background history

The Art Gallery & Museum was established between 1898 and 1907. The founding collection was 43 important paintings, mostly from Belgium and the Netherlands, given by the third Baron de Ferrieres, a former Mayor and MP for Cheltenham. Over the years the collections have grown in number and quality, with the great majority being given by the people of Cheltenham. The Arts & Crafts Movement collection was awarded designated status in 1998, as part of a government scheme, highlighting nationally significant collections outside London.

The current building shows the collections belonging to the Borough in a series of galleries devoted to local history, oriental collections, archaeology, social history, art and decorative arts. Some of these, in the Summerfield Galleries, are explored through a ‘how we used to live’ theme. These are permanent displays although changes are made to them on a regular basis. There is also a changing programme of special exhibitions which runs in two galleries and shows around 15 exhibitions a year. Around one third of the collections are on display, representing most aspects of the collections. The remainder are in on-site and off-site stores and can be viewed by appointment.


Cheltenham’s Past:

The discovery, in the early 18th century, of a medicinal spring in a field near the small market town of Cheltenham, led to the town’s development as a spa. Its heyday, from the 1780s (following King George III's visit) to the 1840s, resulted in many of the elements which make Cheltenham England's most complete Regency town – pump rooms, villas, terraces and gardens – while its social, cultural and sporting life and development as a residential, educational and manufacturing centre, made it, by 1850, the largest town in Gloucestershire. The Art Gallery & Museum collections are particularly strong in painting, prints and drawings since the 1740s, souvenir china and high-quality products of the town’s wood-carvers and metalworkers of the late 19th and 20th centuries. A particular legacy of Cheltenham’s fashionable past is the costume collection, which began in 1913 and now contains almost 5,000 items, including textiles and fashion plates.


The Collections

Gloucestershire context: Throughout the galleries, the life and landscapes of Gloucestershire, from prehistory to modern times, are recurring themes. The Summerfield Galleries include settings of Gloucestershire flora and fauna, together with tools used by people working in stone (houses and Cotswold dry stone walls) and wood (building and craft furniture) – the geological collection alone numbers some 14,000 items. Gloucestershire archaeology and history are represented with material from the Stone Age to Roman Britain (with far larger holdings in store), while more recent rural life is portrayed by 18th century panoramic paintings.

The wider world - Antarctica to China: Objects from all over the world are in the collections, brought by local people who lived and worked abroad. Cheltenham-born Edward Wilson travelled to the Antarctic with Captain Scott (dying there in 1912 on the return from the South Pole) and the Wilson Room includes his snowsuit, skis and sledge, and penguins collected in Antarctica; Charles Sturt, an early explorer of Australia who retired to Cheltenham, left examples of exotic birds, which are favourite exhibits. There are displays of Chinese costume and pottery over 2000 years, including a rare collection of pottery made in China for the Indian market, and collections brought back by local people relating to the British in India and Africa.

How We Used to Live: The Summerfield Galleries include table displays, complete with food and personal belongings, and fireplace settings; handling tables give visitors, especially partially-sighted people and children, the chance to touch and examine objects more closely. Life from the medieval period to the 17th century is illustrated by European paintings, domestic furniture and a collection of rare pewter; from the 18th century we have furniture that could have been found in a Gloucestershire farmer's house, contrasting with finer pieces produced for the wealthy, a sedan chair and porcelain revealing the fashionable taste for Chinese and rococo styles. A Regency gallery shows the fashion for classical Roman and Greek designs, including spectacular tiaras and jewellery, while a Victorian gallery includes porcelain, paintings, sculpture and furniture, including an important table by Pugin.

The Painter's View (including works on paper): The collection includes pictures and sculptures from the Renaissance (including a drawing by Giorgio Vasari) to the present day. Most of the artists represented are British, apart from one significant collection, a group of important 17th to 19th century paintings from Belgium and the Netherlands, once owned by the Baron de Ferrières, the founder of the town’s Art Gallery in 1898; these include works by Jan Steen, Gerrit Dou (Rembrandt’s first pupil) and Gabriel Metsu. The inspiration of the Cotswolds can be seen within the collection, particularly in the early 18th century panoramic views of Dixton Manor and the adjoining pre-mechanisation countryside. 19th and 20th century paintings include works by local artists (including those, such as Briton Riviere, who pursued careers in London), those who left cities to live in Gloucestershire (such as Charles and Margaret Gere, who established an offshoot of the Birmingham School of artist-craftsmen in nearby Painswick) and visitors, such as Stanley Spencer, whose Village life, Gloucestershire was a souvenir of his wartime visit to Leonard Stanley near Stroud. Other important works on paper include watercolours by JMW Turner, Girtin and Edward Bawden (the latter from the War Artists Advisory Committee), an etching by Rembrandt, and prints by Sutherland and Frost.

The Art and Crafts Movement: The Art Gallery & Museum's collection of Arts and Crafts Movement work is unparalleled outside London; it received national designation in 1998 and is justifiably internationally renowned. Its furniture, textiles, metalwork, paintings, prints and decorative and household objects reflect all aspects of the movement which began in the 1880s as a reaction to the effects of the Industrial Revolution on design, the environment and people's working lives. Based on William Morris' reaction to mid 19th-century art and standing for functional design, decoration based on plant forms, and above all the importance of creative manual work, it includes a group of furniture designed by Charles Voysey, one of the London-based pioneers of the movement. The collection’s significance stems partly from the move to the Cotswolds of several of the designers, who were attracted by the remoteness of the region, the romantic appeal of its hills, valleys and stone-built villages, and the partial survival of traditional building crafts. Cotswold Arts and Crafts work includes leather panels, elaborate cabinets, silver and jewellery by C.R Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft, who moved from London’s East End to Chipping Camden, and simpler pieces in wood and metal by Ernest Gimson and Sidney and Ernest Barnsley. The work of Cotswold artists, such as Alfred and Louise Powell, who hand-painted pottery for Wedgwood, is also celebrated, as is the work of famous retail outlets such as Heal's and Liberty's, alongside that of Broadway-based Gordon Russell - who sought to make good design an essential yet affordable part of life. The collection also includes work by contemporary designer-makers, such as Alan Peters, John Makepeace and Wales and Wales, whose style and methods are influenced by the movement.

The Emery Walker Library: This important library was acquired by the Art Gallery & Museum in 1990 due to its synergy with the Arts & Crafts collections and Emery Walker’s links to Gloucestershire, where he lived from 1922 -1933; it was purchased with support from National Heritage Memorial Fund, the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, Pilgrim Trust, John Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust and National Art Collections Fund. Emery Walker met William Morris through the Socialist Movement and introduced him to the possibilities of designing type and printing books. His expertise was crucial to the success of Morris’s Kelmscott Press and the library includes books and material from the Kelmscott and other private presses in Britain, Europe and America, designs for letters, decorations and proof pages, and a wealth of archive letters, press-cuttings and photographs. The library collections feature regularly in exhibitions and access is available to accredited students.

Education & Outreach: The service has a long-established Education and Outreach Team which offers sessions, based on the collections, to schools and other groups, across the age range, as well as a Museum Take-Away service (a museum object loan scheme). In recent years the staff have pioneered work with the elderly, based on reminiscence, in day centres and care homes, and have become involved in a range of social inclusion projects.

We aim to attract as many different audiences as possible to enjoy the collections of the Art Gallery & Museum, and offer:

Lifelong Learning: Lifelong Learning Officer has been recognised as a specific responsibility of the Art Gallery & Museum since 2004. Its remit is to forge and consolidate partnerships with local communities, with particular emphasis on the regeneration areas of St Paul’s, West Central and Whaddon. Small grants have been awarded to Cheltenham Community Projects, Cheltenham Disability Forum and the Chinese Children and Parents Association, for learning projects to benefit these communities - and the Lifelong Learning Officer is working closely with these groups and the Arts Development team to deliver this work.

Arts Development: The Art Gallery & Museum also has responsibility for Arts Development. Arts Development is about engaging people with the arts, developing audiences and empowering individuals and communities. Established in 2002, Arts Development has achieved a great deal in a short period of time, and expectations have been raised within the department and the wider community of Cheltenham artists, arts providers, audiences and participants. In response to the closure of the Axiom Arts Centre in 2002, the Arts Development team now benefits from the appointment of a Virtual Arts Centre Officer, who started in August 2006. In close partnership with Arts Development, the Virtual Arts Centre aims to increase arts activity in Cheltenham Borough, through linking its thriving community of artists to unexpected and exciting venues across the town – reclaiming Cheltenham for the arts, the artists and the audiences. Recent initiatives have included the launch of a community radio station in one of Cheltenham’s most deprived areas and a graffiti-based project in conjunction with the Crime & Disorder Partnership.

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