WHAT LIES IN STORE
Date Posted: 4th January 2025
Things often go a bit flat after all the excitement of Christmas so here’s some cheery good news of things to see and do in the dark days of winter.
If you haven’t been to Tullie House to see the Sheila Fell exhibition as yet – don’t miss it. Don’t be put off by all the building work going on inside and out at Tullie and in the shopping precinct in Carlisle. It is child friendly as you see from the photo of my great grandson learning something about art appreciation. Be aware that the museum café is closed but there are coffee shops and restaurants nearby. The new modern extension at the Cathedral next door is beautiful. Nice coffee and a good collection of cakes and toasties.
The Fell exhibition continues in Carlisle until 16th March and then moves on to Sunderland Winter Gardens and Museum (April 5th – June 28th) so you have another chance. It is well placed in the City centre and has an interesting permanent collection with a Lowry exhibition on the 2nd floor. It is the perfect venue for a spring opening. With any luck the Fell Catalogue Resonne will be available by then. More about that soon.
Meanwhile things are happening at The Beacon in Whitehaven in January. INSPIRED BY INDUSTRY opens 18th January – 20th March. This is a celebration of the industrial heritage of West Cumbria. It holds a few surprises especially for me. A collection of works by Percy Kelly that PK’s son Brian Kelly donated to the proposed Haig Pit museum in 1993 went missing. We left them at Haig Pit with an ex miner who gave us a contact name and a telephone number and I have spent the last 30 years trying to track them down. Just before Christmas 15 Kelly drawings and paintings were discovered in the Beacon store still wrapped in tissue paper just as I had left them all those years ago. I am overjoyed. If only I could tell Brian we found them but he died in 2002 aged 57.
I also had another surprise. In 1987, after I had opened Castlegate House as a gallery one of my regular visitors was a Copeland counsellor called Jimmy who lived in Whitehaven and was passionate about art. He had a good eye and purchased a lot from the gallery to add to The Copeland Collection which was kept in the Whitehaven Museum. When the Beacon opened in 1997 with a Percy Kelly show, I tried to find him but he was no longer on the Counsel and I couldn’t remember his surname. Imagine my surprise last year when a lady approached me at the Beacon and asked me what had happened to The Copeland Collection. Yes it was Rita Johnson – Jimmy’s widow. She thought he was forgotten. There were tears shed that afternoon and I kept in touch and assured her that Jimmy was definitely not forgotten and I would make sure the public had a chance to see some of those works. There are 82 in the whole collection which we can’t show this time – only those relevant to Industry in West Cumbria. It includes BIll Bell in Barrow, Paul Scott in Blencogo and Desmond G Sythes (lighthouse keeper of St Bees and painter) to name a few. But it is my mission now to have an exhibition of the whole collection in honour of Jimmy Johnson. Watch this space.
I will try to get to the Beacon exhibition and meet people every Saturday until 20th March. I will be giving an illustrated talk THE SWINGING 60s IN WHITEHAVEN on Saturday 1st February. Tickets for this will be available soon.
That’s all for the moment but there is so much more in the pipeline for 2025. All will be revealed in due course. I will keep you posted.