Over the Easter bank holiday weekend, five present and past Glossopdale School art teachers will be displaying their work at Hadfield gallery space the 'Wall in the Barn'. 

Current Head of Art at the school, Lucy Wood, will be joined by Alice Greenwood, Hannah Mottram, Michael Moore and former teacher Gwen Osbaldeston.

The exhibition is entitled ‘Local’ to reflect the fact that all the teachers live and work in this area, plus it will include many pieces depicting local scenes.

Lucy explained why they chose to come together for this show.

She said: "Each one of us is creative every day, mostly within a formal classroom environment. During the first lockdown, educators and students noticed how difficult we found it to maintain motivation when working in isolation. With the importance of encouragement and environment fresh in our minds we decided that a joint exhibition that would be open to the wider community would show that artists are stronger when they come together."

The junction in Old Glossop by Lucy Wood

Manager of the Wall in the Barn, Julia Norton, shared her excitement at being approached to host ‘Local’.

She said: “It’s such a privilege to be able to bring together the work of these five talented artists who spend their working lives encouraging the creativity of a younger generation. I know that current and former pupils will love seeing the work of their teachers.

Lucy told us that, while teaching Year 9 about Monet in the summer term of 2021, she discovered that his submission was refused by The Salon in Paris early in his career, so he booked another venue in the city and invited his friends to exhibit with him thereby showing in competition with The Salon.

Both Gwen and Lucy entered the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2021 but were refused so she said to Gwen ‘let's do our own show’ and here we are!”.

‘Local’ will run from Friday 15 to Monday 18 April, from 11am to 4pm each day at the Wall in the Barn which is in The Craft Barn Hadfield, just off Station Road.

It will include a children’s activity downstairs where youngsters will be encouraged to draw their favourite teacher. All completed pictures will be put on display and be entered into a prize draw.

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