Gracefield Arts centre hits 60!
Written by admin on June 15, 2011
Gracefield Arts Centre celebrates 60 years of exhibitions and arts activity in Dumfries
Gracefield has reached its Diamond anniversary this year. Everyone is invited to come along and help celebrate by visiting on Tuesday 28 June when the Arts Centre will be open until 7pm.
From 5-7pm there will be birthday cake and tea/coffee (including decorate your own mini cakes for kids) and the opportunity to visit the current exhibitions with quiz activities available for children. There will be a celebratory 10% discount in the craft shop for the whole day.
At its heart, Gracefield exhibits a wide range of the best contemporary art and encourages interest in and enjoyment of visual art and craft for all sectors of the community. The Arts Centre hosts exhibitions of local, national and international significance as well as providing a meeting and activity venue for over 15 local groups such as The Dumfries Camera Club, Dumfries and Galloway Fine Arts Society, Turning Point Scotland’s Access Art as well as a host of art and craft classes run by local tutors and groups.
The adult art and craft workshop programme regularly books out and the free family activity days, Kids’ Art Club and Babies and Toddlers club are popular with our local creative young folk.
Since 2000 the Centre attracts, on average, over 39,000 visitors per year. This year Gracefield was accepted by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland as a suitable venue to host Artist Rooms exhibitions. It is hoped that this will pave the way to bringing more internationally acclaimed artist exhibitions to Dumfries and will help boost visitor numbers to the town.
The Arts Centre also cares for and exhibits the joint Gracefield – Dumfriesshire Education Trust (DET) art collection. The work from this permanent collection is exhibited both at Gracefield and at other venues nationally. Containing examples of work by famous names such as Joan Eardley, Peploe, Hornel and Oppenheimer, a taste of the collection can be viewed at the education web site www.exploreart.co.uk.
The association between DET and Gracefield also began 60 years ago when the DET’s collection was first brought together under one roof and exhibited at Gracefield. Much of the impetus for developing an Arts Centre for the town was generated by local man Dr R.C. Reid – the Gracefield collection contains a bust of Dr Reid by the acclaimed sculptor Benno Schotz and this will be on show for the birthday celebrations.
