Gallery Oldham is a free-to-view public museum and

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

in the Cultural Quarter of central

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England.

Design

Designed by architects Pringle Richards Sharratt, Gallery Oldham was completed in its original form in February 2002. The

integrates local museum and gallery services. An extension to include the £13 million Oldham Library and Lifelong Learning Centre opened in April 2006. The building has library and learning facilities.

Programming

Programming incorporates Oldham's art, social and natural history collections alongside touring work, newly commissioned and contemporary art, international art and work produced with local communities. The gallery holds the civic collection of Oldham and much of that of the wider

Metropolitan Borough of Oldham The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after its largest town, Oldham. The borough had a population of in , making it the sixth-largest district by population in Greater Manch ...

Exhibits

It has a permanent display called Oldham Stories, exhibiting objects and specimens from across the collections and two temporary exhibition galleries. Gallery Oldham has one of the busiest exhibitions programmes in the region. Exhibitions mix touring shows with work from the gallery's own collection of art, social history and natural history. The gallery holds work by local artists including Helen Bradley, William Stott and Alan Rankle and its collections include work by British artists L. S. Lowry,

John William Waterhouse John William Waterhouse (baptised 6 April 184910 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His paintings are known for ...

and

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...

. In recent years the gallery has built up a collection of

studio pottery Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur ceramists working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs, especially those that are not intended for daily use as crockery. Typically, all stages of manufacture are ...

and displays ceramic works by modern makers.

References

External links

Gallery Oldham Website
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Greater Manchester Natural history museums in England Local museums in Greater Manchester Art museums and galleries established in 2002 2002 establishments in England Buildings and structures in Oldham Culture in Oldham