Friends News
Friends’ successful fund-raising for the Staffordshire Hoard!
The Friends Council’s hard work in raising funds for the Staffordshire Hoard has been a great success. Since the exhibition opened on the 13th February 2010, the Friends have raised in excess of ₤120,000 towards the acquisition price of ₤3.3 million pounds and towards the conservation, research and interpretation of these wonderful treasures. Most of these funds have been raised through the very generous contributions of Friends and visitors to the exhibition and the three private viewings organised by Museum staff and the Friends’ Council. Over one hundred pieces from the Staffordshire Hoard are currently on display at the National Geographic Museum, Washington DC, where they will remain until March. There will be a grandstand exhibition of the Staffordshire Hoard at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery from July 2012, showing the hoard in the context of the wider Anglo-Saxon period and the History of the Saxon Mercia.
New additions to the Museums’ collections!
The Friends have recently contributed funds towards the acquisition of:
GHOST, a ceramic sculpture by Kim Simonnson. Kim Simonsson has work in public collections throughout Scandinavia, but the Victoria and Albert Museum, London hold the only other work in a public collection in the UK. The acquisition of this unique work supports the development of the contemporary art collection, which aims to blur the boundaries between art and craft. The purchase was supported by the Friends of the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery and the V & A Purchase Grant Fund. Ghost is curently on display in the Museum's Changing Fashions Gallery.
SCOTT'S CUMBRIAN BLUE(s) Spode Works Closed and Three Gorges after the Dam 2, 2009 by Paul Scott
Six bone china plates with in-glaze printed decoration and gold lustre. In 2009, Cumbrian based potter Paul Scott collected a number of unfinished china plates from the closed Spode factory site in Stoke, decorated the collected tableware with in-glaze printed decoration. In the case of Spode Works Closed series, images of the abandoned factory are filtered through Spode's "Blue Italian" pattern. Three Gorges After the Dam 2 is a commentary on both the pottery industry, but also the environmental concerns, which often inform Scott's practice. The pieces will go on display shortly in the Decorative Arts and Ceramics galleries.
The purchase was supported by the Friends of the Potteries Museums and Art Gallery, the V & A Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund.
