The Friends of the Stanley Spencer Gallery
The Stanley Spencer Gallery is self-supporting and receives no endowment. It is given valuable support by the Friends, an organisation within the Stanley Spencer Memorial Fund, registered charity no 307989.
Application forms to join the Friends are available online link below or from the gallery.
The Friends of the Stanley Spencer Gallery was founded in 1962. Its prime aims are:
- to promote interest both nationally and internationally in the work of Sir Stanley Spencer RA, CBE.
- to assist in the running and maintenance of the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham so that Spencer's work can be displayed in the village environment which inspired it
- to provide financial aid towards that Gallery's running costs, and
- to contribute towards the acquisition costs of further works of Stanley Spencer.
Membership of the Friends brings free admission to the Cookham gallery during official opening hours; regular newsletters with events at the gallery and exhibitions of Spencer’s work elsewhere; invitations to private views and other special events at the gallery. Members are also invited to join organised outings to art exhibitions and places of artistic or architectural interest at group rates.
Annual subscriptions: £5.00 single / £8.00 couple per annum - or five-year subscription £20.00 single / £32 couples.
If you would like to join the Friends you can print out a form.
NEWS
This year’s annual general meeting (AGM) will be held at the Sir Bernard Miller Centre, The Odney Club, Cookham, on Friday 4 April 2008 at 7.30pm. We are grateful to the Club for the use of this facility. Refreshments will be available and there is ample parking in the grounds.
The AGM will be followed by a screening of a black and white documentary about Spencer made in 1956 Lasting about 30 minutes, the film includes an introduction to Cookham and the artist and then Spencer talks about ‘The Resurrection, Cookham’; ‘Swan Upping’; his ideas for ‘Church House’; ‘Sarah Tubb’ and ‘Christ in the Wilderness’ series.
Our AGM is important because several members of your committee feel it is time for a change and are resigning. One is our Honorary Treasurer Graham Brown, who has worked very hard on our accounts and has guided us through the change to the Gift Aid system we now use. Recently we were pleased to welcome Alan Harding onto the Committee who, with the consent of the AGM, will be taking over as Honorary Treasurer during the year.
Barbara McKerlie has served your Committee for very many years and feels it is time for a break. I am very conscious of the help and support from members of the Committee and thank them all.
I shall also be resigning at this meeting. I feel strongly that we need fresh ideas and some younger people to run the Friends and hope we can find someone to work alongside me for a few months before taking over as Chairman.
Gallery news
contributed by Richard Hurley, chairman of the Trustees
We are pleased to report that the improvements to the gallery have attracted
substantially more visitors since reopening than for similar periods in
previous years, with people expressing delight at the changes that have
been made allowing more work to be on display.
Sunday 16 March is the last day of the current exhibition, “This Sacred Piece of Ground”.
A programme of events is being organised at the Gallery, the first was a lecture on the current exhibition by Carolyn Leder. When finalised, details of the programme will appear in future Newsletters.
Summer Exhibition
The summer exhibition, ‘Stanley Spencer, Prophet of Love and Work’
opens on Friday, 21 March 2008 10.30am to 5.30pm every day and continuing
to 2 November.
The second exhibition since the Gallery reopened in September 2007 after
a major refurbishment focuses on work in the High Street and illustrates
Spencer’s love and reflection of the ordinary:
·‘The Garage’ shows Spencer as a master of the realist
movement in modern Britain and not just the visionary painter as he is
generally known.
·‘The Blacksmith’s Yard’ depicts his beloved Cookham
·‘The Dustman or The Lovers’, again set in the Cookham
High Street, explores Spencer’s belief that love can break down barriers
and that the expression of love can lead to intellectual development.
Complementary work from the Gallery’s collection will include ‘The
Garage Proprietor’ and ‘the Chemist’.
Other Spencer news
At the Wolfson Gallery at Tate Liverpool an exhibition entitled ‘The
Twentieth Century – how it looked and felt’ runs to 27 April
2008. The exhibition includes ‘The Resurrection, Cookham’ 1923–7
and ‘Resurrection: Port Glasgow 1945–50’, considered among
his masterpieces.
Stanley’s paintings also featured in the succesful exhibition, "British Vision" at the Ghent Fine Arts Museum.
The National Gallery has organised a touring exhibition, ‘Love’, featuring works from Vermeer to David Hockney including its Spencer painting ‘The Beatitudes of Love: Contemplation’. At Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery until 6 April, the exhibition travels to Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery until 13 July and opens at the National Gallery on 24 July, closing 5 October.
Outings - contributed by Shirley Kay
The first outings of the year have been planned to the Royal Academy,
for the Russian exhibition (leave Cookham at 10.00am) and the Cranach
exhibition and to Polesden Lacey.
We are currently looking at next year’s programme of outings that could include a weekend (possibly to St Ives in Cornwall) and we will be asking for expressions of interest at the AGM. Please contact Shirley (01628 527604) with your suggestions for future outings (including weekends away).
Other business
Gift Aid declarations require members’ signatures, name and address.
Members are urged to enter this information when completing their declaration.
| Patron: | Lord Richard Harries of Pentregarth, formerly Bishop of Oxford | |
| President: | Duncan Robinson | |
| Vice President: | Miss Shirin Spencer | |
| Chairman: | Ivor Sayer (Acting)- 01628 521766 | |
| Honorary Secretary: | Ms Stephanie Diggon - 01628 527465 | |
| Honorary Treasurer: | Alan Harding - 01628 673607 | |
| Outings: | Shirley Kay - 01628 527604 |