Curators choice on BBC Wiltshire

I spoke on Curators Choice this week with BBC's Graham Rogers as Sue Davies who usually presents this programme was on holiday. Curators from around Wiltshire talk about objects from their museum's in this slot every Wednesday from 2.15 p.m.

I featured a ceramic by Charles Stone from the Swindon Collection of Studio Ceramics. The piece titled Ceramic Sculpture was made in porcelain in 1979. It is tiny and merits close observation. Its dimensions are height 8.5 cm; (3.5 ins) length 9.2 cm; width 5.6 cm.

It depicts a walled, riverfront castle in front of a forest with 3 birds and a moored boat.

It is made from several different coloured clays: light brown, grey, light grey, and body-coloured porcelain clays which have been rolled, cut and delicately modelled to produce the forms. Its surface shows various impressed textures and sgraffito used for architectural and folar detail.

It is part of a currently available display called Clay and Water which will accompany the next Art Gallery exhibition The Lure of Water opening on 15 July.

Pots in Clay and Water have been chosen for their connection with St Ives, the sea, beach and boat shapes.

Parallel Lives with Artsite

Around 20 Artsite artists have each chosen a picture from the Swindon Collection of Modern British Art. On Friday 11 June, the artists came to the art gallery to view their chosen pictures and to read the archived information related to each artwork.

Paul Ricketts and Tim Carroll got the pictures out of the store for the viewing and I provided the accompanying information.

There was a tranquil studious atmosphere in the gallery as the artists worked. Some made drawings; other made notes. Andy Preston shot video footage while others clicked away on their mobile phones and cameras. We also photocopied photographs and texts from the folders. It was really satisfying to be able to make all these resources available to artists from our area.

Artsite artists will use their responses to the Swindon collection pictures to make their own artworks to be shown in an exhibition Parallel Lives which will be at The Post Modern gallery, Swindon in September 2010.

For further information about Artsite, visit http://www.artsite.ltd.uk/

Donation of John Maltby Ceramic

Mike Yates came to the gallery today for the official handover of the John Maltby ceramic Site Seers (Greece) 2006 which he has most generously donated to the Swindon Collection of Studio Ceramics. The work is on display in the exhibition Necessary Pots: Studio Pottery in the
South West.

The exhibition showcases a selection of key studio potters from the South West region and includes pots by Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie, who was based at Coleshill near Swindon, and works by David Leach, Hans Coper and other influential ceramicists based in the West Country.

The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Kirsty Hartsiotis, Decorative Arts Curator from Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum. Cheltenham Art Gallery has loaned two ceramics, a cider jar and jug, by Michael Cardew from Winchcombe pottery in Gloucestershire.

Swindon Museum & Art Gallery started collecting studio pottery in 1965 and continues to collect works, such as our most recent acquisition, John Maltby's Site Seers (Greece) 2006, donated by Swindon based collector and author, Mike Yates.

For further information, contact Barbara Dixon on bdixon@swindon.gov.uk and 01793 466560. Swindon Museum & Art Gallery Tel. 01793 466556.