As well as exhibiting and selling the works of local artists and makers, the Rye Art Gallery is home to a permanent collection held by the Rye Art Gallery Charitable Trust, founded by the artist Mary Stormont in 1957 for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people of Rye.
The permanent collection
The collection of works is of national and regional importance, comprising mainly of early 20 century British paintings, prints and drawings including work by Eric Gill, Edward Burra, Ivon Hitchens, Paul Nash, Duncan Grant, Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Fred Cuming amongst others.
The gallery is housed in two former domestic houses: Ypres Studio, the Arts and Crafts home of the artists, Mary Elizabeth Stormont (1871-1962) and her husband, Howard Gull Stormont (1859-1935), accessed from Ockman Lane off East Street; and the house of artist, Eileen Easton on 107 High Street.
The collection has grown from the group of around one hundred pictures bequeathed by Mary Elizabeth Stormont. These works include paintings and sketches of her own and others by Howard Gull Stormont, as well as works that the couple had purchased and displayed in their home, the Ypres Studio. In addition, it holds the Stormont Archive of letters, photographs and documents including those relating to Rye Art Club (1920-37), of which the Stormonts were founder members and summer exhibition catalogues of the Rye Society of Artists (a descendent of the original Rye Art Club) from 1952 to the present.
Also part of the collection is a bequest received in 1990 from the artist Margaret Barnard (1898-1992) of work by her and by her husband Robert Mackechnie (1894-1975), a member of the Seven and Five Group. This bequest also included the couple’s collection of etchings by Robert Austin and engravings by Giovanni Piranesi.
Raising funds to protect the gallery for the future
Maintaining the historic buildings and caring for the ever-growing permanent collection is an important part of the work of the gallery, to fulfil the key purpose of the original bequest and to continue the vision of the founders: that it is to benefit the community of Rye and beyond.
Over the last few months, the gallery has completed the first stage of its external restoration of the Ypres Studio, spending around £50,000 on repairing the roof and restoring the original Arts and Crafts windows.
Work now needs to be done to restore the studio on the top floor and to bring the three storage rooms, that house the gallery’s permanent collection and archives, up to museum standard. To achieve this the gallery is organising a number of fundraising events, the first of which took place last Saturday, December 9 with an enjoyable evening of music performed by Barefoot Opera.
In a very well-attended evening, the audience were treated to the singers performing in the intimate setting of one of the upper galleries, surrounded by the colour and vibrancy of the new works on show as part of the current exhibition, Abundance.
The pieces, both duets and solos, were beautifully sung by soprano Kezia Robson and baritone Joel Robson with Hanzhi Zhang accompanying on the piano, and included Bei Mannern from Mozart’s Magic Flute, Deh Vieni non Tardar from Le Nozze di Figaro, Verdi’s Dita alla giovane from La Traviata and Donizetti’s Bella siccome un angelo from Don Pasquale. In keeping with the festive season, there were three Christmas songs: Benedictus Duet from Christmas Oratorio by Saint Saens, Schlafendes Jesuskind by Hugo Wolf and Cantique de Noel by Adolphe Adam.
Also taking place from now until December 22 is an online auction of 50 selected works kindly donated by Rye Art Gallery artists alongside limited edition prints from the permanent collection and posters from previous Rye Art Gallery exhibitions.
Dr Julian Day, director of the Rye Art Gallery said: “It was a real delight to host the Barefoot Opera at Rye Art Gallery as a special fundraiser for our conservation and restoration activities. The singers were sublime and even our building was humming to the sounds of beautiful music.
“We do need help with looking after our fantastic permanent collection properly in Rye. The evening raised over £1,500 for the project and we are raising more from a fantastic pre-Christmas online auction.
“I want to thank everyone, particularly our artists at Rye Art for their generous support for developing and maintaining our very important public historic collection and archive of over 2,000 treasures, that we hold in trust for the Rye community and beyond.”
The beauty of Rye and the landscapes and seascapes around it has always attracted artists to live and work here. Such a jewel of a place that exhibits and preserves their work, is one to protect for now and generations to come.
Rye Art Gallery 107 High Street, Rye. East Sussex TN31 7JE 01797 222433 ryeartgallery@gmail.com
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 11am to 5pm, Sundays 11am to 4pm, closed Tuesdays
Friends of Rye Art Gallery https://www.ryeartgallery.co.uk/support-us/the-friends-of-rye-art-gallery
Image Credits: Isabel Ryan , Juliet Duff , Mick Rooney/Rye Art Gallery , John Cole Photography .
Truly a fantastic evening and a great use of the gallery. I look forward to seeing more of Barefoot Opera in our area in the coming year.