A Visible THREAD, Wirth Gallery, Sherborne Girls’ School, Sherborne

6 – 31 January 2024

Wirth Gallery, The Merritt Centre, Sherborne Girls, Bradford Road, Dorset DT9 3QN

Some of team seam setting up A Visible THREAD at Wirth Gallery.
L-R Joy Merron, Julie Heaton, Lou Baker, Lillie Ayres (curator at Wirth Gallery), Lydia Needle, Nina Gronw Lewis

This was the third, and an extra, iteration of seam collective’s A Visible THREAD as part of our Arts Council funded exhibition tour. The exhibition was extended from 27 to 31 January. The exhibiting artists were: Angie Parker, Helen MacRitchie, Jane Colquhoun, Joy Merron, Julie Heaton, Lou Baker, Lydia Needle and Nina Gronw-Lewis.

The Wirth Gallery is set within Sherborne Girls’ School. There was a well attended Private View on Friday 12 January. During the course of the exhibition the art staff arranged a number of sessions in the gallery space for their students, which meant that many young people were able to experience and respond to the exhibition. Other visits were by appointment.

One view of the exhibition.
L-R Julie Heaton, Lydia Needle, Nina Gronw Lewis

Here’s a walkthrough video of the exhibition with several of the artists talking about their work at A Visible THREAD. Many thanks to Julie Heaton, Lou Baker, Joy Merron and Lydia Needle.

Participation

Lou Baker installed a participatory, walk-in installation, Safety Net. Visitors were invited to think about what made them feel safe, write it on a label and add it to the netting. There were also strips of bright cloth which could be added too. It was thrilling to see how the space was transformed during the course of the exhibition.

Lou Baker, Safety net, Day 1
Safety net, Day 25

Visitors adding strips of cloth and labels to the installation:

The staff at the school held lessons in the gallery, where they talked with the students about the work:

Artists in residence and curator, Lillie Ayres, discussing Nina Gronw Lewis’ work as part of an art lesson with two students from Sherborne Girls’

They also ran drawing sessions in the gallery, resulting in some delightful interpretations of some of the work. Many thanks to the staff and students at Sherborne Girls’:

Read more about our exhibition at Wirth Gallery in our blog post, New Year, new exhibition!

You can also find out more about our reserach behind seam‘s A Visible THREAD exhibition tour in Making thread visible, how it started as a research residency in Spring 2022, and what we got up to during our residency on our blog.