15 February 2022
In her latest blog Venture Arts artist Louise Hewitt visits Salford Museum and Art Gallery to review 'A-Z of Salford's Collections'.
Louise is passionate about art and culture, visiting Manchester's wealth of museums and galleries to gain inspiration for her own art and to write her bi-monthly Venture Arts blog. "The last time I came to visit this gallery was to write an article on the exhibition, 'You Belong Here', back in August 2021. This time I am visiting another exhibition called, 'A -Z of Salford’s Collections', which is located in the Langworthy Gallery at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. Public transport is easily accessible in getting to the venue, the bus drops you off right outside the venue. This exhibition is a unique collection of objects from Salford's collections. It was great to see different objects from the past presented using the alphabet. It includes paintings and objects. Each piece in this exhibition is different and they all have amazing fine detail and character.
I chose this art exhibition due to enjoying writing children’s books and running workshops for people of all ages. I also thought this exhibition might inspire me for future research projects in clay or writing. Either way I am looking forward to seeing how it impacts my work. It inspired me and made me feel like I was inside a giant children's book, seeing all the different objects come to life.
The Langworthy Gallery is only small but very airy and the exhibition pieces are quite well spaced out. My favourite section of the exhibition was the E and F sections of the giant alphabetic collection. The E section was a collection of egg cups from 79 AD and in the F section there was a giant fish, which I loved. The amount of detail on each egg cup is truly amazing and blows my mind. To think some of these egg cups are thousands of years old is truly incredible. To think they first came to existence in 79 AD and then disappear until the Elizabethan period is truly sad, but I am truly happy to see some have been found and put back on display.
In the F section the giant fish looks truly incredible, a true art of nature. This giant fish was caught by Captain W. J. P Benson in the West Indies and the name for the fish is Tarpon (Megalops Atlanticus). It was acquired by the museum in 1972. It grew 5 - 8 feet long and weighed 80-280 pounds!
These two exhibits inspired me the most because of the amount of colour and detail they have in them both. They are both captivating and let my imagination run wild. So in this case they both are truly my favourite pieces of work. I think other people should go and see this exhibition as I think families with young children would find it interesting. To see the alphabet brought to life, rather than just to read it from an ordinary book."
'A-Z of Salford's Collections' is free to visit and runs until 1st May 2022.
