IN-HABIT-OUT: 25th April – 8th June 2025
Make Yourself at Home
Exploring bothies, huts and isolated rural buildings.
In-habit-out is a body of artwork about small, isolated rural buildings; places of shelter where we pause, slow down and reconnect.
The artists will recreate bothy experiences through a female creative lens, using a range of immersive media including installation, printmaking, sculpture, film, and audio.
The project is collaborative and based on experiential research; spending time at huts and bothies, understanding and interpreting stories gleaned from the transient and the more-than-human. It draws on elements of UK hutting culture (historical and contemporary), walkers’ bothies, and other cleared or reclaimed rural buildings.
With whom and what do we share these spaces? What can we learn from pausing there awhile?
About the Artists
Anne Waggot Knott
Anne Waggot Knott is a geographer, multidisciplinary artist and creative consultant. She uses printmaking, found-object sculpture, installation and semi-structured conversation to reconnect us with each other and with the natural world. Anne is a member of the PLACE Collective and a Visiting Fellow with The University of Manchester’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science.
Carlie-Rose Bush
Carlie-Rose Bush is an artist and curator primarily working with film and audio. She is interested in the magic of connection, story and play. Her current work explores intersections between human and non-human movement.
6th March – 19th April 2025: Eden Valley Scribes – Lakeland in Lettering
Eden Valley Scribes is a group of calligraphy enthusiasts from Lakeland and beyond who meet every month in Penrith to share and grow their skills. Their work ranges from calligraphy scripts and illumination to collaborative pieces and 3D works, all inspired by Cumbria and the Lake District.
Lakeland in Lettering featured literature in the form of historical poetry and journals, as well as contemporary writing, and the natural Lakeland world. The exhibition also included displays of historical calligraphy materials, such as dip pens, ink wells and similar artefacts.
January – March 2025: Jill Brown – Smardale Gill Railway: A Landscape Embedded in People & History
Jill’s exhibition draws inspiration from Smardale Gill and its iconic railway viaduct in rural Cumbria. Her photography captures not only the present-day landscape and the remnants of the railway, but also delves into its rich history, the stories of the people who lived and worked there, and references archival text.
For this exhibition, Jill has taken selected images and texts and sublimation-printed them onto 8 translucent voile sheets, creating a captivating visual storyboard that intertwines past and present in a unique, immersive experience.
SEPTEMBER 2024 – There is no vanishing point by Ciara Heaton & David Hulston
The brand new exhibition at Kendal Museum’s People’s Gallery will showcase the work of father and daughter duo David Hulston and Ciara Heaton. The opening is on September 26th, with the gallery preview the following evening on September 27th from 6 pm to 8 pm. The exhibition will conclude on November 2nd.
David has a background of 30 years working in education, developing creative teaching and learning opportunities in both schools and wider community contexts, including the Stroke Association, dementia research, teenage cancer patients, those with life-limiting illnesses, and freedom from torture.
Currently working from Market Place Studios in Cumbria Ciara’s work is inspired by human experience and sensory aspects of journeys, which she translates into painting or narrative. The work on display will be a collection of expressive abstract pieces curated over a couple of years by both artists. Each work is intertwined with a sense of place and emotional resonances.
Facebook: The seventh string Dave Hulston & Ciara Heaton Art
AUGUST 2024 – Skulduggery by Fliss Watts – Exhibition
About Skulduggery
This exciting new exhibition at Kendal Museum’s People’s Gallery will showcase work by Cumbrian artist Fliss Watts from 15th August until 21st September. Skulduggery incorporates and expands on work by Fliss Watts previously shown in Carlisle and at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont, under the title ‘Living is easy with eyes closed’.
Previous exhibitions addressed the climate crisis and the ways of thinking that have contributed to it. This showcase of new work turns to the non-human, animal world, biodiversity loss and mass extinction, which makes Kendal Museum, with its natural history collections, an ideal location. The exhibition includes a dynamic combination of prints, drawings, paintings and installations.
Please join us for a preview evening on Friday 16th August 6pm – 8pm to celebrate the opening of Skulduggery.
Entry to the People’s Gallery is free and open to public Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9:30-16:30. Please note that the gallery is down a flight of stairs. Please contact us if you require alternative access.
About the artist
Fliss Watts makes sculpture, paintings, prints and drawings. Her work is mostly figurative, including portraiture and still life.
Fliss grew up in Yorkshire and studied PPE at St Anne’s College, Oxford, and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. After teaching philosophy in the USA for 3 years, she returned to the UK to study sculpture and printmaking at the City and Guilds of London School of Art (1989–92). She took up painting in 2010.
Youtube: IdeasMeltLikeSnow
JULY 2024 – Hiraeth by Seren Shaw
About the exhibition
Hiraeth: An Incomplete Journey of Art & Belonging is an ongoing project by Cumbrian artist Seren Shaw. This new exhibition at Kendal Museum’s People’s Gallery will launch Shaw’s fascinating and locally embedded practice and demonstrate creative synergies between archaeological collections and our natural world.
The exhibition runs from the 4th of July until the 10th of August. Shaw’s first solo exhibition will explore themes of personal identity, ancestry, local history, and the desire to belong. Shaw utilizes ‘mudlarking’ (searching riverbanks for objects of historical interest) as a way to collect found objects, both man-made and natural, to incorporate into her artwork.
Hiraeth is a collection of mixed-media sculptures, natural weaving, printmaking and collage. She uses found objects and historical artifacts to create thought-provoking conceptual works that take the viewer on a journey through the past, and what it means to belong.
Artist Bio
Seren Shaw is a freelance artist and creative practitioner based in Carlisle, Cumbria. She is deeply inspired by the natural world and enjoys exploring concepts of collective memory and geographical history through her work.
Instagram: @start.exhibitions
Website: www.startopenstudios.org
MAY 2024 – Rock Solid? 2 – Exhibition
Rock Solid? 2 is a group exhibition that explores Lake District coast atomic waste burial.
Visit this new group exhibition in our People’s Gallery from the 9th May until 29th June 2024
The exhibition brings together heavyweights of the Cumbrian and international art world at The People’s Gallery, Kendal Museum, alongside an art trail throughout Kendal and other events.
John Moore’s Painting Prize winner Martin Greenland is Guest Artist. Other Cumbrian icons taking part are Julian Cooper, internationally renowned for iconic mountain paintings and Russell Mills who has produced record covers for some of the biggest names in rock music. Altogether 20 artists have produced artworks including comic books, installations and multi-media inspired by the plan to use coastal geology to try and contain humanity’s most long lived and dangerous wastes.
For more about the project see: RockSolid?2 (rocksolid2.blogspot.com)
Interested? Why not get involved in the free events!
🐾 Trail – Art trail through Kendal town center, drop by the museum for a trail sheet.
🥂 Exhibition preview – Open preview evening 6-8pm on Friday 10th May at Kendal Museum’s People’s Gallery. All are welcome.
🎙 Talk – Atomic Wastes Under Cumbria?” with Dr Ian Fairlie, an expert on radiation in the environment and Richard Outram of Nuclear Free Local Authorities 7-9pm on Saturday 11th May at The Venue via Kendal Museum. Entry is free but please RSVP to info@kendalmuseum.org.uk.
🥾 Walk – a geology, wildlife and literature walk along the Cumbrian coastline from St Bees to Jonathon Swift’s House at Whitehaven to look at the surrounding area in the frame for geological disposal of hot nuclear wastes- June 22nd (contact wastwater@protonmail.com for details).
🥾 Walk – a geology, wildlife and literature walk along the Cumbrian coastline from St Bees to Jonathon Swift’s House at Whitehaven to look at the surrounding area in the frame for geological disposal of hot nuclear wastes- June 22nd (contact wastwater@protonmail.com for details).
NOVEMBER 2023 Amy Bateman – My Journey to Forty Farms
A storytelling, photographic exhibition detailing Amy’s journey from stay-at-home Mum, based on her family’s farm outside Kendal – to award winning photographer. This Kendal based farmer tells her unique backstory through her images. Culminating in some of the Forty Farms exhibition which is continuing to celebrate agriculture here in our cherished landscapes. Included are some early works and unique pieces with the opportunity to purchased some limited pieces.
Amy will also be offering a photography workshop, open to all levels of ability, at the museum on Saturday the 24th of February, for sale here.
About Amy
Amy’s life through a lens came after having children. Having giving up her previous career to look after them at home on the farm, the camera went with her, capturing their early years along with farm life. She won British Life Photographer of the year and she is now a commercial photographer.
Amy lives on a farm in Cumbria and thoroughly enjoys capturing farm-life through her lens, her farming background helps her to understand the Agricultural industry, modern farming methods, stockman-ship and animals.
She thoroughly enjoys capturing light, memories and telling stories with her images.
In March 2021, British Life Photographer of the Year Amy Bateman embarked on a journey to record the stories of Forty Farms in Cumbria. Forty Farms was Published in Sept 2022. It won Lakeland Book of the Year the book has also become a successful Photographic touring exhibition.
MAY 2023: Di Meth-Cohn -THE LAST FEW YEARS- Exhibition
Di Meth-Cohn
I was born and grew up in Manchester, before moving to the South Lakes area in 1987, when my first son was 8 months old. Breath-taken by the beauty of the area and overwhelmed every day, by the changing scenery, particularly the colours and shapes of the mountains, I was fortunate to have some time to explore, whilst looking after my baby.
I have always had a love for plants, especially flowering plants. I’ve often been told, by people close to me, that perhaps my eyes’ colour sensitivity is more concentrated than the average person, leading to a greater enjoyment of bright colours and objects. My husband, who sadly passed away in May 2020 was convinced I had an LSD brain, without taking LSD! Maybe he was right, as I am drawn to and often feel compelled to paint, with very bright colours.
Initially creating my own acrylic paintings to brighten the family home, after being encouraged to do so by my husband, I began painting more regularly, for other people to enjoy. I am often experimental in my approach, with materials used and regularly paint with mediums and implements not generally used for art. My paintings have been described by many as unashamedly bright, upbeat and cheerful. I have been told by people having them on their walls, that they have enjoyed the feelings of positivity, happiness, energy and love, evoked by their paintings.
Due to the impact of my husband’s passing of brain tumour disease in 2020, of Covid and lockdown and the many changes in life, I have increasingly sought solace in the actual process of painting. Consequently my work has been expressed differently, because of the various emotions I have felt.
Much of my work has been brought about by the love I have had the fortune to enjoy, the tenderness I’ve felt and also by the deep loss I have suffered. Some work has been about gratitude, thankfulness, the places I’ve been, the sounds heard and the meaningful interactions experienced.
Keeping my mind healthy has been a challenge, throughout the devastating experiences of the last few years. Being outside, enjoying nature and the peace it brings to my soul, has helped me to get through, as well as being a key source of inspiration for my art work.
MARCH 2023 Sam Harrison & Ray Green -Colours of Cumbria- Exhibition
Sam Harrison
Sam is an abstract and expressive landscape artist based in Ulverston, Cumbria.
“Growing up in Kendal gave me a life-long love of the fells and the dramatic beauty of the Cumbrian landscape. My passion is to convey that feeling through unique, atmospheric, and tactile paintings that are triggered by a colour, a mood or texture experienced whilst out exploring the Lake District.
Having recently left a full-time career in Engineering and Project Management, I am excited to work with local artist Ray Green to present our joint “Colours of Cumbria” exhibition at Kendal Museum’s The Peoples Gallery during March 2023.”
Website: https://www.samharrisonart.co.uk
Ray Green
Ray is an expressive landscape artist based in Kendal, Cumbria.
“The wild Cumbrian landscape is the inspiration for my ‘wild-place’ paintings’. I am deeply drawn to these Cumbrian wild places, the chuntering rivers and old mountains. I try to paint their unique energy, to create a meeting. With the hope you too see and hear. But without the cold, wet, dangers and midges!”
Website: https://www.raygreen-artist.co.uk