St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery

Here's our calendar of events.
You can also read or download our Winter/Spring brochure here

• The Open Exhibition returns for its 18th year, bigger and better than ever!
  With more than £1,000 cash prizes up for grabs, a new online entry process, and a new category for three-dimensional works, there will be a fresh look to the exhibition to match the new gallery spaces at St Barbe.
  Over the years the Open has become a popular highlight in the region’s arts calendar drawing entries from artists across Hampshire and Dorset and further afield.
  A panel of professional judges select the exhibition is selected, with the bar being set increasingly high to match the quality of the work submitted.
  A range of prizes are offered by through the generous support of local business partners.

  This year prizes include:
  • The New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times People’s Choice Award (£300)
  • The Coastal Gallery Award for best contemporary abstract work (£300)
  • The Mary and John Symons Award for Best Print (£250)
  • The Blake Morgan Award for Best Painting (£250)
  • Ted Marsh Award, 18-21 years old (£100)
  • The Beaulieu Fine Arts Award for best work by a non-professional artist (£50 of framing)
  This is a selling exhibition
  Artists please note: Collection days for unsold works: Tuesday 17 April and Wednesday 18 April

• A workshop with Kim Whitby
  Practically explore the six key elements of visual art
  practice in this whistle-stop introduction to line, tone,
  pattern, shape and space, texture and colour.
  Price: £35 Limited places available.

  Please note, there is a one hour break for lunch (not provided).

• A workshop with Kim Whitby.
  Kim made it to the final three in Sky Arts Landscape
  Artist of the Year 2016 with her ink drawing. Join
  her as she shares her technique in this versatile
  medium, which bridges the disciplines of drawing
  and painting.
  Price: £35 Limited places available
  There is a one hour break for lunch (not provided)

• Ships and Ship Building at Buckler’s Hard
  Eileen Spratt (Arabella Burlace): A living History Guide at Buckler’s Hard
  Friday 9 March. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  Join Eileen Spratt in the character of Arabella Burlace, wife of shipwright Thomas Burlace. She will take you for a journey back to the 18th Century with her illustrated talk about ships, including HMS Agamemnon, said to be Nelson’s favourite, which were built at Buckler’s Hard; and will tell you about the lives of some of the people who lived and worked in the village during its shipbuilding heyday.

• with Kim Whitby
  Suitable for complete beginners or more experienced artists, you will explore the ways of working from direct observation.
  Price: £35 Limited places available
  (with 1 hour break for lunch – not included)

• Saturday 17 March
  11am to 12:30
  Pre-book £3.00 per child/Friends family membership FREE
  Adults free of charge. Max 1 adult per child.
  Dig deeper into our exhibitions with our interactive family tours before creating your own exhibition inspired artwork to take home.

• Suitable for complete beginners or more experienced artists, you will explore how colour can be used, both theoretically and practically. Working in a painting medium of your choice, you will paint from direct observation using primary, secondary and complimentary colours.

• Around the Gallery
  Fri 30 March – Sun 15 April
  available all day 10-4
  Included with admission price. No booking necessary
  Explore the museum, spot all the hidden eggs and collect a prize from our front desk.

• Flowers, nests, bunnies and eggs! Flourishing family crafts to help celebrate the beginnings of Spring. (Please note there is a break between 12.30-13.30)

• Discover our dinosaur eggs
  No need to book, drop in.
  Included in general admission or £3 per child without museum access.
  Have fun investigating different creatures that lay eggs, including lizards and dinosaurs, and create your own crafty hatch-able egg to take home.

• Captain Cook’s Voyages of Exploration
  Dr John McAleer, Lecturer in History at the University of Southampton
  Friday 13 April. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  In 1768, James Cook sailed from Britain on a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Ocean. Over the course of the next decade, and two further expeditions, Cook and his crew filled in the blanks on the map of the Pacific – an ocean that covers one-third of the earth’s surface – tested scientific theories, collected information, and speculated on the people and places they encountered.

• Springlines is a collaborative project between poet Clare Best and painter Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis, exploring hidden and mysterious bodies of water across the south of England. For several years Clare and Mary Anne have been working from nature, from memory and imagination and in response to one another’s creativity. Together they have made a body of work that tells the story of the complex and fragile relationship between human life and groundwater. The exhibition features paintings by Mary Anne and poetry by Clare based on their explorations in Sussex, Kent and the New Forest as well as relevant items from the museum’s local collections.

  The exhibition has already provoked this response: “I have just visited the gallery for the first time and found it a beautiful place with very thoughtful displays. I should particularly like to say how much I loved the Springlines Exhibition, to the extent that it stirred quite and emotional reaction in me, in fact, making me cry, I must admit. Not normal for me at an exhibition! Please pass on my thanks to Mary Anne and Clare.” Alison, Friday April 20, 2018.

• Hear Springlines artists Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis and Clare Best discuss how their collaborative project came about, followed by a guided tour of the exhibition.
  Price £10
  Booking essential as there are limited places – please call 01590 676969.

• An illustrated workshop with writing exercises and activities set around setting and place in prose and poetry.
  Price £35
  Minimum age 16 years
  Limited places, booking essential. Please call 01590 676969 to book a place.

• Sir John Coles
  Friday 4 May. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  Sir John Coles was Head of the Diplomatic Service and Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1994 to 1997. Earlier he was High Commissioner to Australia, Ambassador to Jordan and Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. He will talk about a number or people – heads of state, politicians, sportsmen and others – whom he has met at various times in the past.

• Saturday 12 May
  10:30-12:30
  Pre-book £6
  For children aged 8-14 years
  Children can be unaccompanied
  Use the Springlines exhibition as inspiration and learn how to put together your own poetry masterpiece.
  This is led by local poet Matthew West.

• Saturday 26 May – Sunday 3 June
  Around the gallery available all day
  Follow the clues to find the answers hidden around the museum, then explore the mysterious waters in our ‘Springlines’ exhibition before creating your own water picture to take home.

• Thursday 31 May
  Drop-in 11am to 12:30 and 13:30-15:00 (no booking necessary)
  A chance to have a go and discover what archaeologists do both in land and water! Handle some Roman and pre-historic artefacts and create archaeology crafts to take home.

• Norman Wilkinson and his ‘Dazzle’ painting team
  Dr James Taylor, FRSA Former curator at the National Maritime Museum, author, lecturer and exhibition organiser
  Friday 1 June. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  In 1917, on a patrol ship in the dangerous waters around Britain, the artist and illustrator Norman Wilkinson had a brainwave: To create the ‘Art of Confusion’ to protect Allied ships. This talk reveals more about the man behind the Dazzle, his artists and their wide-ranging work.

• In 1917 U-Boat attacks threatened to knock Britain out of the war. Artist Norman Wilkinson persuaded the Admiralty that the answer lay in patterns painted on the side of ships which would confuse U-Boat commanders as to the vessel’s direction and speed. A team of artists were recruited to create these ‘Dazzle’ designs and soon ships were sailing out looking like exhibits in an avant-garde art show.

  This unique exhibition looks at the development of Dazzle and features original ship models, Dazzle plans and artworks made to record and celebrate the scheme. The exhibition includes works by Norman Wilkinson, Edward Wadsworth, Montague Dawson, John Everett and many more on loan from the national, regional and private collections.
  This is the only exhibition on the topic being mounted during the First World War Centenary commemorations.

• Looking Back and Forward at the A&T
  The Curry family’s involvement in local journalism
  Eddie Curry, Director, New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times
  Friday 13 July Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  Allen Seaby: Art and Nature
  By Martin Andrews, Lecturer in typography and graphic design, Reading University and now an artist and printmaker.
  Friday 7 September Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  East Cliff Hall: A Victorian Villa
  By Sarah Newman, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum Manager and former St Barbe Community and Exhibitions Officer
  Friday 5 October Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  Berthon and his Boats
  Rev E. L. Berthon and the folding boats that he designed.
  By Phoebe Merrick, Chairman Romsey Local History Society
  Friday 2 November Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  St Barbe Christmas Reception
  Friday 7 December 6pm to 7.30pm

• A unique exhibition based around two of the greatest exponents of colour woodcut prints: Allen William Seaby (1867 – 1953) a regular visitor to the New Forest, and John Edgar Platt (1886 – 1967) in partnership with the artists’ estates.
  This exhibition also includes paintings by Platt’s son Michael, and the prints of Seaby’s grandson Robert Gilmor.