Where to see great art in Shrewsbury, Shropshire & Beyond
Shropshire may be a land-locked county but it awash with fantastic places to see (and buy) all kinds of art from contemporary to more traditional locations. You can currently see my work in Ty Pawb, The Parades, and Gateway Gallery from 2025.
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery: a converted music hall theatre with a museum of local history this exciting space on 3 floors hosts the Shrewsbury Arts trail every summer and regular travelling exhibitions from larger institutions such as the British Museum. They currently have three fantastic bronzes by female British contemporary sculptor Laura Ford
Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings: regularly hosts the DRAWN collective art fair in the dye house of its impressive site- one of the earliest examples of an iron-framed building before the New York City skyscrapers!
The Parades Shopping Mall: a converted hospital- outside which the 1980’s George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol was filmed! There is a Community Gallery that showcases work from the Shrewsbury Arts Trail, and a number of arty establishments including Richard Royle’s Studio 67 paintings full of celeb glitz and glamour and the brand spanking new Artisan Lab - a workshop venue that also sells an array of exciting contemporary art, crafts painting and printmaking.
The Gateway Gallery- a great little community arts space. Currently showing a great exhibition in conjunction with the Shrewsbury Ark about homelessness in the county entitled ‘no fixed abode’ and I’ll be working on an exhibition and community project there in the new year. The cafe is also tremendous with very reasonably priced and delicious cakes and excellent coffee!
Callaghans of Shrewsbury: a traditional dealers with an impressive array of British & European art from the last 300 years
Soden collection: a small art dealer that packs a punch with a broad collection of paintings by local and national artists and prints by the likes of titans such as Dali & Keith Haring and Salopian local hero Kyffin Williams as well as representing local sculpting royalty Halima Cassel MBE and Jacob Chandler
English Bridge Workshops- host the quarterly SY studios events for local artists
The Hive - fantastic community arts space with regular exhibitions of photography and local artists x
Further Afield
Ty Pawb (means literally everybody’s house) Wrexham - is a fantastic contemporary arts space- bright and airy and holds a biennial arts exhibition featuring a host of local and nationally exhibiting artists in its open collection- currently on display. The breadth and diversity of work on display is staggering and vibrant and globally very exciting- a must-see location! It’s housed in a building that ran for museum of the year in 2022 and alongside the gallery is a fantastic food court of street vendors and a host of small artisan booths.
National Trust Attingham Park, Powys Castle, Berrington Hall - all regularly host contemporary artists and artisans. Attingham park recently hosted the Bee Friendly Skep project featuring the work of 6 contemporary artists and illustrators as well as CBeebies presenter Maddie Moate. It also has the impressive Nash gallery designed by the famous Regrncy architect John Nash and housing an impressive permanent collection of 17-19th century painting. Powys castle recently had a wonderfully vibrant exhibition of patchwork and tapestry by Kaffe Fasset in 2023 and is currently embarking on a project exploring the negative and positive connections with colonialism and its Clive of India collection. Berrington hall had this wonderful pineapple installed in the garden by Studio Morison until 2019 https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/07/origami-pineapple-pavilion/ and Lorna Brown’s ‘Eye am She’ which integrated contemporary art with the interiors of the house itself. Keep an eye on all NT properties in the area for more updates on art events.
New Art Gallery Walsall - I cannot recommend this amazing contemporary art gallery highly enough. The housing for the outstanding and spectacular Garman Ryan collection is extraordinary and the frequently changing contemporary temporary exhibitions are stunning- recent highlights were Karla Black, Annette Pugh and a retrospective of female sculptors from the 20th century until present- stunning.
