Events that celebrate the Stour Valley

Thomas Gainsborough, River Landscape, 1768, Oil on Canvas

Given Thomas Gainsborough’s enthusiasm for landscape (he far preferred painting landscape to portraits!) it is not surprising that Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury has been involved in a number of different ways with the Managing a Masterpiece project.

Managing a Masterpiece is a Heritage Lottery funded programme which aims to help people to understand, conserve and celebrate the landscape of the Stour Valley.

Gainsborough’s House put in a couple of bids to undertake particular projects.   We were successful in our bid to create a ‘pod’ (a static computer) which will showcase the work of  Gainsborough and Constable, and also lesser known local landscape artists.  The pod will be available for the public to view in due course, initially at Gainsborough’s House and later at different venues around the area.  It is currently in course of construction, and happily we have been able to use one of our volunteers to both put the content together and to obtain some valuable experience for his CV. Sadly, and I feel rather unaccountably, our other proposal, to ask the project to fund a young intern at our print workshop to record aspects of the Stour Valley in various print formats and get work experience and skills along the way, was not deemed a suitable use of funds.

The Managing a Masterpiece programme reaches its climax in February and March when a number of events will be held in Sudbury and beyond to mark the area’s rich artistic and natural heritage.

I will write more about these nearer the time, but I have listed them in Forthcoming Events to the right.  There is to be an exhibition in St Peter’s Church of artworks by local people from 1^st to 13^th March.  Submissions are very welcome and need to be made by 18^th February.  An entry form is available from www.managingamasterpiece.org.

The event that looks very intriguing is the Sudbury Light Night on 8^th March….a celebration of light through the heart of Sudbury and into the countryside.

Watch this space for further information in due course or go to the Managing a Masterpiece site here