Mercer Art Gallery, Harrog
The Mercer Art Gallery is home to Harrogate district's fine art collection which consists of some 2000 works of art, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection includes works by William Powell Frith, Atkinson Grimshaw, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Dame Laura Knight, Alan Davie and many more. The collection is not on permanent display.
The gallery has two spaces, the Main Gallery and the smaller North Gallery. The changing exhibition programme for both galleries ranges from national touring exhibitions of painting, photography, sculpture and crafts to exhibitions from the permanent collections to displays by local artists.
NEWS – MERCER NOMINATED FOR MAJOR AWARD
MERCER ART GALLERY, HARROGATE, SHORTLISTED FOR TOP INTERNATIONAL MUSEUMS AWARD
Museums, galleries and visitor attractions from across the UK and Europe have been shortlisted to receive a prestigious industry accolade at the national Museums and Heritage Awards for Excellence ceremony in May. Innovative and groundbreaking exhibitions have been selected from hundreds of entries across 11 hard-fought categories.
The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, which last year underwent a beautiful refurbishment and broke all visitor records with the exhibition
Atkinson Grimshaw; Painter of Moonlight has been nominated for the
CLASSIC AWARD. The Mercer is up against much bigger city museums, including National Museums Liverpool World Museum, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust - Ironbridge Gorge Museum and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums - Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.
Popular comedienne and broadcaster Sue Perkins will announce the winners at a glittering Awards ceremony on 16 May at 8 Northumberland in central London. Now celebrating its tenth year, the Awards recognize projects of excellence ranging from groundbreaking achievements of national institutions to those crafted with limited resources and budget or those championing sustainability. The Awards are judged by a panel of the sector’s leading lights including: Diane Lees,
Director General, Imperial War Museums; Bernard Donoghue, Director, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) and other leading sector professionals. Mr Donoghue said: "The Museums and Heritage Awards are so highly valued within the sector because they recognise ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit, success and integrity. They recognise excellence wherever it is found, from the smallest local museum to the largest, globally iconic attraction. And success breeds success; our award-winners are further inspired by their award to achieve more and push boundaries and this is rewarded by increased visitor numbers, spend, media coverage and deeper, broader, more beneficial partnerships."
MAIN GALLERY
SPECIAL EVENT
Monday 30th April 10am - 4pmArt Stories: The History of the Harrogate District Fine Art Collection Study Day
exploring Harrogate district's fine art collection with talks by:
Jane Sellars, Curator of Art, on the making of the collection from its beginnings in 1930.
Alexander Robertson, Art Historian, on the life and work of John Atkinson Grimshaw and his modern day appeal
Christopher P Wood, Landscape Artist, on his own and other paintings in the collection
Frank Milner, Art Historian, on the representation of Harrogate's most famous Victorian artist, William Powell Frith.
Cost: £25 including lunch and refreshmentsMercer Art Gallery
Contact us to book
Your Paintings - Works from the Harrogate Fine Art Collection
14 January 2012 - 8 June 2012
A chance to see some of Harrogate's best loved works of art, plus new acquisitions from the last five years, including works by Harrogate's great Victorian artist William Powell Frith.
NORTH GALLERY
Extraordinary Moves: Photographs by Paul Floyd Blake
21 January 2012 - 5 June 2012
This exhibition brings together Paul Floyd Blake’s photographs of three remarkable female swimmers: thirteen year-old Danielle Bailey, a potential Paralympics Champion, swimming at The Hydro in Harrogate; portraits of teenage swimmer Rosie Bankcroft; and images of Jane Grant at Starbeck Baths.
This exhibition challenges perceptions of disability and describes the joy that comes from swimming.
Enjoy a talk by the artist: Thursday 22nd March at 2pm
Different Strokes: Photographer Paul Floyd Blake in ConversationTalk with Jane Sellars, Harrogate’s Curator of Art and Paul Floyd Blake looking at Paul’s images photographs of these three remarkable female swimmers
Cost: £6Mercer Art Gallery
Contact us to book
Different Strokes: Extraordinary Swimmers Photographed by Paul Floyd Blake is part of Extraordinary Moves which is a strand of imove: a Cultural Olympiad programme in Yorkshire.
www.imoveand.com
imove is primarily funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to create a cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
The Harrogate Open 20121
6 September 2012 - 20 January 2013
This is your chance to have your work shown in Harrogate's prestigious Mercer Art Gallery.
You could win a prize - a top prize of £400, runner up prize of £200, a highly commended award of £50 or you could win the People's Prize of £100, voted for by our visitors.
There is the opportunity to sell your work and an invitation to a Mercer private view. Whoever you are, don't miss out on taking part in the biggest and best Open Art Exhibition in North Yorkshire.
Read more about this popular exhibition, or download the
Exhibition Information Leaflet.
Take part and download the
Exhibition Entry Form.
Blockbuster shows
Harrogate’s Mercer Art Gallery has developed a reputation for putting on major shows by some of the most successful British artists of the nineteenth century.
John Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight (2011)
Found out what you missed in the first show of the Leeds-based Victorian artist in over 30 years.
See more about Atkinson Grimshaw
Buy the book, exclusively available from the Mercer Art Gallery
William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age (2007)
You can still find out a bit about Harrogate's most famous artist and see some images of his paintings.
Find out more about William Powell Frith