St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery

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• Suitable for complete beginners or more experienced artists, you will explore how colour can be used, both theoretically and practically. Working in a painting medium of your choice, you will paint from direct observation using primary, secondary and complimentary colours.

• Around the Gallery
  Fri 30 March – Sun 15 April
  available all day 10-4
  Included with admission price. No booking necessary
  Explore the museum, spot all the hidden eggs and collect a prize from our front desk.

• Flowers, nests, bunnies and eggs! Flourishing family crafts to help celebrate the beginnings of Spring. (Please note there is a break between 12.30-13.30)

• Discover our dinosaur eggs
  No need to book, drop in.
  Included in general admission or £3 per child without museum access.
  Have fun investigating different creatures that lay eggs, including lizards and dinosaurs, and create your own crafty hatch-able egg to take home.

• Captain Cook’s Voyages of Exploration
  Dr John McAleer, Lecturer in History at the University of Southampton
  Friday 13 April. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  In 1768, James Cook sailed from Britain on a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Ocean. Over the course of the next decade, and two further expeditions, Cook and his crew filled in the blanks on the map of the Pacific – an ocean that covers one-third of the earth’s surface – tested scientific theories, collected information, and speculated on the people and places they encountered.

• Springlines is a collaborative project between poet Clare Best and painter Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis, exploring hidden and mysterious bodies of water across the south of England. For several years Clare and Mary Anne have been working from nature, from memory and imagination and in response to one another’s creativity. Together they have made a body of work that tells the story of the complex and fragile relationship between human life and groundwater. The exhibition features paintings by Mary Anne and poetry by Clare based on their explorations in Sussex, Kent and the New Forest as well as relevant items from the museum’s local collections.

  The exhibition has already provoked this response: “I have just visited the gallery for the first time and found it a beautiful place with very thoughtful displays. I should particularly like to say how much I loved the Springlines Exhibition, to the extent that it stirred quite and emotional reaction in me, in fact, making me cry, I must admit. Not normal for me at an exhibition! Please pass on my thanks to Mary Anne and Clare.” Alison, Friday April 20, 2018.

  Would you like to meet the artists? more information

  Read a review here

• Sir John Coles
  Friday 4 May. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  Sir John Coles was Head of the Diplomatic Service and Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1994 to 1997. Earlier he was High Commissioner to Australia, Ambassador to Jordan and Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. He will talk about a number or people – heads of state, politicians, sportsmen and others – whom he has met at various times in the past.

• Saturday 12 May – CANCELLED SORRY
  10:30-12:30
  Pre-book £6
  For children aged 8-14 years
  Children can be unaccompanied
  Use the Springlines exhibition as inspiration and learn how to put together your own poetry masterpiece.
  This is led by local poet Matthew West.

• Saturday 26 May – Sunday 3 June HALF TERM
  Around the gallery available all day
  Aged 10 and over
  What painting captures your attention? What do you like about it? What seasons are represented in the artwork? …

• Springlines Talk and Guided Tour

  Join us to hear poet Clare Best and painter Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis talk about the development of their collaborative project Springlines which explores hidden and mysterious bodies of water across southern England. This relaxed and entertaining evening will include an illustrated talk, with time for visitors to ask their own questions, before Mary Anne and Clare take you on a guided tour of the gallery. They will explain the inspiration for the project and how they discovered the secret places they focused on. Mary Anne will give practical examples of her painting techniques in egg tempera, watercolour, pencil and gesso, and discuss the use of pigments and how a painting evolves. Clare will tease out the relationship between words and images, and will read many of the Springlines poems in situ as part of the gallery tour.

  The evening will start with a glass of wine or soft drink, and there will be an interval between the talk and tour, allowing you to spend more time with the artists.

  To book, please call St Barbe Museum on 01590 676969 or pop into the museum and sign up at the front desk.

  Price: £10

• Thursday 31 May
  Drop-in 11am to 12:30 and 13:30-15:00 (no booking necessary)
  A chance to have a go and discover what archaeologists do both in land and water! Handle some Roman and pre-historic artefacts and create archaeology crafts to take home.

• Norman Wilkinson and his ‘Dazzle’ painting team
  Dr James Taylor, FRSA Former curator at the National Maritime Museum, author, lecturer and exhibition organiser
  Friday 1 June. Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
  All Welcome – Non-members £5

  In 1917, on a patrol ship in the dangerous waters around Britain, the artist and illustrator Norman Wilkinson had a brainwave: To create the ‘Art of Confusion’ to protect Allied ships. This talk reveals more about the man behind the Dazzle, his artists and their wide-ranging work.

• Help us create knitted or crocheted farmyard animals for a soft play area in the museum on the following dates: 5 June, 10 July, 7 August, 11 September, 9 October, 6 November, 4 December.

• In 1917 U-Boat attacks threatened to knock Britain out of the war. Artist Norman Wilkinson persuaded the Admiralty that the answer lay in patterns painted on the side of ships which would confuse U-Boat commanders as to the vessel’s direction and speed. A team of artists were recruited to create these ‘Dazzle’ designs and soon ships were sailing out looking like exhibits in an avant-garde art show.

  This unique exhibition looks at the development of Dazzle and features original ship models, Dazzle plans and artworks made to record and celebrate the scheme. The exhibition includes works by Norman Wilkinson, Edward Wadsworth, Montague Dawson, John Everett and many more on loan from the national, regional and private collections.
  This is the only exhibition on the topic being mounted during the First World War Centenary commemorations.

• There’s an opportunity to join academics from both sides of the Atlantic at a study day at Southampton University to discuss the use of Dazzle camouflage and its relationship to modern art movements such as Vorticism.

  The event, on Saturday 30 June, is part of the University’s ‘Great War Unknown’ programme to mark the centenary of the First World War. It has been jointly organised by St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery in Lymington to complement its major exhibition of the year, Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art, which runs from 16 June – 23 September 2018.

  The keynote speaker is Professor Roy R Behrens, Professor of Art and Distinguished Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa in America. He will give an overview of the history of camouflage and the place of Dazzle within it.

  Professor Behrens, a former Sergeant with the Unites States Marines Corps, has taught graphic design, illustration, and design history, and has written numerous books and extensive papers on camouflage.

  His work has been widely-applauded and is described as an “extensive study into modern military camouflage by the British and US military throughout the First and Second World Wars, exploring the contribution of art and science, and the ways in which, via modern and contemporary art, camouflage has been appropriated by contemporary culture.”

  Professor Behrens will be joined at the Southampton study day by Camilla Wilkinson, Lecturer in Architecture, University of Westminster and a granddaughter of the Dazzle inventor, Norman Wilkinson, who will discuss the origins and development of her grandfather’s Dazzle painting concept.

  Simon Stephens, Curator of Ship Models, for the National Maritime Museum, will also speak, along with Dr James Taylor, a former Curator of Fine Art, National Maritime Museum, who will discuss how Norman Wilkinson’s Dazzle painting team were assembled, and how Dazzle influenced their own work.

  Other speakers include Ed Yardley, Independent Author and Exhibition organiser,
  Gwen Yarker, Honorary Curator, Dorset County Museum and former Curator of Fine Art, National Maritime Museum , Professor Hugh Murphy, Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow, Sue Pritchard, Curator of Decorative Art, National Maritime Museum, and Liv Taylor, Senior Designer, Patternity, who will tell the story behind the creation of a new product range – The Fleet of Dazzle – for the Imperial War Museum shop that was launched in September 2014.

  The event on Saturday 30 June, runs from 9am – 4.45pm with a break for lunch. Tickets are £15 (£12.50 concs) and include refreshments.

  The exhibition, Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art, is at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery in New Street, Lymington, from 16 June – 23 September. It includes work by Norman Wilkinson, Edward Wadsworth, Montague Dawson, John Everett and many more artists, on loan from national, regional and private collections, including the Imperial War Museum and National Maritime Museum.

  For information on how to book for the study day visit https://www.southampton.ac.uk/greatwar_unknownwar/news/events

• Join Hampshire Poet Robyn Bolam and prizewinning author Lydia Fulleylove as they read a selection of new poetry about WWI and WWII and the fascinating distractions of the natural world.
  Free of charge

• Looking Back and Forward at the A&T
  The Curry family’s involvement in local journalism
  Eddie Curry, Director, New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times
  Friday 13 July Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  Allen Seaby: Art and Nature
  By Martin Andrews, Lecturer in typography and graphic design, Reading University and now an artist and printmaker.
  Friday 7 September Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  East Cliff Hall: A Victorian Villa
  By Sarah Newman, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum Manager and former St Barbe Community and Exhibitions Officer
  Friday 5 October Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  Berthon and his Boats
  Rev E. L. Berthon and the folding boats that he designed.
  By Phoebe Merrick, Chairman Romsey Local History Society
  Friday 2 November Doors open 7.00pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm

  St Barbe Christmas Reception
  Friday 7 December 6pm to 7.30pm

• Using St Barbe as a base, Kim Whitby will take you out and about in Lymington to draw or paint in the open air. Participants will work on individual projects with tutor guidance and are to bring their own easels and sketching materials.
  Price: £35 per session. Limited places available
  (with 1 hour break for lunch – not included)

• A chance for older residents to look at photographs and objects and share their memories of times gone by. Bring your friends and join us for a cup of tea and a chat.
  There will be a different theme each session, starting with Hospitals and Healthcare.

• Using St Barbe as a base, Kim Whitby will take you out and about in Lymington to draw or paint in the open air. Participants will work on individual projects with tutor guidance and are to bring their own easels and sketching materials.
  Price: £35 per session. Limited places available
  (with 1 hour break for lunch – not included)

• Fun for all the family with dazzle inspired self-led activities around the gallery. Learn more about the art and history of dazzle, explore and create optical illusions, and dazzle something to take home. Included with admission. No booking necessary. Image courtesy of Babbington Fine Arts.

• Drop-in 11am to 12:30 (no booking necessary)
  Thursday 2, 9, 16 & 23 August
  Craft activities based on our exhibition ‘Dazzle’. A different activity each week. Please see our website for more details.

• Five sessions developed exclusively for St Barbe, this course will build your skills of drawing and painting in ink and watercolour under the expert tuition of Kim Whitby. Participants to bring their own materials (a comprehensive list will be provided). Additional items can be purchased on the day.
  17, 24 Sept, 1, 8, 15 Oct
  Price £250: Limited places available
  (with one hour break for lunch – not included)

• A unique exhibition based around two of the greatest exponents of colour woodcut prints: Allen William Seaby (1867 – 1953) a regular visitor to the New Forest, and John Edgar Platt (1886 – 1967) in partnership with the artists’ estates.
  This exhibition also includes paintings by Platt’s son Michael, and the prints of Seaby’s grandson Robert Gilmor.

• An introduction to wood engraving, with a day will looking at tools and the marks they can make, and how to use them to create tones, and a second day engraving your own image onto wood. Suitable for those with some drawing experience; no need to have prior knowledge of printmaking. All materials provided
  Thurs 11 and Fri 12 October
  (lunch not included)
  Price: £100. Limited places available

  “On the first day, we will look at the specialist engraving tools and the variety of marks they make; the second day will be spent engraving your own image onto wood. At the end of each day, you will print your block by hand-burnishing. Every step of the process will be explained and there will be many demonstrations, as well as guidance on composition, the use of contrast and printing papers. The teaching will involve both group instruction and one-to-one guidance. This course will be suitable for those who have some drawing experience and would like to print; however, there is no need to have any prior knowledge of printmaking.
  Of all artists’ printing methods, wood engraving has the advantage of needing the least equipment. It does not require a press but may be printed by hand. The cost of the basic tools and materials needed to produce a print is small, as is the space required to engrave and print a block. It requires minimal ink and small quantities of solvent, so there is little mess. Together these qualities make it very suitable for the keen amateur and it may be practised happily at home. It is a quiet, contemplative process, yet one that often results in characteristically strong images and has a deep tradition in Britain.”

• A chance for older residents to look at photographs and objects and share their memories of times gone by. Bring your friends and join us for a cup of tea and a chat. There will be a different theme each session, today’s is Wellworthy.

• Using the art materials scattered around the gallery, be inspired by our current exhibition and unleash your inner artist – including chalking on the terrace.
  Included with admission. No booking necessary

• Natural Selection Learning will be helping us discover more about the natural world with hands-on activities in this Halloween inspired workshop. Get the chance to examine real animal bones, construct a full-size skeleton, discover creepy crawlies that glow in the dark, and gather body bits for a witch’s spell. Note: No live animals used
  £3 per child (does not include admission to the museum)
  One adult free of charge per child.

• Drop-in 11am to 12:30 and 13:30-15:00 (no booking necessary)
  A mash-up of Halloween and Bonfire Night crafts, such as spooky window pumpkins and sparkling cardboard fireworks, to keep the kids amused and your house decorated for the coming festivals.

• Make your own Halloween lantern then stay late at the museum to hear spooky ghost stories by lantern-light. Suitable for 5+ (please note the scary stories may not be suitable for our youngest visitors, though the event is aimed at children).

  £5 per child. One adult free.

• Become a Mini Curator of St Barbe Museum for the day. Learn how to care for your toy collection, go on a bug hunt to discover what beasts are a danger to the museum, and create your own mini exhibition using real museum objects. Tour happening every hour on the hour.Included with admission. No booking necessary.

• Get a ‘behind the scenes’ look at our archive, learn how to care for your family treasures and pick up some research tips.
  Free of charge (entrance to King Research Room only)

• Join Sarah Wilkins of Corbins Florist, Brockenhurst to create your own beautiful wreath for Christmas. All flowers and materials provided.
  Price £45. Limited places available.

• The first of a series of invited artist exhibitions in which we bring together leading contemporary artists working in a range of media to explore their responses to a common theme. Coast: its atmosphere, landscapes, wildlife, activities and communities are all examined in this first exhibition which includes work by Richard Bawden, Alison Bolton, Jeremy Gardiner, Angie Lewin, Ffiona Lewis, Howard Phipps, Pine Feroda, and Michael Porter. The exhibition will explore how aspects of the British coastline have inspired each artist’s practice and its incredibly varied character will be reflected in an eclectic celebration of the shoreline. This will be a selling exhibition.

  Gallery 3 will host a local history exhibition exploring how the coastline has changed over time.

• An oil painting workshop with Kim Whitby.
  Create a still life oil painting for that special someone this Christmas. Bring along items which are significant or evoke memories of the recipient (or maybe things that will remind the recipient of you), and you’ll end up with the perfect gift for the person who has everything!
  Price: £35. Limited places available
  (with 1 hour break for lunch – not included)

• Explore the museum, spot all the hidden Christmas crackers and collect a prize from our front desk.
  (please see our Christmas opening times for specific days)

• Wonderful winter themed crafts for all the family.
  Included with admission or £3 per child without admission.
  Children must be accompanied. No booking necessary.