director: Alison Plumridge
gallery manager: Elisabeth Rutt
curator: Catherine Hemelryk
craft development curator: Liz Cooper
outreach officer: Sarah Berry
marketing officer: John Appleyard
audience development researcher: Richard Allin
finance assistant: Susan Boor
gallery assistants: Sam Foley
Carole Moran
Sally Allen
Rosie Copeland
curatorial apprentice: Kirsty McCullough
assistant to the director: Natalie Sinnadurai
board of trustees:
Rob Adam
Kate Dodsworth
Judith Hall
Marguerite Nice
Betty Pepper
Pamela Pfrommer
Paul Scarlett
Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery was established in 1972 and occupies the spacious first floor of a fine Grade 1 listed Robert Adam building in the centre of the town. It is a registered charity supported by a membership and receives funding from East England Arts, Suffolk County Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council.
The Gallery aims to serve a local audience in Suffolk with a varied experience of the contemporary visual arts. It exhibits the best fine art and craft from national and international artists and, in particular, promotes artists working in the area. Over the last ten years, the Gallery has organised at least one exhibition each year which has toured nationally. These have included 'Julia Manheim: the Shifting Emphasis', 'Working with Paper', 'The Artist's Journey', 'arttextiles1' and '2','A Baker's Dozen' and 'Papercuts'.
The Gallery is committed to life long learning and to enabling new audiences to access and enjoy the visual arts. This policy is pursued through support for and partnership with the formal education sector, lectures and practical workshops for all ages, artist residencies and the presentation of work in places where people go about their everyday lives.
In 1998, the Gallery embarked on a major three year development programme funded through the Arts Council of England's Arts for Everyone scheme. This enabled the organisation to undertake ambitious projects which involved commissioning work from artists and promoting work outside the Gallery to reach new audiences. This outreach work was made possible through the support and professional expertise of a range of partners which included the National Trust, St Edmundsbury Borough Council, local schools and the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. 'Stations: the new sacred art' presented specially commissioned sets of stations of the cross in fifteen Suffolk churches to celebrate the millennium. 'Crossover' explored the interface between sculpture and basketry with a series of site-specific commissions in parks across
St Edmundsbury and a touring exhibition of work by British and American artists.
Having completed the A4E programme in 2001, the Gallery went on to consider how it could continue this exciting work, fulfil its potential for future development and the resources it will require. One challenge is to improve access to its activities in its own space for people with disabilities and for all visitors.
In July 2002, the Gallery was awarded a Regional Arts Lottery Programme grant to undertake a capital feasibility study, aspects of organisational development and the following series of artistic projects: a solo exhibition of work by Polly Binns which will look at her career to date and commission two new works including a digital collaboration with two other artists. The exhibition opened in September 2003 and toured nationally and accompanied by a substantial publication; four site specific commissions for 'textiles on site' which forming a town trail when 'arttextiles3' opened in Bury St Edmunds in September 2004; action research into the future of the regional graduate survey `Platform` during 2003, three Bury St Edmunds Festival Artists in Residence in May 2003, 2004 and 2005.
