The Valley: Art on the border a cultural history of Marsland

When: 24 May 2025 to 05 July 2025
Where: Temporary Exhibition Gallery
Time: 10:00 - 16:30
Cost: Admission FREE
Suitable for: Any age

An exhibition curated by the artist Peter Stiles exploring the Marsland Valley, its heritage and the people who have been inspired by its charms – both in the past and in the present. 

The exhibition features works by artists including the English painter and decorative artist, Dora Carrington, who was associated with the Bloomsbury group and the unconventional, Bohemian way of life which came to define the group's members. Carrington was largely overlooked as an artist during her lifetime – she rarely exhibited and didn’t sign her work – yet she is now considered a significant contributor to Modern British art.

Other artists featured in the exhibition include the painter Gillian Ayres, who owned a studio in the Valley from which she created the large vibrant canvases that earned her a Turner Prize nomination; her former husband and fellow abstract painter, Henry Mundy; the writer Ronald Duncan who enjoyed success in 1950s with West Ends plays and a TV show based on his newspaper column about the lives of North Devon villagers; the documentary photographer, James Ravilious, whose iconic images of North Devon life feature in the Museum’s own permanent collection; painter and garden photographer Andrew Lawson; animation artist, Petra Freeman; and contemporary sculptor, Briony Lawson, whose work is heavily influenced by the wild North Devon landscape where she was born.

The exhibition also features archive footage of Marsland, shot in the 1930s.

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