EXHIBITIONS NOT TO MISS
Swords of Kingdoms: The Staffordshire Hoard at Sutton Hoo
19 May – 30 October 2022
Two of the most important Anglo-saxon archaeological discoveries ever made are to be united in a major new exhibition at Sutton Hoo.
In 1939, an Anglo-saxon king’s ship burial and its treasures was discovered at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.
Seventy years later, in 2009, the largest hoard of Anglo-saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found, the Staffordshire Hoard, was unearthed in a farmer’s field.
This exhibition will bring together original treasures from both sites. This will be the first time that objects from the Staffordshire Hoard have been on display in East Anglia, with scholars believing that many of its treasures could originally have been made in the Anglo-saxon kingdom of East Anglia.
The exhibition, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Local Enterprise Partnership, will see 60 original Anglo-saxon objects on display, on loan from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, the British Museum and Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
Constable Revealed at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
On display from 29 April 2022
Waterloo Bridge was opened by the Prince Regent on the second anniversary of the battle in 1817. Artist John Constable attended the opening and his many sketches and full-scale paintings illustrate his attempt to record the scene, which culminated in the exhibition of a slightly smaller version of this picture (now in the Tate) at the Royal Academy in 1832.
The National Trust’s version of the painting, oil on canvas, and measuring 148cm high x 243cm wide (5ft x 8ft) is part of a superb art collection built up at Anglesey Abbey during the 20th century by 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) who bequeathed it to the Trust with the house and the rest of the contents.
Over two centuries dirt and old varnish had built up, leading experts at the
Royal Oak Foundation Conservation
Studio at Knole in
Kent to spend six painstaking months restoring the painting, reviving its rich colours and clarity. It will go back on display as part of a new exhibition ‘Constable Revealed’.
In Shropshire, Dudmaston Hall is hosting a new exhibition ‘The Modern Movement’ featuring prominent 20th century artists Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson, together with local abstract artist Anthony Twentyman.