Exciting New Art Commissions Around The Borough
14th May 2022
At the end of 2021, Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust was fortunate to secure an Additional Restrictions Grant awarded by the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority. This was part of the South Yorkshire Mayor’s Renewal Action Plan to support businesses and individuals badly affected by the pandemic.
The funding enabled the Trust to commission a variety of artworks at Barnsley Museum sites. The commissions were advertised in December and 3 of our Trustees sat on the judging panel.
It was clear from the applications that there is a vast amount of talent working in a hugely diverse range of media in the Barnsley area. This made the selection process very difficult indeed, but did mean that we were able to choose art works that may be rather different to what has been seen before.
The artworks are currently in the process of being installed, so do keep your eyes peeled at the following sites:
Elsecar Heritage Centre
Will Rea has created a fabulous mural on an industrial theme and scale on a gable wall end in Elsecar Heritage Centre.
Amanda Johnson has drawn on her own family heritage to create an immersive sound walk telling the stories of visitors who enriched the lives of Elsecar residents when they came to stay – the travelling showmen, Bargee travellers and Romany Gypsy tradesmen.
Dirty Freud and Ruby Tingle have created 4 pieces of music after interviewing the residents of Elsecar village. The pieces reflecting these tales will be debuted at the Suppa Club at Elsecar on 24th June.
Cannon Hall Museum and Parkland
George Baggaley has created an interesting ceramic piece for the collection that explores the issues of decolonisation and slavery and the British Country House.
Louise Wright is a local artist keen to make use of the resources available around her to create her pigments. She has used what can be found around Cannon Hall Gardens and Parkland, and the results of her colour testing and experimentation will be recorded in a bound scrap book to be kept at Cannon Hall.
Experience Barnsley
Paul Slater aka Fabric Lenny will be creating fun and colourful animation based on items in the museum collections which will be shown in the galleries at Experience Barnsley once complete.
Cooper Gallery
Richard Kitson has created a wonderful portrait of Paul Elmhist, long standing chairperson of The Cooper Gallery to be displayed alongside the other works in the gallery. In addition to the artworks, we have also commissioned a film charting their progress and this will be available to view very shortly.
