It was a bit of an ‘edge of the seat’ moment at midnight on Friday 20 September for anyone bidding in the Friends of the Whitworth’s exciting online Art Auction. Although the bidding had been open for some weeks, as is the way with these things, it all ‘hotted up’ during the last hours of Friday evening. The auction raised an amazing £5,000 which will be used towards the design and purchase of bespoke furniture and fittings for the Collections Access Area.
This new facility should become a first point of call for visitors entering the new Gallery building from Whitworth Park and will offer a half-way house between an exhibition and our Study Centre. The Collections Access Area will show rapidly changing displays from the Gallery’s internationally renowned collections of fine art, textiles and wallpapers and provide opportunities for working alongside a range of collaborators from University academics to local community groups. Objects will be displayed in a range of wall cases, browser drawers and glass topped tables and there will be access to books and computers in a relaxed and informal setting. Groups will be able to book sessions in the spaces with members of staff and at other times, the space will be open for all our visitors with further interpretation offered by a skilled group of volunteers (if you would like to join this group please contact the Friends of the Whitworth at: http://www.friendsofthewhitworth.org.uk/contact.html or our Volunteer Coordinator at: kate.glynn@manchester.ac.uk).
In the meantime, the fundraising continues and if you missed out on the wonderful original artworks so kindly donated by artist friends and associates of the Gallery, then there will be another chance to bid for works by Richard Wentworth, Maxine Bristow, Alice Kettle and others in the run up to Christmas – so get saving and watch this space!
Gallery in the Park 
[…] Last weekend, one of the Friends of the Whitworth generously opened their home as a Pop-up Gallery selling works by local artists, as well as famous names such as Terry Frost and Eric Gill, all in support of the Gallery in the Park building project. This is the latest venture amongst many creative events the Friends have organised towards the funding of the Gallery development, including £100,000 towards preparatory costs including the architectural competition in 2009, and a further £155,000 to date. The FoW are particularly interested in funding the fit out of the Collections Access Area, and a number of Friends have volunteered and are currently undergoing extensive training to become Volunteer Collection Access Assistants to help increase public access to the Whitworth’s Collections (see previous blog post: https://capitaldevelopmentwhitworth.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/art-auction-raises-money-for-our-new-col…). […]
[…] laid. Over the next few weeks, new glazed screens will be installed in each of the arches (Go to: https://capitaldevelopmentwhitworth.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/art-auction-raises-money-for-our-new-col…, for a reminder of how this new facility will look and […]