The Bowes Museum Blog

Preparation is well underway for the two new exhibitions opening in spring next year.

Paul Scott’s ‘Confected, Borrowed and Blue’ is the first to open on the 14^th of February.

After receiving the list of objects that will be on display, we are now in the process of designing the look and layout of the exhibition room (the space currently occupied by ‘Six Masterpieces of the Spanish Golden Age: Paintings from Madrid, London and York’)

To do this, Vin, our Exhibitions Technician, has made a scale model of the room so that we can properly visualise how the space will look.

Scale model of Paul Scott exhibition room

I then measured and cut scale versions of the objects to be used in the model, so we can decide on an arrangement.

Selection of Paul Scott scale images

Graphics and logos have been sent to us from the current exhibition venue, The Holburne Museum in Bath, so for now all we need to decide on is what colour we should paint the room. Picture many debates over cups of tea and colour charts…

Then, 14^th of March sees the opening of ‘Milk Snatcher, The Thatcher Drawings’, a collection of work from renowned cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe.

The long list of objects we originally received has been whittled down slightly, however, you can still expect to see plenty of the funny, insightful (and occasionally risqué) pieces that Scarfe is known for.

Just like with the Paul Scott exhibition, we have prepared a model and scale images – which Charlotte (our other Cultural Apprentice) is in the process of cutting out now – so that we can decide on how we are going to display the work.

Scale model of Gerald Scarfe exhibition room

The next thing for us to do is to organise the framing of all 121 (yes, you read that right) pieces, which should hopefully be sorted next month, when we get back after Christmas.

Overall, it’s going to be a pretty busy start to the New Year!

By Catherine Dickinson, Cultural Apprentice