‘There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.’ These are the words of Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, one of the most famous and influential historical figures of Western art. But this following quote is also powerful and written by someone influenced by Van Gogh, notably Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer. ‘Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.’
It is the combination of these two comments – reaching out to others and seeing art as something that has a positive impact on our everyday life – that creative organisations and projects here in the Cotswolds do extremely well.
Nine paintings of Van Gogh and a couple of works by Picasso are admired and looked at every day in the National Gallery in London – one of the greatest galleries in the world. This year this national landmark celebrates its 200th anniversary by going on the road as part of a year-long festival of art, creativity, and imagination.
And what’s exciting is that this bicentenary Art Road Trip is coming to Gloucestershire in July. NG200: Art Road Trip involves a travelling art studio touring the UK until May 2025, bringing 200 National Gallery workshops and learning activities to different communities who otherwise would not have ready access.
One of the 18 UK-wide host organisations partnering with the National Gallery’s travelling art studio programme is Create Gloucestershire, whose mission is to grow capacity, resources, and skills so that arts and culture can be rooted in communities across Gloucestershire. It is made up a network of individuals and organisations representing an increasingly diverse, talented resource stretching across the county. Four organisations associated with Create Gloucestershire (CG) will be taking part in the inspiring NG200 – a national celebration of the National Gallery’s Bicentenary initiative, providing a colourful and relevant expression of creativity that is tailor-made to the communities they serve.
‘We are absolutely thrilled that Create Gloucestershire has been able to broker this unique opportunity for people in Gloucestershire to take part in fantastic art and creative activities, says Pippa Jones, CG Director, and Founder.
‘The road trip will bring talented local artists together with National Gallery educators and resources into the heart of our communities.’
Throughout July, the National Gallery’s travelling art studio will be facilitated by National Gallery Artist Educators Elisha Keyworth and Sadegh Aleahmed, who both have experience in the arts and creative practice. Together they will work with local delivery partners to co-produce activities for each community and their needs. On board with Elisha and Sadegh will be a collection of 40 well-known pictures that are familiar to National Gallery visitors such as Hans Holbein the Younger’s ‘Ambassadors,’ Van Gogh’s ‘A Wheatfield, with Cypresses,’ and Edgar Degas’ ‘Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando,’ which have been printed onto fabric so that they can be rolled up and transported to the county’s towns and villages.
‘I am very excited to be working with all the partners connected to Create Gloucestershire and getting to engage with their communities. Together we will be exploring and using the paintings from the National Gallery’s collection as a springboard into creative ideas and activities,’ explains Art Road Trip Facilitator Sadegh Aleahmad.
‘I will be inviting people to come together, explore, and celebrate their neighbourhood – from the people in it, to their surroundings both built and natural, through the work that we do.’
Stop One: Rednock School, Dursley (Cam & Dursley Creatives)
The National Gallery’s mobile art studio’s first stop in Gloucestershire will be at Rednock School, in Dursley where they will be spending three days working with Cam & Dursley Creatives, headed up by Abi Nicol, former head of department at Bristol School of Art. This is a network for people interested in making the area a more creative place to live, work and play. The NG200 art van will be parked outside the school’s sixth form block from July 15-17.
‘I am looking forward to introducing the residents in the community to the National Gallery and making the most of this opportunity. I am so excited to have it here in Dursley. I want to elongate the experience and rather than just concentrate on the three days, I want to extend it, by doing events before and after,’ explains Abi.
‘On Saturday, July 13 is Dursley Festival, and the Town Council is using the National Gallery as the theme and all local shops will be decorating their shop windows using one of the 40 paintings for inspiration. There will be a competition to find the best dressed window and we will also be having a children’s craft event on that day which will also be National Gallery related.
Abi will also be working with local artists to collaborate with the National Gallery to run workshops on different themes in primary schools in the run up to the road trip arriving and afterwards in September. For the three days that the mobile art studio will be at Rednock School, various workshops will take place aimed at local school children.
‘We will have one day working with selected students from our local primary schools. The other two days we will be working with GCSE and A level students from Rednock School as well as students from Peak Academy,’ explains Abi.
One of the 40 travelling fabric National Gallery paintings is of particular interest to the Cam and Dursley area. Pieter de Hooch’s 'The Courtyard of a House in Delft,’ has an uncanny resemblance to the old mill buildings and happens to be the National Gallery painting chosen for the ‘Take One Picture’ programme for country-wide primary schools to inspire cross-curricular work in classrooms.
‘There is a real connection to the mills here and we hope to develop this into a larger community Oral History project through GL11 Community Hub. Here they are interviewing women who worked in the mills and also gathering how they juggled all the 'women’s' work on top of their jobs. It would be great to react visually to the recordings and possibly use wool from the mills to do so. It will definitely be an intergenerational project,’ explains Abi.
Another exciting idea based on the National Gallery paintings, may lead to Abi and the community working with DODS, Dursley Operatic and Dramatic Society (which has been entertaining audiences for 70 years) to set up some ‘living’ paintings by re-enacting familiar masterpieces using live models to represent the figures painted by famous artists.
Stop Two: Cinderford, Forest of Dean (Wyldwood Arts)
From Cam and Dursley, the NG200 Art Road Trip ventures to Cinderford in the Forest of Dean on July 18 and 19, where National Gallery facilitators will work with Wyldwood Arts, an organisation founded 10 years ago using play and creativity to bring people of all ages together.
Co-producer of Wyldwood Arts, Lucy Ellis-Howell says her colleagues will be working with Forest High Secondary School in Cinderford on the last two days of the Summer term.
‘We will use one or two of the paintings from the National Gallery as a catalyst to look at other areas of the curriculum and use creativity to challenge thinking about looking in a different way,’ says Lucy.
‘We will be looking at doing some smaller group work and a whole school celebration on the last afternoon – possible based around a festival of colour, linking to different pigments in the National Gallery paintings.
‘It’s really exciting. It’s a thrilling opportunity having a national treasure that you don’t get to see outside of London. It is such a considered project and they have really thought out how people can be engaged with it. They are really working with the communities to make it appropriate and relevant,’ adds Lucy.
National Gallery 200th year
Before moving on to the NG200 Art Road Trip’s third and final stop, let’s pause to consider the National Gallery’s history. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the National Gallery is home to the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Bellini, Cezanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to enhance the collection, care for the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors.
From May 2024 to May 2025, its travelling art studio will host 200 creative public engagements and work with 40,000 people to bring art and ideas inspired by the National Gallery’s collection to the heart of their communities. This will include opportunities for local schools to take part in the Gallery’s flagship programmes for school-age children - Take One Picture, Articulation, and a digital initiative, Keeper of Paintings, building a legacy with local communities to last well beyond our Bicentenary celebrations.
The programme of events and activities is designed to reach people and places who otherwise would not have ready access to art, with the aim of introducing new audiences to art, the National Gallery and to creative opportunities near them.
Anna Murray from the National Gallery says ‘We're thrilled to bring Art Road Trip to this part of the world and to be partnering with Create Gloucestershire. Together, we will connect to the diverse communities across the whole county, bringing high-quality artistic opportunities to people that are not able to come to the National Gallery.’
‘Art Road Trip is about inspiring creativity and joy through a collection of treasured paintings that belong to us all. This project is about inclusivity, making new ways for people to engage with the National Gallery, bringing art activities to their doorsteps. As we journey through Gloucestershire, we will foster meaningful connections between people and paintings, spark dialogue, and create lasting memories that resonate with individuals and communities alike.’
Art Road Trip is one of three national NG200 programmes. On this trip 40 paintings will be printed on fabric to inspire ideas and projects relevant to different communities, whereas a second initiative, National Treasures, involves the actual National Gallery paintings being given on loan to museums and galleries around the country. More local ones involve Bristol, Oxford, and Birmingham. The third celebratory project centres around conceptual artist Jeremy Deller working with partners in Derry/Londonderry, Dundee, Llandudno, and Plymouth. A culmination will be in Trafalgar Square in Summer 25.
Stop Three – White City, Gloucester (The Venture)
As part of its two-week stint in Gloucestershire, Art Road Trip will visit two venues in Gloucester. From July 22, 23 and 24, the NG facilitators will be at White City, where they will be working with The Venture, which has been working with the local community for over four decades. Its adventure playground, designed and built by local people has been well-used, loved and cared for and holds fond memories for generations of families. The Venture provides free, open access, supervised play sessions after school, at weekends and during all school holidays. It also has a Play Hut where children can get involved with various art and craft activities to spark their creativity.
The National Gallery’s bespoke art van will join the Gloucester HAF (The Holiday Activity and Food programme), hosted by The Venture, which offers pop-up playdays in various locations around the city. They land with their food van in an open space and put on a variety of activities for children including sports and forest school and on the three allocated days in July, the mobile art studio will be part of this offer to local children at The Venture.
‘We aim to make sure that people can access the arts in the community so to have the National Gallery literally on their doorstep is exciting, It means they can feel comfortable, and it does not feel such a far-removed concept. They can have access to art in a fun friendly way in their own familiar territory,’ says Dawn Barnes, CEO of The Venture.
‘We will invite young people to come and play for two hours and the National Gallery’s Art Road Trip will be feeding into what we are already doing so those participating will feel at home and be able to experience something completely new whilst feeling safe.’
Stop Four – Gloucester City, Kings Square (GAS Projects)
The final stop for the Gloucestershire part of the Art Road Trip is in King’s Square in Gloucester on July 27 and July 28. Here National Gallery facilitators will be working with GAS Projects (Gloucestershire Arts & Social Projects), an organisation based in Gloucester, set up in 2022 by Soozy Roberts and Hannah Thomson.
The focus of GAS Projects is on co-creation with communities and bringing exciting contemporary art opportunities and events to the people of Gloucester. Soozy and Hannah run weekly creative groups in Matson with adults and young people to create new work related to our projects. They also work with Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers and a steering group of Young Creatives from Gloucester.
‘Our recent project involved exploring collections at the National Waterways Museum, Gloucester and making work in response to the theme of folk art for our Folk for Folk exhibition, which runs until June 1,’ says Hannah.
‘Alongside the van, we will be installing an exhibition, an immersive installation with works made with our community groups, plus a series of workshops, artist commissions and chances to participate over the weekend. ‘
This builds on the success of their GAWP! event (Gloucester Art weekend & Platform) in September last year, where they built an enormous interactive castle out of scaffolding, hosted a graduate exhibition, as well as national artist performances from Hunt & Darton and DJ Calmify.
‘We are really excited to be partnering with a prestigious national institution to show how themes and ideas from historic collections can be relevant to the people and communities of Gloucester,’ adds Soozy.
‘We are excited to see how contemporary art making can be a way in to understanding these collections, whilst providing a space where everyone can be playful and creative.’
Up until now those of us who have experienced viewing our favourite paintings by the masters in the National Gallery have ventured into the capital. We are familiar with shopping, vegetable boxes and items bought on line being delivered to our doorsteps. Now, thanks to this innovative and wonderful initiative, people all over the country are having a taste of art delivered to their door via the National Gallery 200th anniversary project. For two weeks Gloucestershire has the privilege of having the likes of a Matisse in Matson, a Caravaggio in Cam, and a Degas in Dursley.
By integrating this well-thought-out National Gallery project with existing community ventures, participants will have chance to explore creativity in fresh ways, using marks, colour, texture, movement within famous artworks to kick-start their own unique forms of expression. I am sure Van Gogh and Picasso would certainly be impressed.
National Gallery Road Trip (NG200) in Gloucestershire
July 15, 16 and 17 – Cam and Dursley, Rednock School.
July 18 and 19 – Forest of Dean, Forest High, Cinderford (Wyldwood)
July 22, 23 and 24 – White City, Gloucester (The Venture)
July 27 and 28 – Gloucester City, Kings Square (GAS Projects)
https://www.creategloucestershire.co.uk/ng-200
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
