“FRAME OF MIND’ is a new exhibition being held at the Derwent Valley Art’s Barracks Galley, Willow Court and is well worth your while to visit this January. While there are limited opening hours for the exhibition this month (see below) the team at Derwent Valley Arts have made this a covid safe space. I was fortunate enough to attend the opening night last evening and was more than impressed by the works presented.

The story of this exhibition started some time ago, Hunter Island Press, through Derwent Valley Arts, arranged a tour of the site with the Friends of Willow Court. The Friends of Willow Court asking me to help with the tour, which I was happy to do.

Hunter Island Press Inc. is a collective group of artists who work mainly in print media and operate a studio in the Clarence area. From this tour, other inspiration and research the Artists went about preparing a range of works for this exhibition. The whole exhibition is about Willow Court and it was fascinating to see how each Artist interpreted the tour, the site and the emotions the site evokes.

For me as a tour guide that has run tours on the site since 2007, this is some of the best feedback I have received and help me to understand that each individual comes away with a different experience. Each work told the many stories from so many different angles and perspectives. All of the works have a wonderful explanation and description as to what motivated the work. As a bonus, all the works are for sale and I purchase a wonderful piece that both my partner and I fell in love with. This wasn’t an easy choice as each of the pieces spoke to me and the drive I have for this site to remain in public ownership and to present it and it’s past residents and staff in an ethical manner.

The project is open weekends 11am-4pm with Artists talks at 2pm. From Saturday until Sunday 30 January.