Josaphine wants you in the Airing Cupboard!

A whole menagerie of animals (including Josaphine the beautiful cow), six artists and lots of beautiful arts and crafts have squeezed into the newest, and what’s believed to be the smallest, gallery in Nottinghamshire.

The AIR-ing Cupboard At Thoresby Park is a brand new gallery showing the work of Thoresby’s Artists In Residence and selected guests, they are what’s being called the ‘Fresh Air’. It measures just under 10 square metres but every centimeter of it is bursting with talent.

The gallery’s founder is one of Thoresby’s resident artists, Dawn Idalia.

“We are so excited to be presenting artists of such a high calibre in our first exhibition. Susan Isaac is a multi award winning painter and sculptor who also won the Thoresby Open in 2017. Susan is exhibiting her work nationally and is showing wonderful paintings of our much loved architectural treasures from Southwell Minster to Thoresby Hall. We’ve also bagged Alison Read, I’ve been a fan of her work for over 20 years and I’m not surprised to see that she’s now selling all over the country and in venues such as Fortnum and Masons.”

The gallery is housed above the café at Thoresby Park in one of the rooms that were used to house soldiers in World War 2 and the style of it’s branding is a nod to that history. The Park is now owned by a Charity called The Stonebridge Trust, which was set up in part to support the arts and to house and exhibit the collection of Marie-Louise Pierrepont which can be seen in the Courtyard Gallery.

“We are very grateful to the Stonebridge trust for supporting the creation of this new space which has been set up with Thoresby’s visitors firmly in mind. We’ve selected a wide range of work that we hope will really appeal and give many years of joy”.

The Airing Cupboard opened on the1st June, which coincided with the first of two Open Studio Weekends (as part of Open Studios Notts).

Comments from its first visitors include:

“Wow! What a wonderful new space, excellent work beautifully presented. I’m very much looking forward to returning to see future exhibitions”. Linda, Notts.

“A lovely inspiring peaceful place, so friendly, we were made to feel very welcome.” (Alistair & Zoe, Notts).

“Such lovely, beautiful work. Very inspirational!” (Holly, Leics).

Thoresby also hosts the outstanding creative talents always present in the courtyard such as David Fowkes Jewellery, Ingrid Pears Hot Glass, Elle Bee interiors to name a few and a new wood workshop opening soon.

Thoresby is really establishing itself as a destination for lovers of high quality arts and crafts and will soon be offering a ‘makers map’ to all visitors to help them find the creativity spread throughout the historic courtyard buildings.

The gallery is open most days (but please call ahead if travelling from a distance 07917 434279) or visit www.dawnidalia.art

To find out what else is on at Thoresby during your visit go to www.whatsonatthoresby.co.uk

For any visitors who cannot manage the stairs we have a digital presentation of the pieces in The A.I.R-ing on show in the Visitors Centre and one of our Artists In Residence will be more than happy to bring work down to show.

Published July 2019