5.30pm.
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment at all other times, please email leigh@artworkersguild.org to book, or for more information.
Brigid Edwards - Grasshopper
Dear Doubter,
I’m tired of certainty. The unbending will of people who don’t and aren’t prepared to listen to others exhausts me. There is no future in certainty, only doubt. I like people that are not sure about things, even themselves. People who take themselves too seriously, seriously terrify me. If you doubt, if you worry, if you are unsure, it means you care. You are human.
Welcome.
The Salon of Doubt is a meeting place where we can talk about and listen to each others thoughts on our current work and projects. An evening when we can share our excitement and enthusiasm, our fears, our uncertainties, anxieties and misgivings; the Salon will reveal the passion we have for our work and the love we hold for its creativity.
The evening will consist of a curated program of people talking about their creative work and it is open to all. We ask that contributors represent themselves and their work with honesty and a questioning curiosity, and that the audience attends with open ears and open hearts. Already signed up to speak are Guild members Charlotte Cory, Simon Hurst, Nicholas Hughes, Sarah Corbett and Roger Kneebone.
The Salon is not a panel of judgement, it intends to be an enjoyable evening of thought and idea sharing - with the hope it will be both inspiring and entertaining to those attending.
There are four ways you can be a part of the Salon:
The salon will start at 6.30pm on Sunday 22 October at the Art Workers’ Guild.
Entry is free, but booking is essential and there will be a paying bar.
Yours doubtfully.
Rob Ryan, Master Elect
Guild Curator Neil Jennings has put together an exhibition of drawings by a selection of the Guild’s Architect members, now on show in the Gallery until spring 2024.
The exhibition will be available to view at all Guild meetings and can be viewed by appointment at all other times, please email leigh@artworkersguild.org.
Image: Aerial view and the four perspective views of plans for the new village of Little Impney on the historic Impney Estate, north of Droitwich Spa by Proctor & Matthews Architects.
We will hold a screening of No Ordinary Passion, a film about Rory Young’s life and work on Thursday 21 September in the Hall. The film was made by Marianne Suhr and her son Max Varvill who spent many hours recording Rory’s life story following the diagnosis of his terminal illness. It contains captivating insights into his childhood, his work and influences and the design and evolution of his house.
Marianne will join us to introduce the film and give a Q&A afterwards with PM Alan Powers.
The event starts at 6.30pm and the screening will begin at 7pm.
Entry is free, no need to book. Family and friends are very welcome.
There will be a paying bar.
We are very happy to announce that the Art Workers’ Guild Table Top Museum is back for 2023, in conjunction with Open House weekend.
This inventive celebration of the madness and the individual and extraordinary rules of those who collect will take place on Saturday 16 September, 11am - 5pm.
Come and delight in an exhibition of 30 installations, curated by Guild members and others, featuring museums of measurement, mercies, mudlarking and much, much, more! View the full programme here.
As part of Open House Weekend, we will also hold two tours of the building given by our Honorary Architect, Simon Hurst.
The tours will take place at 11.30am and 2pm and booking is essential. For details on how to book to click here.
We will be open to the public for one day only on Saturday 16 September, 11 am – 5 pm. Refreshments will be available throughout the day.
Venue :
The Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square
London
WC1N 3AT
For more information contact Leigh Milsom Fowler on info@artworkersguild.org
020 7713 0966
We look forward to seeing you there!
Sally Kindberg - Museum of dust
Join us for the fifth in a series of panel discussions held by our Mentoring Committee, exploring the ins and outs of working as a professional artist-craftsperson. The series will give you thought-provoking insights into a successful career as an art worker.
This discussion will focus on graphic design, a term which is generally understood, but which has fractured into many parts as a contemporary discipline. This panel discussion brings together a group of distinguished and experienced graphic practitioners who will discuss issues they see confronting the field of graphics today.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A .
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance. More details can be found below.
After working in several design studios in Birmingham and London, in 1970 Richard responded to a classified ad in Oz magazine and was offered work on the spot, designing the upcoming issue of Oz, The Yippie Issue, and promptly ‘dropped out’! In the years that followed he designed and illustrated many of the underground magazines of the time: Ink, International Times (IT), Frendz, Time Out, Gay News, and others.
He first met the writer Heathcote Williams in the early 70s. His was arguably among the most radical voices of the period, a playwright, poet, squatter and activist of wild, outlandish proportions. They clicked, and in 1975 formed an anarchist publishing partnership called Open Head Press.
In 1982, Richard went on to form AdCo Associates, with Nigel Coke, a designer and photographer. Their work was rooted in the arts and publishing, fringe theatre and music; designing posters and publicity, programmes, illustrated books, poetry, record covers.
Former Trickett & Webb director Brian Webb founded Webb & Webb over 15 years ago. They focus on design for communication and branding across a full spectrum, including identity, print, packaging, exhibitions, websites and digital experience design for government bodies, major charities and national galleries and international organisations.
Brian’s work has won hundreds of awards around the world, including New York Art Directors; Museum of Toyama, Japan; Red Dot, Germany; and D&AD. His work is in many permanent collections, including the V&A and MoMA, he is Past-President of the Chartered Society of Designers, a former committee and jury member of D&AD, a Visiting Professor at University of the Arts and has also judged the Prince Philip Designers Prize.
Llewellyn specialises in wood-engraving; his work is very much in the English tradition, with subject matter including landscape and weather, interior and exterior, through illustration and printmaking.
www.instagram.com/llewellynthomasartist
Former Production Director of The Folio Society, Joe has extensive experience of fine book design and typography. He is also a photographer with several one-man shows and books to his name. He now practices both activities through his company Blundell Studios.
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance.
The address for attending in person is:
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
If attending online, a Zoom link will be sent to you shortly before the event.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Richard Adams at work
Following the success of last years pilot Schools project, over recent months the Outreach committee has been running a second Schools project at the Sir John Heron’s Primary School in Newham, in which three Guild members ran sessions for children from Years 4 and 6 teaching them craft. The aims were to help the children develop their motor skills, introduce them and their families to the idea that careers in the arts are viable options for their futures, and, through the activity of making, help with their general social and emotional development.
Our teachers were Julie Arkell (papier mache), Paul Jakeman (stone carving) and Bobbie Kociejowski (weaving). The scheme was managed on behalf of the Outreach Committee by Sonia Tuttiett and Jeremy Nichols.
The children’s work will be exhibited at the Guild in the Master’s Room from Thursday 22 June – Friday 7 July and the school children will be making a trip to see the exhibition.
The exhibition will be available to view at the Guild meetings on Thursday 22 June, and Thursday 6 July. Other times by appointment. please email Leigh info@artworkersguild.org.
During London Craft Week we will showcase the wide range of craft disciplines represented by our members with a series of talks, demonstrations and an exhibition.
Visit us to gain insights into the specialist skills involved in brush lettering, textiles, stonecarving, ceramics, fine press and artist books, jewellery and much more. The exhibition, which is free to enter, includes over sixteen artists and makers, who will be showing, demonstrating and selling their work.
The many talks - all given by our members - will take place over the two days and are £5 each. Book here.
Join the architectural historian Alan Powers and the Guild’s Hon. Architect Simon Hurst for a tour of the Grade ll* Georgian townhouse which is home to the Art Workers’ Guild. Tours are £5 and booking is essential. Book here.
Click here to explore the programme of exhibitors, talks and tours, and to book your place.
Joe Whitlock Blundell was born and brought up near Liverpool and lives in London. His working life has been in book design and production, and he was director of art and design at The Folio Society for over thirty years. Meanwhile he travelled extensively, accompanied by a Nikon FE loaded with monochrome film, and exhibited the results at the Judd Street Gallery and The Royal Photographic Society, among others. He has also published a number of photographic books, one of which, Westminster Abbey: the Monuments, was generously described by Richard Ollard as ’Surely one of the best art books ever produced.’ After countless hours in the darkroom, in 2010 he noticed that the sky was blue (sometimes) and began taking digital colour photos, a selection of which are presented here.
Joe will be in the galleries on the following days:
The exhibition will also be available to view at the Guild Committee meeting on Wednesday 26 April, and the Guild meeting on Thursday 27 April.
Other times by appointment with either Joe joewhitlockblundell@gmail.com or Leigh info@artworkersguild.org.
Moss Garden, Kyoto
Wakkanai
Lucinda Dymoke White is holding an exhibition of her paintings at the Guild.
’At the age of 22 I was in my last year studying for a BA In design studies at London Guildhall University. As a pedestrian I was struck by a car whilst crossing the road. I spent six weeks unconscious (GCS 4) and nine months in hospital – relearning to walk, talk and think - to live an independent life.
Art has always been a passion which is apparent as I taught my left hand to draw, sculpt and paint. With great tenacity - now I am 48 and pleased to exhibit work for my 2nd exhibition. Enjoy!’
There will be a private view on Saturday 1 April from 6pm - 9pm.
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment at all other times, please email leigh@artworkersguild.org to book, or for more information.
Plumed Horse- Christopher Brown
Join us for the fourth in a series of panel discussions held by our Mentoring Committee, exploring the ins and outs of working as a professional artist-craftsperson. The series will give you thought-provoking insights into a successful career as an art worker.
This discussion will focus on working with the market; engaging with existing markets, and finding or creating new ones. Our panel will share their experience and stories of individual successes and failures with you.
Christopher Brown attended the Royal College of Art where he was introduced to, and eventually assisted, Edward Bawden, the master of the linocut. It was Bawden who encouraged him to explore this medium.
He has exhibited regularly for Michael Parkin Fine Art , St. Judes, The Fry Gallery, The Fine Arts Society, The V&A, The Royal Academy and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Neil specialises in British 20th century prints and drawings. He also publishes original prints by contemporary artists.
www.instagram.com/neiljenningsfineart
Simon Smith is an artist who designs, models and carves for commissions. His work ranges from historic ornament and figurative carving to contemporary sculpture and memorials. Recent clients include Liverpool City Council, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, The National Trust and Westminster Abbey, as well as private clients.
He is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and the Master Carvers Association.
www.simonsmithstonecarving.com
Llewellyn specialises in wood-engraving; his work is very much in the English tradition, with subject matter including landscape and weather, interior and exterior, through illustration and printmaking.
www.instagram.com/llewellynthomasartist
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance.
The address for attending in person is:
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
If attending online, a Zoom link will be sent to you shortly before the event.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Llewellyn Thomas
Chair of the Mentoring Committee
Prue Cooper is holding a selling exhibition of her early and current slipware dishes at the Guild.
Monday 6 March: 11am - 4.30pm
Tuesday 7 March: 11am - 4.30pm
Wednesday 8 March: 11am - 4.30pm
Saturday 11 March: 11am - 4.30pm
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment at all other times.
Please email info@pruecooper.com or call 0208 874 6869 or 07963 129756 to book or for more information.
Our latest exhibition at the Guild is by artist wood carver and cabinet maker, Georgy Metichian, and friends. Come and explore an eclectic mix of work for sale by members of the Art Workers’ Guild, featuring painters, illustrators, silversmiths, sculptors, furniture makers, textile designers and many more. You can find a full list of exhibitors below.
You are invited to attend the private view on Tuesday 6 December, 5pm - 9pm.
Please RSVP to georgylevan@gmail.com.
The exhibition is open to the public from Monday 12 - Sunday 18 December, 10.30am - 4.30pm.
Join us for tea and cake with the artists on Saturday 17 December, 11am - 5pm.
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment at all other times. Please email georgylevan@gmail.com or call 07838 185437 to book.
Over the Summer this year the Outreach committee ran a pilot project at the Sir John Heron’s Primary School in Newham in which four Guild members ran sessions for children from Years 5 and 6 teaching them craft. The aims were to help the children develop their motor skills, introduce them and their families to the idea that careers in the arts are viable options for their futures, and, through the activity of making, help with their general social and emotional development.
Our teachers were Julie Arkell (papier mache), Paul Jakeman (stone carving), Bobbie Kociejowski (weaving) and Renee Spierdijk (portraiture). The scheme was managed on behalf of the Outreach Committee by Sonia Tuttiett and Jeremy Nichols.
The children’s work will be exhibited at the Guild in the Master’s Room from Tuesday 8 – Friday 11 November and fifteen of the children will be visiting to see it on the 11.
Fleur Oakes
Join us for the third in a series of panel discussions held by our Mentoring Committee, exploring the ins and outs of working as a professional artist-craftsperson. The series will give you thought-provoking insights into a successful career as an art worker.
This discussion will focus on moments of change. Adapting our creative energies and ideas to ever changing markets and fluctuating demand for our output is essential to survive.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A.
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance. More details can be found below.
Nick Carter has earned his reputation as an accomplished exponent of contemporary photography through consistent and considered endeavour, a detailed knowledge and appreciation of the history of the medium and healthy respect for traditional methods and styles.
There are two life-long threads in Luci’s art. The first is painting. She draws mainly from her mind’s eye, creating scenes about human interaction and behaviour. The second is collaboration. Luci founded Eye to Pencil in 2021, an interdisciplinary drawing studio, based in Clerkenwell, which helps people from different disciplines and professions visualise and express their ideas through drawing.
While much of his work is self-initiated, Taslim also has experience of creating site-specific works for public spaces and has enjoyed working to a brief with sensitivity to the community and local context. He tries to experiment, play and push ideas out into the world, thinking in a coherent way about using materials and processes.
Fleur is a three dimensional embroiderer and lace maker, inspired by organic structure and the subtle inbetween spaces of emotion and the senses. She is artist in residence at Imperial College London’s vascular surgery unit, observing surgery and looking at the parallel techniques and challenges in lacemaking and textile arts. She is also a research fellow for the Victoria and Albert (museum) Research Institute.
Llewellyn specialises in wood-engraving; his work is very much in the English tradition, with subject matter including landscape and weather, interior and exterior, through illustration and printmaking.
www.instagram.com/llewellynthomasartist
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance.
The address for attending in person is:
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
If attending online, a Zoom link will be sent to you shortly before the event.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Llewellyn Thomas
Chair of the Mentoring Committee
Luci Eyers
Taslim Martin
To celebrate the publication of her new book Jewellery & Silverware Inspired by Architecture, Vicki Ambery-Smith is holding an exhibition of her work at the Guild.
Explore the story of forty years of making architecturally-based silverware, from small domes and columns on stud earrings to larger bespoke presentation pieces.
Copies of the new book will be available for purchase throughout the exhibition. You can also purchase a copy of the book online here.
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment.
Please email elspeth@artworkersguild.org to book.
There will be private view and book launch on Tuesday 11 October, 6pm - 8pm.
Please RSVP to vickias@btinternet.com.
During the evening Vicki will give a presentation about her design process, followed by a discussion with Jane Dorner about their collaboration on the book.
For further information, please contact Vicki Ambery-Smith on vickias@btinternet.com or instagram at vickiamberysmith
An exhibition of watercolours, coloured pencil drawings and lithographs by Past Master of the Guild Glynn Boyd Harte.
Copies of the new book on Glynn’s life and work will be available for purchase throughout the exhibition.
There will be book signings by Ian Archie Beck, the author and managing editor, on Saturday 1 October, 11am - 2pm, and on Saturday 8 October, 2pm - 4.30pm.
Exhibition opening hours:
Monday 26 September – Saturday 8 October, 10.30am – 4.30pm
(not open Sunday 2 October)
For further information, please contact Neil Jennings on neiljennings20@gmail.com, or instagram at neiljenningsfineart
The Art Workers’ Guild Table Top Museum is back for 2022, in conjunction with Open House weekend.
This inventive celebration of the madness and the individual and extraordinary rules of those who collect will take place on Sunday 18 September and is organised by Guild member, Stephen Fowler.
Come and delight in an exhibition of 30 installations, curated by Guild members and others, featuring museums of dust, petals, passementerie, alpenstocks, crazed creatures and the Loch Ness Monster, to name but a few. View the full programme here.
As part of Open House Weekend, we will also hold two tours of the building given by our Honorary Architect, Simon Hurst.
The tours will take place at 12pm and 2pm and booking is essential.
Please book your place via the Open House website.
Clare Fletcher - Perfect Stones
We will be open to the public for one day only on Sunday 18 September, 11 am – 5 pm. Cake and refreshments will be available throughout the day.
Venue :
The Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square
London
WC1N 3AT
For more information contact Leigh Milsom Fowler on info@artworkersguild.org
020 7713 0966
We look forward to seeing you there!
Objects of Desire - Mandy Prowse
Crown Imperial - James Shand
An exhibition of work by William and James Shand.
A retired surgeon, William Shand is today a prolific watercolourist who draws inspiration mainly from the landscapes and architecture of his adopted Lincolnshire.
Born and brought up amid the more muted tones of London, James Shand (William’s son) now lives in Vence, in the south of France, and its famously vivid light. He won a scholarship to study art at Charterhouse school where he learnt (especially from Michael Woods) to draw architecture and the human figure, both of which feature in his work today. Current sources include travel and the natural world (birds, butterflies, and flowers), typically painted in bright watercolour.
All paintings are for sale.
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment
Email elspeth@artworkersguild.org
Until Saturday 2 July
Oundle meadow - William Shand
During London Craft Week we will showcase the wide range of craft disciplines represented by our members with a series of talks, demonstrations and an exhibition.
Visit us to gain insights into the specialist skills involved in print-making, leatherwork, intricate small-scale textiles, ceramics, jewellery and much more. The exhibition, which is free to enter, includes over fifteen artists and makers, who will be showing, demonstrating and selling their work.
The many talks - all given by our members - will take place over the two days and are £5 each.
Join the architectural historian Alan Powers for a tour of the Grade ll* Georgian townhouse which is home to the Art Workers’ Guild. Tours are £5 and booking is essential.
Download the programme here, or click here to see the programme of exhibitors, talks and tours, and to book your place.
An exhibition of recent watercolour paintings by Ian Archie Beck.
’My new exhibition of watercolours and acrylics is a study of the places and houses that meant something to me growing up by the sea in Brighton and Hove. I visited the seaside in July 2021 during an exceptional week of sunlight. I was armed with a list of addresses from an old Kelly’s street directory. I wanted to paint those special places both as they are now and in many cases as they were. Some have sadly been demolished, such as the Granada Cinema Hove, or might have changed almost beyond recognition in fifty years or more in which case I worked from very old snapshots like K Lane’s bookshop. In some instances I reconstructed everything from memory, like the interior of 10 Sackville Gardens.’ Ian Archie Beck
Opening Hours:
Monday 9 May to Thursday 12 May 10.30 - 4.30
Monday 16 May to Saturday 21 May 10.30 - 4.30
There will be an illustrated talk by Ian Archie Beck on Saturday 21 May, 12pm. Booking is essential - to book, please email neiljennings20@gmail.com
Ceramic tiles - Regina Heinz
Join us for the second in a series of panel discussions held by our Mentoring Committee, exploring the ins and outs of working as a professional artist-craftsperson. The series will give you thought-provoking insights into a successful career as an art worker.
This discussion will focus on design for manufacture, exploring the many aspects and opportunities for artists to make work in volume whilst keeping their own vision and uniqueness. Designing with volume production in mind is an important way for creatives to ensure a living income, and harnessing new technologies allows artists ever greater scope in accessing wider audiences through manufacturing.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A.
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance. More details can be found below.
Fred Baier makes pieces that are intended as pioneering furniture statements rather than products. They are observations and thoughts about his time and chosen field, as he strives to be an expert in all aspects of his creativity.
Regina Heinz is a ceramic artist specialising in wall based sculptural artworks for interior and exterior spaces. She is interested in colour, texture, light and reflection. Using her expertise in ceramics, Regina creates stunning 3D feature walls that introduce luxurious ceramic surfaces and a tactile and natural quality into an architectural context at any specified scale.
Michael Petry is an artist, author and director of MOCA London. He co-founded the Museum of Installation, was curator of the Royal Academy Schools Gallery and the first artist in residence at Sir John Soane’s Museum. His books include Installation Art, The Art of Not Making: The New Artist Artisan Relationship and Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate the Still-Life Tradition. His current book The WORD is Art, looks at the use of text in contemporary art.
Flora Roberts mostly works on murals and large scale paintings for private houses and commercial projects. She has also designed fabric and wallpaper for Hamilton Weston Ltd, Lewis & Wood, Sandersons, Zoffany, GP & J Baker and Mulberry Home.
Llewellyn specialises in wood-engraving; his work is very much in the English tradition, with subject matter including landscape and weather, interior and exterior, through illustration and printmaking.
www.instagram.com/llewellynthomasartist
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please register via our Eventbrite page for either in person or online attendance.
The address for attending in person is:
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
If attending online, a Zoom link will be sent to you shortly before the event.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Llewellyn Thomas
Chair of the Mentoring Committee
Wall mural - Flora Roberts
Vaikuntha - Michael Petry
Join us for the first in a series of panel discussions exploring the ins and outs of working as a professional artist-craftsperson. The series will give you thought-provoking insights into a successful career as an art worker.
This discussion will centre around the subject of collaboration. Our panel will share stories, experiences and opportunities for collaboration within their varied creative practices.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A led by the panel chair, Llewellyn Thomas.
Rob Ryan’s intricate papercut work adapts itself readily to many other mediums including ceramics, textiles, homewares and even jewellery. Over the years, he has collaborated with the likes of Paul Smith, Liberty of London, Tatty Devine and Vogue.
Jane Smith designs and makes hats for film and theatre. She works in felt, straw, buckram, plastic, fabrics and also makes up particular designs for commercials and re-enactors, cocked hats for mayors and civic dignitaries of all kinds.
Harriet Vine MBE is an Artist, Creative Director and Co-founder of Tatty Devine. Her work continuously pushes the boundaries of materials, especially laser cut acrylic. She has collaborated with artists and creative institutions around the globe.
Mark Winstanley is a bookbinder. He founded The Wyvern Bindery in 1990, which is still going strong.
Llewellyn specialises in wood-engraving; his work is very much in the English tradition, with subject matter including landscape and weather, interior and exterior, through illustration and printmaking.
www.instagram.com/llewellynthomasartist
Entry is free and the evening will be run as a hybrid in-person and online via Zoom event. To reserve your place, please email leigh@artworkersguild.org stating whether you’d like to attend in person or on Zoom.
The address for attending in person is:
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
If attending online, a Zoom link will be sent to you shortly before the event.
We’ll hope you’ll join us for this inaugural event.
Michaelmas - Graham Sutherland
Bro. Neil Jennings is holding an exhibition of ’Works on Paper’ at the Guild, opening Monday 27 September - Saturday 2 October.
Opening hours are as follows:
Monday – Saturday 10.30 am – 4.30 pm
We hope to see you there.
This year for the Open House Festival the Guild will be offering tours of our Georgian building at 6 Queen Square in the heart of Bloomsbury, led by the Guild’s Honorary Architect, Simon Hurst. There will be a short talk given by historian and the Guild’s current Master, Alan Powers, on the history and legacy of the Guild and its founders.
The Art Workers’ Guild was founded in 1884 by young architects and designers who wanted to create a meeting place for the fine arts and the applied arts on an equal footing. Many of the prominent figures of the Arts and Crafts Movement were active in the first fifty years. The Guild operated like a club, but its principle of ‘learning by doing’ soon spread through art education and had a worldwide influence.
The Guild’s home consists of a Grade ll* listed Georgian townhouse, linked by a newly refurbished courtyard to the lecture hall, built in 1914, in what was the garden. Designed by F. W. Troup, the hall is a fine example of Arts and Crafts design. It houses portraits and sculptures of the Guild’s Masters from its foundation to the present day. Until recently a utilitarian outside space, the courtyard was redesigned in 2016 by Simon Hurst and is now covered with a beautiful glazed barrel vault roof supported by cast iron ribs designed. Designed and crafted by the Guild’s own members, it complements the existing architecture, in that its aesthetics are craft-orientated and largely handmade.
The Art Workers’ Guild remains a sort of club, whose members may agree on a general attitude to craftsmanship and quality but are united by no one partisan philosophy or style. Reality for them is outside the usual worldly considerations. Something beautifully done, be it a jewel, a lithograph, a basket or a cathedral may reveal the truth. A respect for quality, for craftsmanship, for the work of the hand, and a recognition of the healing, humane value of craftsmanship still characterises the Guild.
This is a free event and tours will take place at 11am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm and 4pm.
Please see the Open House London website for more details and how to book.
Turtle Jacket embroidered by ELTA participants, designed and made by Sonia Tuttiett and photographed by Frederic Landes
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment
Email elspeth@artworkersguild.org or phone 020 7278 3009
Until Wednesday 15 December
East London Textile Arts is an independent arts organisation based in East London, with strong connections to the Art Workers‘ Guild, where their latest exhibition Kalila Wa Dimna Costumes and Embroidery runs concurrently with the other shows. ELTA works with people of all faiths and ethnicities, making community textiles to exhibit and illustrate books, papers and printed fabrics. Projects are run by local people and aim to create textiles that reflect the cultural diversity of the area. They have no paid staff and their projects focus on social, health and environmental issues, as well as any others affecting local communities.
Tradescant Trust engraved glass bowl - Josephine Harris
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment
Email elspeth@artworkersguild.org or phone 020 7278 3009
Until Wednesday 15 December
Josephine Harris (1931-2020) was inspired by an exhibition of engraved glass to learn this craft, at which she excelled, creating decorative and humorous pieces, that convey strong messages about things she valued in life. In her turn, she inspired and taught another generation of glass engravers. It is rare to be able to see work of this kind and quality, and the exhibition, called ‘And then the heav’n espy’ from George Herbert’s poem about glass as a metaphor for seeing deeply into things, also includes examples of her watercolours, drawings and prints.
’Avenue, mid-Winter’, oil on board, 2018 - Edmund Fairfax-Lucy
The exhibition can be viewed by appointment
Email elspeth@artworkersguild.org or phone 020 7278 3009
Until Wednesday 15 December
Edmund Fairfax-Lucy (1945-2020) was a dedicated painter in oils with a faithful following of collectors and Master of the Art Workers’ Guild in 2012. He lived at Charlecote, near Stratford-upon-Avon, an ancestral home belonging to the National Trust, and its atmospheric interiors with subtly-coloured textiles and crowded rooms provided him with many subjects. But his real subject was light and colour, which he captured with intense looking and searching. The exhibition is titled ‘The End of Lunch’ after one of his paintings.
His friend, the art historian Paul Hills, has written for the exhibition catalogue, ‘Although living through a period when the tradition of oil painting and the vision and sympathy that it sustained was forgotten or rejected, Fairfax-Lucy held to his faith. Contemplating his later paintings, attending to the flow of the image, we may realize that they are indeed a journey into light.’
Our online auction of members’ work to raise funds for the AWG’s exciting Outreach Programme is now open for bidding. Featuring textiles, stone carving, ceramics, prints, paintings and much more, this is a fantastic opportunity to buy beautiful artwork made by the UK’s leading master craftspeople.
Sophie MacCarthy - Blue birds, pomegranates and acanthus leaves ceramic dish
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram using #auctionawg2021
About The Art Workers’ Guild Outreach Programme
Money raised from the auction will help fund the Guild’s Outreach programme, which engages with students; educators, academics and policy-makers; families and young people; medical professionals, scientists and engineers. Through practical workshops, demonstrations and collaborations, we aim to encourage the understanding of craftsmanship, and how skills nurture creative thinking.
Find out more on the Guild’s Outreach Programme at www.artworkersguild.org/what-we-do/outreach
For more information, contact the Guild Administrator Leigh Milsom Fowler on leigh@artworkersguild.org
Bridget demonstrates making a delicate wire insect leg, and attendees can join in the process to get a sense of what it feels like to try the intricate intense production techniques she uses for some of her finished artworks.
This session is a demonstration and not in the ‘teaching’ style of a masterclass. It’s about noticing what it feels like to engage with the process. A chance to share the experience of handling and working with some of the actual materials used in the production stage of the making process.
Each person booking this session will receive a materials kit with the ingredients to have a go at making an insect leg, so please email studio@bridgetbailey.co.uk stating your booking reference and postal address so the materials can be posted to you.
Please note the last posting date to receive a materials pack within UK is Tuesday 17 November. The last posting date for delivery abroad has now passed.
The event will be on Zoom and a link will be sent out a few days before the date.
For more information and to buy tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/life-cycle-of-making-shared-making-experience-tickets-125209351541
Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education at Imperial College London and Outreach Fellow for the Welcome Trust is well known for his inspirational lectures and his Countercurrent Conversations, which explore the contrasts and crossovers between medicine and many aspects of the arts.
Bridget Bailey’s Flora and Fauna inspired artworks and installations combine intriguing ideas and intricate making with her textile and millinery background.
Emily Jo Gibbs’ project The Value of Making, shown at Collect 18, depicts makers through representations of their tools, in a series of exquisite hand-stitched still-life portraits.
The event is on Zoom and a link and will be sent out to you a few days before.
For more information and to buy tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/life-cycle-of-making-creative-comparisons-tickets-123065248471
Chrysanthemum Skeleton
Bridget Bailey’s Life Cycle of Making explores her creative process, showing the evolution of ideas by arranging the experiments, finished works and inspirations that form a body of work on a large canvas, in the order they happened.
Bridget has created a film to show the piece and tell the story behind it. It will show how ideas spark up, from scrutinising feathers, and then mutate through sampling in different materials – from wire and paper, to needles – turning into a creeping insect leg and a chrysanthemum skeleton along the way, while revealing what it’s like to experience the qualities of these stages from a maker’s point of view.
This year for Open House London the Guild will be holding walking tours on Edwardian Art and Architecture in Holborn and Bloomsbury, led by expert guides, conservation specialist and local historian Alec Forshaw, historian and Master of the Guild, Alan Powers and architect Karen Butti, leading expert on Smith and Brewer.
Please see the Open House London website for more details and how to book.
PLEASE NOTE ALL TOURS ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED FOR THIS EVENT
When the members of the Art Workers’ Guild celebrated the 30th anniversary of the foundation of their organisation in 1884 by moving into their own building at No.6 Queen Square, they were consolidating a longer history of the Arts and Crafts Movement in this part of London. We could trace it back to the time that William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones spent at No.17 Red Lion Square in 1856, near the Working Men’s College, later in Great Ormond Street, where Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin were lecturers. In 1914, The Rebel Art Centre at No.38 was the home of Vorticism.
The London County Council’s Central School of Arts and Crafts was provided with a sturdy headquarters designed in part by its Principal, William Lethaby, a building opened in 1912, with its departments mostly headed by members of the Art Workers’ Guild, practising ‘learning by doing’ across a wide range of design and crafts. Other individual buildings of note on this part of the walk include No.12 Queen Square by Eustace Frere, 1907 and the Queen Anne style National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery by Sir John Simpson, 1881-85 and 1938 extension with sculpture by Arthur Ayres. Stanley Hall, Easton and Robertson’s Nurses Home for Great Ormond Street, 1932, has a frieze by Eric Aumonier.
Much redevelopment took place in Bloomsbury between the wars, with Sir Herbert Baker’s London House (now Goodenough College), 1933-7, Coram’s Fields insertions to create a playground, 1936, and the School of Pharmacy by H. J. Rowse of Liverpool, 1939, close to J. M. Brydon’s Women’s School of Medicine, 1897-1900. Post-war Patrick Hodgkinson’s Brunswick Centre, 1972 takes us into Marchmont Street and a view of the magnificent back of the British Medical Association, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, 1912 (originally for the Theosophical Society) and on to Mary Ward House, 1898, a fascinating multi-purpose social project modelled on Toynbee Hall, the architectural debut of Cecil Brewer and A. Dunbar Smith.
At Woburn Square, the Warburg Institute, 1955-8 is a late work by Charles Holden, part of his revised scheme for London University begun with the Senate House, 1931-7. We finish with Heals, Tottenham Court Road, the original section by Smith and Brewer for Brewer’s cousin, Ambrose Heal, 1914-16, extended in replica 1938 by Sir Edward Maufe, decorations by Harold Stabler.
Alec Forshaw’s book, An Address in Bloomsbury: The Story of 49 Great Ormond Street (Brown Dog Books), will be available for sale from the author.
Bro. Francis Terry will be holding an exhibition of his watercolours, done in collaboration with Create Streets, from the Tuesday 21 to Thursday 23 April at the Art Workers’ Guild.
Viewings will be available between 10.30am to 5pm on Tuesday 21 and Thursday 23 April and from 12pm to 5pm, then 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Wednesday 22 April. Please note booking is essential for the 6.30 – 7.30 session.
Create Streets is a social enterprise which encourages the building of traditional urban developments, with Francis using his design flair to bring their ideas to life. They have collaborated on many counter proposals, giving a voice to local residents who are often ignored by avaricious developers. These include many important sites in London, such as:- Mount Pleasant Sorting Office, Farringdon; The Gas Holders Site, Oval; Empress Place, Earls Court and others.
Recently they have been successful in helping to convince the owners of the Sutton Estate in Chelsea to refurbish the flats rather than demolish, providing at least 80 new social rented homes, upgrading the existing flats and improving the outdoor spaces.
All proceeds from sales of these watercolours are going to the charity Cure EB.
For further information, or to arrange a viewing, please email Leah on leah@ftanda.co.uk or call 01206 580528.
Glynn Boyd Harte - Reuters, Fleet Street. Lithograph 1982
Paintings, drawings, prints, textiles, ceramics, carving, cutlery, and more, by members of the Art Workers’ Guild, past and present, from the personal collection of Master of the Guild Alan Powers.
Alan has raided the walls and cupboards of his house to produce an exhibition of work by AWG members going back to the 1880s. In some respects random and unrepresentative, it is nonetheless instructive about some of the characteristics that have recurred through the decades: a relationship to the past (from F. L. Griggs’s Gothic fantasies to Glynn Boyd Harte’s celebration of Lutyens); a commitment to art in the service of people (especially mural studies); the rural and urban pastoral (Reynolds Stone and Richard Sorrell); the process outshining the product (studies rather than finished works); the elevation of the everyday through decoration (pottery, textiles and cutlery); and the sheer delight of a satirical architects’ pantomime programme by Beresford Pite and cardboard models made from designs by Edward Ardizzone and Rowland Emmett.
Viewing is by appointment only. Please contact Leigh on leigh@artworkersguild.org to book.
There will be a private view on Friday 28 February, 6 - 9 pm.
Exhibition will feature work by:
Edward Ardizzone
Marthe Armitage
Edward Barnsley
Henry Bird
John Brandon-Jones
Caroline Bullock
Eric Cartwright
Catherine Cobb
Roland Collins
Rowland Emmett
Hanslip Fletcher
James Gardner
Stephen Goode
F L Griggs
Josephine Harris
Glynn Boyd Harte
Bobbie Kociejowski
Sir Edwin Lutyens
Sophie MacCarthy
Charles Mahoney
Gerald Moira
Sir Thomas Monnington
Claude Muncaster
Richard Murry
A Beresford Pite
Alfred Powell
Sally Pollitzer
Sally Scott
Ivy Smith
Richard Sorrell
Reynolds Stone
William Washington
Rex Whistler
Rory Young
A selling exhibition of watercolours and drawings by Thomas Hennell (1903-1945), mainly drawn from the Estate of the Artist, curated by Jennings Fine Art.
Thomas Hennell was an artist, writer and countryman. He was tragically killed at the end of the Second World War, in which he served with distinction as an Official War Artist. Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious both regarded him as a ‘man of genius’. He was a key contributor to the Recording Britain project and lectured (more than once) at the Art Workers’ Guild in 1940 on the subject of ‘Country Crafts’.
East London Textile Arts will lead an embroidery workshop inspired by the current Re-envisioning John Frederick Lewis - Interpretations in craft and architecture exhibition.
The Octagon coat: Made with over 200 octagons, embroidered by over 60 people, it took a year to create. Designed and finished by Bro. Sonia Tuttiett. Image © Elle Sillanpaa
An exhibition exploring the work of the Victorian Orientalist painter, John Frederick Lewis, and offering contemporary interpretations of ’the Oriental’ today. The project is in partnership with East London Textile Arts and The Watts Gallery and will run in parallel to the Watts Gallery exhibition of portraits by John Frederick Lewis to be held from summer 2019.
Viewing is by appointment only. Please contact Leigh on leigh@artworkersguild.org to book.
OPEN DAYS.
The Exhibition will be open to the public from Thursday 6 - Saturday 8 February, 11am - 5.30pm
The Art Workers’ Guild mentoring scheme is holding an open evening showcasing their mentors, offering support and advice for students as they launch their creative careers.
An exhibition of recent work by Edward Stone. There will be a private view on Saturday 9 November.
Edward Stone was born in Berkshire in 1940, the eldest son of the distinguished wood engraver and painter Reynolds Stone. He was educated at Eton and Hammersmith College of Art, where he studied mural design. After college he worked as an assistant to the muralist George Mitchell. Later Stone worked part time as a day care officer in the Health Service, supporting himself while beginning a long process of discovering painting. Edward Stone’s art is a complex one. He appears at first glance to paint the surface of what he sees. In the Summer he paints landscapes, either in Dorset South West England where he lives, or in France around the Poitu region. In the winter he paints indoors, still lives and interiors. He does indeed paint what he sees but his is a complicated vision. A mixture of observation, history and homage. The references to other art and artists are everywhere present in his paintings. This is his way of sharing the delight that he finds. His enthusiasms are evident throughout his work. Visual clues are laid out among his still lives interiors and landscapes. Allusions are made to Chardin and Vermeer to Corot and to Daumier. He has a strong affinity with France and French culture. His passion for the writer Balzac was so intense at one time that the host of a dinner party in France was moved to admonish him before the meal with, ‘Pas de Balzac ce soir Edouard’. Proust is another of his literary enthusiasms. Edward’s painting is very much involved with notions of memory and time. He has shown at the BP Portrait awards and has held several solo and mixed exhibitions at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London. His work has been collected by among many others Iris Murdoch. This is Edward’s first exhibition since 2007.
Ian Archie Beck
During his 1909 lecture tour to the West Coast, Past Master C. R. Ashbee presented lectures in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Unimpressed by the crowds, pollution, and degradation he had seen in New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, he was fascinated and delighted with the West. Ashbee wrote in his journals that Seattle was “the only American city I have so far seen in which I would care to live. All the gold of Ophir would not tempt me to live in one of those smug eastern cities. Here is a city with a new light in her eyes.”
His wife, Janet, remarked on the city’s cosmopolitanism, its ‘well-appointed restaurants decorated with the latest Arts and Crafts distinction of line and coloring.’ Her comments reveal that Seattle and the Pacific Northwest were participating actively in the important design and reform movement that had roots in nineteenth century Britain but soon was taken to heart by America.
This lecture, based upon an award-winning book by Lawrence Kreisman and Glenn Mason, The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest (Timber Press, 2007), explores this theme of regional identity. Examples in architecture, interior design, furniture, decorative and applied arts, photography, and fine arts demonstrate the remarkable variety of progressive, architect-designed residences, bungalows for everyone, and all manner of artistic and practical furnishings and accessories that were the handiwork of anonymous amateurs and significant regional artists alike.
Lawrence Kreisman, Hon. AIA Seattle, was Program Director of Historic Seattle for 20 years, He has been recognized for significant work in bringing public attention to the Pacific Northwest’s architectural heritage and its preservation through courses, tours, exhibits, lectures, articles, and 11 books. Kreisman and his husband, Dr. Wayne Dodge, are both members of the Decorative Arts Society.
To reserve your place, please email leigh@artworkersguild.org. Entry is free.
The Art Workers’ Guild Table Top Museum is back for its fourth year, in conjunction with Open House weekend. Join us for an inventive celebration of the madness and the individual and extraordinary rules of those who collect, organised by Guild member, Stephen Fowler.
Come and delight in an exhibition of 23 installations, curated by Guild members and others selected by invitation, featuring molluscs, plane spotters notebooks, stereoscopes, blank paper and the archive of Zenda, to name but a few. (for more details of exhibitors see here)
The Museum forms part of Open House Weekend, more information can be found on their website and catalogue.
We will be open to the public for one day only on Sunday 22 September, 11 am – 6 pm.
Cake and refreshments will be available throughout the day.
Venue :
The Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square
London
WC1N 3AT
For more information contact Leigh Milsom Fowler on info@artworkersguild.org
020 7713 0966
We look forward to seeing you there!
Jennings Fine Art presents an exhibition of drawings, watercolours and lithographs by PM Glynn Boyd Harte. There will be a private view on Monday 23 September, from 6.30pm – 9pm
Opening hours:
Sunday 22 September 11am – 6pm
Monday 23 to Friday 27 September 10.30am – 4.30pm
Saturday 28 September 10am - 2pm
Monday 30 September to Friday 4 October 10.30am – 4.30pm
The Outreach Committee are holding an evening conversation on 3 July. Master Anne Thorne will discuss the history of gendered space in the UK and how her practice has used this to challenge the design of public and private spaces, working with different community groups. Bro. Celia Ward will talk about gendered spaces within the Egyptian architecture depicted by Victorian painter John Frederick Lewis.
A display of work in progress by Bro. Carol McNichol, Bro. Rachael Matthews and the members of East London Textile Arts for the current Outreach project, Re-envisioning John Frederick Lewis - Interpretations in craft and architecture will also be on show.
To book your place, please email Leigh on leigh@artworkersguild.org. Places are very limited, so will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Entry is free and refreshments will be available.
The Guild is hosting the closing event for this years Material Witness - an interdisciplinary training programme for the interrogation of physical objects in the digital age.
The prevalence of digital images both online and in exhibition and museum spaces has resulted in the dematerialised object becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Interest in physical artefacts has intensified as a result, both within the academy and across the public sphere. Material Witness acknowledges the centrality of objects across the humanities and offers innovative and cutting-edge training to emerging scholars in a broad range of theoretical and practical methods for interpreting physical objects. A central theme of Material Witness is the mutually enriching relationship between the digital artefact and the ‘real thing’. Material Witness will provide training for PhD students in techniques and methods for examining the material world. It aims to encourage researchers who come from different disciplines and backgrounds and who study diverse time periods, pre-modern and modern, to share ideas about the relationships between materials and meaning. The programme also promotes collaboration across (and beyond) the spectrum of humanities disciplines through the study of materiality.
The programme takes the form of day-long events that take place during the Spring and Summer terms, with the concluding event at the Art Workers’ Guild designed to showcase skills learnt during the programme. The evening will include key-note speakers followed by presentations from members of the Art Workers’ Guild on their individual crafts.
An exhibition of photographs by Nicholas Hardinge (1927 - 2005), hosted by Brother Jacqueline Taber of the Geedon Gallery.
The exhibition will be open 10.30am to 4.30pm daily and there will be a private view on Friday 17 May, 6.30pm - 8.30pm.
In 1949, after service in the RAF Nicholas Hardinge studied briefly at the London School of Photography, before getting his first job in the darkroom of society photographer Walter Bird. The premises were shared with Photographic Illustrations Ltd, who were Industrial and Architectural Photographers. Later he worked for Pictorial Press Agency, who provided illustrations for the long departed weekly Everybody. These pictures were all taken in his spare time or weekends. The 2 ’/2"x 2 " negatives were lost for over 30 years until they were found on moving house.
These few surviving images illustrate a way of life that has gone for ever. In those days, the Thames and London Docks were seething with shipping and small craft. The Thames barge, although in decline was still very much in evidence. The workmen, in their flat caps all look so different today. All these photographs were taken with a Rolleiflex camera.This was not taken at eye level, but looking downwards into the dark hood, thus making it easier to snatch pictures undetected, like Gas Workers at Greenwich and the old lady in Deodar Road, Putney.
The Guild is holding two events over London Craft Week, between 8 - 12 May 2019.
Unveiled – The Craft of Millinery
Wednesday 8 - Friday 10 May
This exhibition brings together British milliners, chosen for their diverse designs and skills, to give an insight into the particular workings and craftsmanship of each. Curated by leading milliners and Brothers of the Guild, Rachel Trevor Morgan, Edwina Ibbotson and Noel Stewart, the exhibition draws on their experience and knowledge to bring together the best of British millinery, including hats from Stephen Jones, Philip Treacy and Bro. Bridget Bailey. Their aim is to highlight the very special craft of millinery and its varied techniques, both modern and traditional. A working gallery forms part of the exhibition, where you can see hats being made over the three days. There is also a display of winning hats from the annual Feltmakers’ Design Competition.
Included in the week are ticketed talks and demonstrations. For more details, please see the website.
London Craft Week: The Art of Making at the Art Workers’ Guild
Sunday 12 May, 11am - 5pm
The Guild is holding a special one-day event to showcase the enormous variety of our members’ craft disciplines. Brothers will be demonstrating the specialist skills involved in the making process of each, featuring stone carving, textile design and calligraphy, to name but a few.
Entry is free and refreshments will be available.
Those taking part include:
Jane Cox - Potter
Wally Gilbert - Sculptor
Edwina Ibbotson - Milliner
Paul Jakeman - Stonecarver
Mark L’Argent - Calligrapher
Sue Lowday - Leather work
Georgy Metichian - Woodcarving
Jeremy Nichols - Potter
Tom Samuel - Woodcarving
Annie Sherburne - Textiles
The AWG Outreach committee invites you to a day of decorative darning and mending on Saturday 4 May, 1 - 5 pm in the Art Workers’ Guild Hall. Please bring your holes or somebody else’s. If you are one of those extraordinary people who has no holes, please come along anyway.
Yarns and woven fabrics of many colours are waiting to darn knitwear and patch holes. There will be tuition in the use of darning mushrooms, and examples of how decorative darning can bring new life to old favourites. Sewing machines, irons, needles and scissors will all be provided along with refreshments. It’s possible that standard buttons can be matched but we are unable to mend broken zips.
Please RSVP to Leigh on leigh@artworkersguild.org or call on 020 7713 0966.
Entry is Free
The Power of Wealth/This Yellow Slave
This is the first UK solo show for Swiss born sculptor Isabella Kocum. Using a number of techniques including printmaking, gilding, sculpture and ceramics, her work explores contemporary issues rooted in the traditions of European art. In this exhibition she will be showing polychrome wood reliefs alongside lustre glazed ceramic figures and lino prints.
There will be a private view on Monday 8 April, 6pm – 9pm
Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Act 2, 9 February – 27 May 2019,
Installation view, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea.
Courtesy of De La Warr Pavilion. Photo: Rob Harris
Still I Rise is a timely exhibition exploring the history of resistance and alternative forms of living from the perspective of gender. This major group exhibition looks at the many forms resistance can take: from intimate acts to large-scale uprisings, from the late 19th century to the present and beyond.
Still I Rise presents the way in which resistance has been approached by visual artists, writers, architects, designers, activists, working as individuals or in groups. It takes place within a global context, referring to recent women-led uprisings and demonstrations, as well as historic moments including the Civil Rights Movement, independence movements against colonial rule in Africa, the Women’s Liberation Movement, the AIDS crisis and the Stonewall Rebellion.
At the core of Still I Rise is the idea of collaboration, community building and egalitarianism.
The Master, Anne Thorne, has some of her work as part of the Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative on show, plus the Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr, Rosie Cooper (also Prue and Nicholas Coopers daughter), will be giving us a guided tour of the exhibition. We have organised for lunch afterwards in the Cafe.
For more information and to book your place please contact the Guild Administrator, Leigh Milsom Fowler, by email on leigh@artworkersguild.org or phone 020 7713 0966.
Address:
De La Warr Pavilion
Marina
Bexhill
East Sussex
TN40 1DP
https://www.dlwp.com/exhibition/still-i-rise/
Come and discuss and view works in progress for the Guild Outreach exhibition about the English 19th century painter John Frederick Lewis taking place at the Guild in the Autumn.
All welcome and drinks will be provided. An AWG Outreach project in partnership with The Watts Gallery and East London Textile Arts.
Useful Parallels: Exploring ways in which other disciplines approach comparable problems.
An exhibition of glass work by Brothers in the Yellow Gallery and Courtyard. The exhibition shows finished pieces and the processes and tools behind them and features work by Katharine Coleman, Ged Palmer, Sally Pollitzer, Tracey Sheppard, Caroline Swash and Helen Whittaker.
Curated by Bro. Monica Grose-Hodge.
The AWG Outreach committee invites Brothers and their friends to an afternoon of collage on Saturday 2nd February, 2-5 pm. Play a giant game of collage-consequences, make a cheerful valentine card for your sweetheart, create a cut-and-paste poem, or simply experiment with paper, scissors and glue.
Collage materials, tools and refreshments will be provided.
If you’ve got any visually interesting magazines, books or scraps of paper you’d be happy to cut up and turn into something new, bring them along. And if you’d like to make a valentine, remember to print out a picture of your loved one(s) and bring it with you.
Please RSVP to Leigh on leigh@artworkersguild.org or call on 020 7713 0966. Entry is free.
A selection of festive cards created by Brothers of the Guild on sale in the Gallery. Featuring work by Phil Abel, Brian Webb, Christopher Brown, Vicki Ambery-Smith, Angela Barrett, Rosalind Bliss, Jane Dorner, Matthew Eve, Marie-Helene Jeeves, Peter Malone, Anthony Paine, Jeremy Sancha, Jacqueline Taber and Russell Taylor.
Individual cards: £3
Pack of 5 cards: £12
Cash only
An exhibition exploring a collaboration between painting, gilding and computer graphics by Brother Elizabeth Ball, Prof. Grzegorz Mazurek and Marek Letkiewicz PhD. Exploring the concept that museums are not a storage of paintings and sculptures but repositories of timeless human imagination. Images reach us from the past, they are projections of the visual mind in which we intuitively sense the vibration, strength of life and energy.
Better known for his books on mid twentieth century British artists, architects and designers, Alan Powers also produced a considerable body of paintings and graphics, mostly in the 1980s. These are the subject of a forthcoming book from Inky Parrot Press, with text by the artist and introductory essays by Peter Davidson and Michael Hall. In anticipation of this, he staged a small retrospective exhibition at the Art Workers Guild, of which he has been a member since 1982.
The exhibition included a number of watercolour paintings for sale, and others borrowed from their owners, showing buildings, landscapes and interiors. There were sample of etchings, lithographs, magazine illustration, painted furniture and a couple of peep shows.
Details about the book can be obtained from dennis@parrotpress.co.uk
A talk by Jessica Douglas-Home on the sculpture and puppets of past Brother William Simmonds, to coincide with the publication of her new book and an exhibition of Simmond’s work.
A film screening of The Chair Maker by Falcon Productions. Master craftsman Lawrence Neal has been handcrafting exquisite ladderback chairs for over half a century. The Chair Maker explores his making process, the historic lineage of ladderback chairs, and the existential threat facing modern craftspeople. For more information please see the website.
Brother Neil Jennings of Jennings Fine Art held an exhibition of Harold Jones’ work, featuring paintings, watercolours, prints and original artwork.
The Art Workers’ Guild Table Top Museum is back for its third year, in conjunction with Open House weekend. An inventive celebration of the madness and the individual and extraordinary rules of those who collect, organised by Bro. Stephen Fowler and PM George Hardie.
Desdemona McCannon The Museum of Ashridge, PM George Hardie Stencils
We delighted in an exhibition of 24 installations, curated by Guild Brothers and others selected by invitation, featuring mincers, alphabets, antique breadboards, rough seas, objects of desire and the architectural garden of Eden, to name but a few. This year we also dedicated a table to matchbox museums - special collections in micro.
The Museum forms part of Open House weekend, and features on their website and catalogue.
PPIG (Psychology of Programming Interest Group), a niche think tank of academics, held their annual conference at the Guild this year, with the aim of questioning whether arts and crafts sensibilities could be introduced to computer programming at a deep philosophical level.
An exhibition of sculptural work by Brothers in the Yellow Gallery and Courtyard. The exhibition showed finished pieces and the processes and tools behind them and featured work by James Butler, Charlotte Hubbard, Wally Gilbert, Guy Reid and Simon Smith.
Curated by Bro. Monica Grose-Hodge.
Bro. Rob Ryan and TAG Fine Arts held an exhibition of new work, But If I Tell You It Won’t Come True at the Guild. Rob made a departure from his previous monochromatic paper cuts, showing new pieces using multi-layered collaged paper cuts and highly coloured limited silkscreen prints. There was a book signing with Rob on Saturday 23 June 1 pm - 3 pm
An exhibition of works refused entry into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition by members of the Traditional Architecture Group, organised by Bro. Simon Hurst.
This year, many TAG members submitted entries for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. All but one were refused and all these entries, which included many fine architectural models, exquisite drawings, stone carvings and plasterwork went into TAG’s own exhibition.
An exhibition of work by new Brothers in the Yellow Gallery. The exhibition showed finished pieces and the processes and tools behind them and features work by Hannah Coulson, Zebedee Helm and Jeff Soan.
Curated by Bro. Monica Grose-Hodge.
An exhibition which brought together the best of British millinery, showcasing the diverse styles and skills of makers and giving an insight into their design processes. In conjunction with London Craft Week, supported by the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers and hosted by the Art Workers’ Guild.
Curated by leading milliners Rachel Trevor Morgan, Edwina Ibbotson and Noel Stewart, this unique exhibition drew on their experience and knowledge to highlight the very special craft of millinery and its varied techniques, both modern and traditional. It includes hats from Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy as well as millinery costumier, Jane Smith. There was also be a display of winning hats from the annual Feltmakers’ Design Competition. Throughout the week there were variety of other ticketed talks, demonstrations and a documentary.
Magic Carpets and the possibilities and limitations of ’Neurodiverse Art’: An exploration of the Creative process and its relation to how our our brains work through the launch of #MagicCarpet tapestry art.
On the occasion of the launch of a new tapestry artwork, artist Dr Kai Syng Tan and mentor Professor of Psychiatry Philip Asherson (Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London) and distinguished members of the Art Workers’ Guild held a discussion exploring the creative process and its relation to how our brains work. Guests speakers were Professor Andrew Stahl (UCL Slade School of Fine Art), Jo Verrent (Unlimited) and Ben Graham (Headway East London). Brothers Rachael Matthews, Fleur Oakes and Paul Jakeman demonstrated their work alongside the discussion.
The AWG Outreach committee invited Brothers and their friends to a day of decorative darning and mending. Yarns and woven fabrics of many colours were provided to darn knitwear and patch holes. There was tuition in the use of darning mushrooms, and examples of how decorative darning can bring new life to old favourites. Sewing machines, irons, needles and scissors were provided along with refreshments.
Brother Jane Dorner held an exhibition of work inspired by Past Master Stephen Gottlieb’s workshop. Several Brothers contributed pieces illustrating the diversity of a craftsman’s practice.
The Guild had the honour of hosting Hon. Brother HRH The Prince of Wales. His visit marked the official opening of the new Courtyard. As well as unveiling a plaque in honour of his visit, he took the opportunity to meet and view the work of Brothers. More photos can be found on the Guild’s Instagram feed.
The Guild held a film screening of Anthony Dolan’s new documentary film ’Edgar Wood - a Painted Veil’, featuring Brother Gareth Mason as Edgar Wood. Doors open at 6.30 pm for a 7 pm start.
Our annual auction of Brothers’ work featuring paintings, prints, furniture, ceramics, glass pieces and more…all broadly on the theme of Thanksgiving, to mark the American holiday.
Convened in partnership with the Art Workers’ Guild, the Heritage Crafts Association and the Crafts Council, this panel debate at the Museum of English Rural Life brought together influential thinkers connected to craft and making to explore pressing issues facing the creative economy.
As part of the Bloomsbury Festival, the Guild hosted the award-winning campaigner and founder of the global Craftivist Collective Sarah Corbett.
An exhilarating, exciting and inventive celebration of the madness and the extraordinary rules of those who collect. Featuring museums of groovy flutes, coastal curiosities, shopping lists, gay dolls, the Chinchilla’s Museum of Crypto-Zoology, and many more...
A dialogue between local community groups and professional craftspeople.
Members of the Guild (jeweller, stonecarver, decorative plasterer, potter, product designer, embroiderer, etc) paired up with surgeons, engineers, bioscientists, people working with computers, etc, to demonstrate the critical importance of craftsmanship across disciplines, and the transferability of the understanding of skills.