On Saturday 16th September, we’ll have an exciting away day in Sway visiting the spudWORKS and Lymington's St Barbe Gallery & Museum. 9.30am - 6.45pm. This trip will be made via the Yarmouth – Lymington ferry crossing on foot (there’s a very short train journey to Sway from Lymington station – train costs would need to be covered by individuals but passenger ferry travel is very kindly supported by Wightlink).
spudWORKS is a really exciting venue that offers incubation space, co-creation and commissioning opportunities to creatives and recent graduates. Creative spaces on the IW is still massively underserved and this visit will give an insight into not only how maker spaces can operate, but also retain talent within a small rural town.
Since taking responsibility for the former ArtSway building in Sway 2019, spudWORKS has turned it into a modern, creative hub featuring community workshop space, artist studios, florist, gallery and desks for creative businesses.
The charity, which has received international recognition for its ground-breaking design projects including Exbury Egg and The Observatory, a project which enabled a group of youngsters to conceive and design a new cycling café in Winchester.
During our visit they will be showing an exhibition titled ‘Interrupting this Place – Graduate Launch Pad’ exploring ideas of being here and utilising digital technologies. Find out more about their Launch pad programme here: https://www.spud.org.uk/launchpad
To find out more about spudWORKS, please click here.
Later in the afternoon we'll visit St Barbe Gallery & Museum. St Barbe is located in the heart of the beautiful, historic coastal market town of Lymington. It is both a dynamic local history museum and highly regarded art gallery. The museum explores the history of Lymington and the New Forest Coast, inspired by local pride, and supported by the local community.
We'll meet Steven Marshall – Exhibitions Curator and will be given a tour of their latest exhibition ‘Parallel Lives: Eight Women Artists’. Parallel Lives looks at the careers and experiences of eight women artists, all born within twenty years of each other and whose lives spanned the 20th century. It follows their successes and the challenges they faced, noting moments when their lives and experiences overlapped. Find out more about St Barbe and the exhibition, please click here.
The ferry travel for this away day is very kindly supported by Wightlink but there is a very short train journey to Sway from Lymington station which would need to be covered by individuals. Approx £5 rtn.
Spaces are limited to x20 for this away day - so don't delay in booking your place by 14th Aug.
Download the itinerary here.
Book your place here via Eventbrite!
