EVENTS IN 2012
Thursday 2nd February at 2pm
Handle with Care - The History of Handbags
Talk and handling session with Irene McNulty of Encompass Workshops. Using Harrogate Museum’s and the speaker’s collections, Irene will showcase handbags from their inception to today’s designers.
Cost: £6
Mercer Art Gallery
Tuesday 7th February at 2pm
Capes and Cover Ups
Illustrated talk with Dorothy Newall looking at shawls, capes and other textile accessories in the Nidderdale Museum’s collection, followed by tea and scones.
Cost: £5
Nidderdale Museum, King Street, Pateley Bridge, HG3 5LE
Thursday 9th February, 10am until 4pm
Introduction to Feltmaking - One Day Workshop
Local artist Sarah Kay Thornton will teach you to create individual 2-D and 3-D felt pieces using fine Merino wool in a rainbow of colours. All materials will be provided, just bring an apron or an overall. Please note: pure soap flakes will be used in the feltmaking process. Suitable for beginners and those looking to improve.
Cost: £22.50 including all materials and refreshments
Mercer Art Gallery
Tuesday 14th February at 2pm
Tour of Ripley Hotel de Ville
Illustrated talk and tour exploring the history and recent refurbishment of this intriguing building with Andy Herrington. Also see how the Hotel de Ville’s recently installed solar panels are helping to meet the building's energy needs.
Cost: £3.50 including refreshments
Ripley Hotel de Ville, Main Street, Ripley, HG3 3AX
Wednesday 22nd February at 2pm (also on Wednesday 28th March)
Tour of Harrogate Library
Talk and tour looking at the recent refurbishment work to the library and 2011 community engagement projects including volunteering opportunities and a Friends group.
FREE
Harrogate Library, Victoria Avenue, Harrogate
Thursday 23rd February at 2pm
Treasures Old and New
Illustrated talk by Jane Sellars, Curator of Art, looking at Harrogate district’s Fine Art collection on show in the ‘Your Paintings’ exhibition, with a focus on new acquisitions.
Cost: £5
Mercer Art Gallery
Thursday 1st March at 2pm
Harrogate for Health and Happiness: A Spa Town in the 20th Century
Illustrated talk with Ros Watson, Harrogate’s Curator of Human History, about the new exhibition at the Royal Pump Room Museum looking at the rise and fall of the spa, the treatments available, the arrival of the NHS and the town’s new role as a conference venue.
Cost: £5 including admission to the Royal Pump Room Museum that day
Mercer Art Gallery
Wednesday 7th March, 10am until 4pm
Introduction to Binche Lace Snowflakes - Lacemaking Workshop
Mary Moseley and Jill Clark, local lacemakers, will show you how to make this beautiful design. Basic lace skills required – aimed at lacemakers looking to improve.
Cost: £22.50 including refreshments
Mercer Art Gallery
Monday 12th March at 2pm
Ripon Georgian Courthouse
Talk and tour: Explore Ripon's Courthouse Museum with new displays telling the story of the building and the people who have passed through it - those who have worked here and those who fell foul of the law. Take part in a court case re-enactment either deciding on a verdict as part of the jury or taking a full speaking role as a court representative.
Cost: £5
Ripon Courthouse Museum, Minster Road, Ripon, HG4 1QS
Thursday 22nd March at 11am and 1pm
Palace of Glittering Gold: Tour of Harrogate's Royal Hall
Guided tour of Harrogate’s recently restored Edwardian theatre. The Hall was the major entertainment venue for the rich and famous who came to visit Harrogate to take the waters. See the beautifully gilded interior and many of the original features.
FREE
Thursday 22nd March at 2pm
Different Strokes: Photographer Paul Floyd Blake in Conversation
Talk with Jane Sellars, Harrogate’s Curator of Art and Paul Floyd Blake looking at Paul’s images photographs of three remarkable female swimmers: potential Paralympics Champion Danielle Bailey, Rosie Bankcroft & Jane Grant, that challenge perceptions of disability and describe the joy that comes from swimming.
Cost: £6
Mercer Art Gallery
Monday 26th March at 2pm
Harrogate Uncut
Film show by Yorkshire Film Archive especially edited for this showing. Featuring some of the earliest examples of moving image, created in Yorkshire, alongside historical film advertising Harrogate, the opening of the Royal Baths extension, spa treatments and district highlights such as Fountains Abbey and Plumpton Rocks.
Cost: £5
Mercer Art Gallery
Wednesday 28th March at 2pm
Tour of Harrogate Library
Talk and tour looking at the recent refurbishment work to the library and 2011 community engagement projects including volunteering opportunities and a Friends group.
FREE
Harrogate Library, Victoria Avenue, Harrogate
Tuesday 17th April at 2pm (also on Tuesday 12th June)
Historical Tour of Knaresborough
Guided tour with local history expert Brian Forshaw. Discover the magnificent Castle, historical buildings, a maze of medieval streets and passages as well as the royal connections and famous characters.
Cost: £4.50 including admission to the Castle that day
Start at Knaresborough Castle, Castle Yard, HG5 8AS
Thursday 19th April at 2pm
Titanic - Costumes of the Gilded Age
Costume presentation by The History Wardrobe to commemorate the centenary of the Titanic’s first and only voyage. Using historical costumes, documents and survivor testimonies follow the story of famous dress designer, Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon, on that fatal night in April 1912.
Cost: £12 including refreshments
St Wilfrid’s Church Hall, Duchy Road, Harrogate
Tuesday 24th April at 2pm
Tour of Markenfield Hall
Guided tour looking at the landscape and taking in the Gatehouse and Courtyard. Inside visit three principal rooms and the Four Poster Bedroom. Afterwards you are free to wander the Chapel, Great Hall, Undercroft, Orchard and moat (please wear appropriate footwear). The hall is 1 mile walk from the nearest bus stop on A61.
Cost: £6.50
Markenfield Hall, Ripon, HG4 3AD
26th April at 2pm
Poor Maria - Laurence Sterne and the William Powell Frith Connection
Talk with Patrick Wildgust, Curator of Shandy Hall, and Jane Sellars, Harrogate’s Curator of Art. Poor Maria’ or Maria of Moulines is a curious and fascinating character of fiction. Laurence Sterne of Shandy Hall gives life to this enigmatic figure in both Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey and Harrogate’s own William Powell Frith painted her in a painting now in the Mercer’s collection. Jane and Patrick will look at her story, which is both beautiful and sad.
Cost: £6
Mercer Art Gallery
Tuesday 1st May, 9.00am – 4.30pm
Historic Country Churches
Talks and tours of 5 churches including Goldsborough with 12th century origins and royal/Harewood connections, an18th century classical estate chapel at Allerton Maulever, 17th century Red House Chapel and Norman churches in Long Marston and Spofforth. Local historian, Maurice Taylor, will lead the tour with complementary readings from Anne Carrick. Picnic venue at Red House for lunch. Churches subject to change.
Cost: £25
Departing from and returning to the Mercer Art Gallery
Thursday 10th May at 1.30pm
Tour of Stonefall Cemetery
Guided tour with staff. Visit this 30-acre site featuring the Crematorium, Memorial Gardens and Cemetery, together with adjoining Hebrew Cemetery and War Graves Commission.
FREE
Stonefall Cemetery, Wetherby Road, Harrogate
Tuesday 15th May at 2pm
Tour of St John the Baptist Church, Knaresborough
Tour by local history expert Brian Forshaw looking at this historic church, believed to have been a place of worship for over a thousand years. Brian will talk about the developments over the centuries, including the support from King Edward III’s wife, Philippa of Hainault and the first bells installed in 1774.
Cost: £3.50
St John the Baptist Church, Church Lane, Knaresborough, HG5 9AR
Monday 21st May at 11am
Tour of Harrogate Theatre
Ever wondered what it's like backstage at the theatre or fancied being on stage? Join this tour to learn more about what Harrogate Theatre does and how the building has changed over 110 years.
Cost: £4
Harrogate Theatre, Oxford Street, Harrogate
Thursday 24th May at 2pm
Egypt's Female PharoahsTalk: Although most of Egypt's ancient rulers were men,
Dr Joann Fletcher will discuss the women who ruled as pharaoh, some of the most famous represented by objects in the Harrogate museum collection.
Cost: £6 including admission to the Royal Pump Room Museum that day.Mercer Art Gallery
Wednesday 30th May at 2pm
Fashion Without Ration - A Look at the 1950s
Handling session with Harrogate Museums Exhibitions and Collections Assistant, Nicola Dyke, looking at 1950s textiles and household objects at the museum. Come along and reminisce!
Cost: £4 including admission to the Royal Pump Room Museum that day
Mercer Art Gallery
Tuesday 12th June at 2pm
Historical Tour of Knaresborough
Guided tour with local history expert Brian Forshaw. Discover the magnificent Castle, historical buildings, a maze of medieval streets and passages as well as the royal connections and famous characters.
Cost: £4.50 including admission to the Castle that day
Start at Knaresborough Castle
Thursday 14th June, 10am-3.30pm
Shandy Hall Day Trip
Talks and tour of Shandy Hall, led by curator Patrick Wildgust. The Hall is a museum and the former home of writer Revd Laurence Sterne. It is where he wrote Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey. Come to the village of Coxwold where he lived and preached and discover what a truly extraordinary man and writer he was. The day will start with a visit to
Coxwold church, said to date from 700AD, followed by lunch at the Coxwold Tearooms and a tour of the museum and gardens.
Cost: £25 including lunch
Departing from and returning to the Mercer Art Gallery
Tuesday 19th June at 2pm
Anne Desmet: Olypmic Metamorphoses
Gallery talk by artist Anne Desmet looking at her latest body of work, on show at the Mercer Art Gallery during the Olympic months, charting the fascinating evolving landscape of the Olympic site, near her home in East London.
Cost: £6.50
Mercer Art Gallery
Wednesday 20th June, 10am until 4pm
Introduction to Wood Engraving - One Day Workshop
Anne Desmet, an internationally renowned specialist in wood engravings, linocuts and collage, will lead this workshop on fine line engraving on end-grain boxwood and lemonwood blocks. Anne will teach engraving techniques with a wide range of tools, and hand-printing without a press, using European and Japanese printing papers. Suitable for beginners and those looking to improve.
Cost: £25 including all materials and refreshments
Mercer Art Gallery
Practical details:
BookingAll events should be booked in advance by phone on 01423 556188, email at
museums@harrogate.gov.uk or in person at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate.
Payment
All events are priced to cover costs. To confirm your place payment must be made at least 1 month in advance. If payment is not received 1 month in advance and there is a reserve list for the event we will reallocate your reserved place in order to cover the costs of the event.
Booking several events
When booking multiple events payment will be requested quarterly – for October-December, January-March and April-June. However, we do not wish to exclude anyone through these payment conditions, please get in touch if this is not possible for you so we can make arrangements to suit.
Tickets
On receipt of payment tickets will be sent for your event. Reminder letters will no longer be issued unless further instruction is necessary e.g. for the churches tour. However, if you provide an email address we will send an email reminder near to the event date.
Cancellations and Refunds
All cancellations must be made 14 days prior to an event to receive a refund. Refunds are only available for sums in excess of £10 due to administrative costs involved. For sums under £10, monies can be held on account against payments for future events.
Please note that all sessions are very popular, often with long reserve lists, so if you cannot attend please notify us straight away so someone else can enjoy the event. If you cancel less than 14 days before an event but we are able to find a replacement the refund policy will apply.
In the event that we have to cancel an event, monies can be held towards future events or a full refund can be provided.