Exhibition
Quiet Revolutions
22 January – 27 March 2022
Work inspired by Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland
Quiet Revolutions, a display of ceramic pieces inspired by the lives of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland, will run from 22 January – 27 March 2022 in the Museum’s Artists’ Dorset gallery, coinciding with February’s LGBT+ History month.
The display of five works by Bristol-based artist Amanda Chambers form an ‘intervention’ within a section of the gallery devoted to the artistic and literary Chaldon Herring community. Novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) and poet Valentine Ackland (1906-1969) were part of this community, and it was here that they fell in love and became life partners.
Leading a rich life of literary and political pursuits, Sylvia and Valentine lived through an intense period of the 20th century. However, it is largely the domestic sphere of their lives which inform the six ceramic works being displayed. Living openly together in rural Dorset in the early 1930s, Sylvia and Valentine shared a deep-rooted commitment to each other despite extreme challenges – notably the prospect of a three-way relationship with author Elizabeth Wade White, and Valentine’s struggle with alcoholism, which she endured for several decades in secret. The works highlight the immense resilience shown by both women during their partnership.
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Opening hours:
Daily: 9.00am - 4.30pm
Sunday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Bank Holidays: 10.00am - 4.00pm -
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LGBT+ History Month
LGBT+ History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements.
Visit websiteAmanda Chambers
Amanda Chambers (Picture Credit Max McClure)
Amanda Chambers is a multidisciplinary artist, and the primary focus of her work is making connections to the past through an exploration of both found material and imaginary concepts. She is often stimulated by textual and archival sources and has worked with some of the most significant museum collections in the UK. She is an Academician at the Royal West of England Academy and a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Her interest in Warner and Ackland began in 2013, and in 2014 she produced a series of works inspired by their lives.
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