Summer Exhibition Launch at The Atkinson

Celebrate the launch of the new exhibitions with a full day of talks, tours, and craft workshops.  Fun for all ages:

10:00: galleries open.

11:00 – 15:00: Make It: craft workshop.  ​​​​​​Join an arts and crafts workshop suitable for all the family.  Inspired by the 150th anniversary exhibition.  There's something for all ages, with all materials supplied and all for free.  Drop-in and get creative.  Children under 12 years must be supervised by an adult.  First come first served.  You may be expected to wait until a space at a craft table becomes available.

11:00 – 12:00: talk by Matt Fox: The Magic of Middle-earth.  Collector Matt Fox has brought together a magical treasure trove of over 200 rare objects.  An exhibition of family fun for all ages, from little halflings to wizened wizards.  Immerse yourself in Middle-earth and the many ways it has been reinterpreted since Tolkien first penned those famous words, 'In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit…'

12:30 – 13:30: exhibition tour: Chila Kumari Burman: I Love You Southport.  Chila Kumari Burman MBE is a celebrated British artist, known for her vibrant, playful and rebellious artworks.  Burman was born in Bootle to Punjabi- Hindu parents and later studied at Southport Collage of Art.  I Love You Southport includes work inspired by her father's ice cream van, which travelled along the Sefton coast.

14:00 – 15:00:  Meet the Artist.  Katherine Dereli: Dead Industry and Friendly Objects.  Katherine Dereli is a Lancashire based oil painter with a classical training in sculpture.  Her subjects are various, what unites them is a particular approach to paint.  Katherine tries to carefully observe and reproduce colour from life, mixed cleanly on the palette and laid down to create a varied surface of alternating high detail and broad 'messy' brushwork.

16:00: art galleries close.