Private View

Picturing the Chase

SHAFTESBURY Arts Centre hosts an exhibition, Droves and Downs,  until 18th November, featuring work by four artists who were awarded bursaries by Dorset Visual Arts to create a body of work inspired by the Cranborne Chase National Landscape. Via an open call, artists were invited by DVA to submit proposals to explore the different facets…

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The art of poetry

THE new exhibition at the top floor gallery at Poole’s Lighthouse art centre is an inversion of the usual form of words describing artworks. The Art of Poetry, running to 22nd November, is art created in response to the written word. Technically described as the reverse of the literary device of ekphrasis, in which language…

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Let there be light …

THE West front of Salisbury Cathedral is one of the glories of Western architecture – and it makes for an astonishing backdrop as Luxmuralis return from 4th to 8th November with a breathtaking spectacle of light and sound – Sarum Lights: Lost Worlds. This innovative light and sound show will take viewers on a journey…

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Graveyard of despair – ungrievable lives

DORCHESTER Corn Exchange gallery is the setting for a powerful and challenging exhibition, Ungrievable Lives, from Saturday 18th to Monday 20th October, open from 10am to 4pm, with free entry. There is also a free panel discussion on Saturday from 4 to 6pm, and a diversity flag workshop on Sunday from 11am. Ungrievable Lives brings…

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Somerset artists at St Barbe

SOMERSET artists James and Kate Lynch, who live on a hill overlooking the Somerset Levels, have both had work selected for The Life of the Fields, a major exhibition at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery in Lymington, one of the most adventurous and prestigious galleries in the area. The exhibition runs to 10th January…

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Delights, dreams and department stores

THREE leading local galleries all have exciting exhibitions for the autumn – The Art Stable at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, has a retrospective on the work of the late David Gommon. Sladers Yard at West Bay celebrates mother and daughter Marzia Colonna and Fiamma Colonna Montagu, and the Slade Centre at Gillingham looks…

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We Rise – global majority artists at Poole

GLOBAL Majority artists take centre stage at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre throughout October in We Rise, a vibrant group exhibition showcasing award-winning and emerging artists across painting, printmaking, installation, textiles and sculpture. The exhibition is part of Black History Month 2025 and highlights the creativity and contribution of artists whose voices are often underrepresented in…

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Visions of Portland

PORTLAND, that mysterious, craggy, romantic island of rock that is barely attached to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, is a constantly inspiring place for artists, and a new exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in Easton Lane and Tout Quarry Sculpture Park and Nature Reserve, until 31st Ocober, explores the responses of a group of sculptors to…

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Artist in residence’s surreal whimsy by the sea

ILLUSTRATOR Gabrielle Parker’s delightful, surreal and whimsical creations will be celebrated at this year’s Arts by the Sea, the South West’s biggest free celebration of art, culture, people and place, returning to Bournemouth from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th September. Gabrielle Parker, the 2025 Artist in Residence, is an Arts University Bournemouth graduate, who creates…

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Brewham to Watchet – two weeks of art in Somerset

SOMERSET Art Weeks returns from 13th to 28th September with an enthralling range of art works by painters, printmakers, sculptors, potters, print-makers and multi-disciplinary creators. From the artists studios at Watchet’s East Quay to a music and sound-scape installation in the atmospheric grounds of Shave Farm, Brewham, there is a dazzling display of the talent…

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