January 5, 2017

The Burton art gallery and museum in Bideford, Devon launches its new 6-month exhibition, workshop and events programme this week.

For 2017, the Burton team are starting with a fresh, upbeat new look for the gallery, museum, cafe and shop. A new website and new exhibitions programme are launching today, and bright new red signage for the interior and exterior of the building will be put up in a few weeks.

In the first six months of this year, exhibitions will include works by esteemed print-maker Whilhelmina Barns-Graham; a “Coast”-themed exhibition inspired by the rugged North Devon coastline using work from our permanent collection; the Annual Schools Open Exhibition; and Westward Ho! & Bideford Art Society Exhibition.

As well as highlighting the beautiful new objects in the Craft Gallery and shop, the new programme outlines Crafty Kids art play-time (free every Monday 10am-12pm) for parents and small children, a creative writing workshop for adults inspired by the Coast exhibition, and workshops for people who want to try out wood-engraving, textile collages and abstract print-making.

The Burton’s new modern, bright and pictorially stunning website at www.theburton.org brings all this together.

The Burton is working towards being the region’s most celebrated venue for exhibiting art, and Visual Arts Manager, Miranda Clarke, who runs the gallery, was keen to showcase the building more – alongside trustees and staff – in 2017. She said: “Led by our communications officer, Anthony Burt, we commissioned stunning new photography to show off our craft gallery, café and museum for the website, and took a long time to decide the fresh, new look we wanted to portray to visitors. We’re pleased with the bold and bright new approach, and look forward to more visitors noticing us and coming through the door!”

The website has a selection of shop products on it; information about how we regularly support students across the UK doing academic research into fine art, ceramics and creative writing; summaries of the museum’s different collections; our café menu; local artist interviews on our blog; and highlights of all the amazing local artistic talent we have in North Devon.

Judith Gentry, chair of the Burton Trustees said: “I’m delighted with both the new look website and the innovative exhibition programme that the Burton at Bideford is showcasing in early 2017. We look forward to welcoming our visitors old and new to what we think is an exciting 6 months for the Burton.”

And, finally, on the new programme’s back page, you will get a sneak-peek of the special exhibition we’ll be having in the second half of the year: the BFG and Sir Quentin Blake is coming to Bideford in an exhibition called The BFG in Pictures.

If you’d like to book an event or workshop, you can now do so via the website’s link to Eventbrite pages as well, or you can email us at info@theburton.org or call us on 01237 471455.

The Burton is open 10-4 Mon to Sat and 11-4 on Sundays.

ENDS

Notes to editors

We encourage you to take a look at our new site at theburton.org

A copy of the exhibition programme has been mailed out to all media outlets, but in case you do receive this, there is a pdf attached with this press release.