Imagination and Reality: the Art of Arthur Ransome
We’re pleased to announce details of our first Temporary Moorings exhibition, Imagination and Reality: the Art of Arthur Ransome, which will be taking place in partnership with The Brantwood Trust from 19 May to 5 September, 2011.
The exhibition will be in the Blue Gallery at Brantwood, John Ruskin’s former home on the east side of Coniston Water. It will explore Arthur Ransome’s approach to illustrating the landscapes and plots of the Swallows and Amazons novels through examples of his original sketches and artwork.
A programme of occasional public lectures and events will run alongside the exhibition, offering insights into many aspects of Arthur Ransome’s life.
Speakers will include Christina Hardyment, Arthur Ransome’s literary executor and the author of Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint’s Trunk; Roland Chambers, author of The Last Englishman: the Double Life of Arthur Ransome; Vicky Slowe, curator of the Ruskin Museum, Coniston, and Robert Thompson, author of Ransome’s Foreign Legion.
Hugh Lupton, Arthur Ransome’s great-nephew and one of Britain’s most respected oral storytellers will perform his own work The Homing Stone, which explores Arthur Ransome’s escape from Russia with his future wife Evgenia, plus stories from Arthur Ransome’s Old Peter’s Russian Tales.
We will round off the exhibition with a joint Brantwood Trust, Arthur Ransome Trust and Royal Geographical Society event: a lake expedition and evening seminar examining Arthur Ransome’s real and imaginary maps.
You can find full details of the exhibition in the Imagination and Reality section of the site, and also on The Brantwood Trust website. Our Temporary Moorings and Camp Fires contain background information about these two ongoing Projects.
We would like to offer our thanks to The Brantwood Trust, the Lakeland Arts Trust, the Brotherton Collection, Leeds University Library, and the Arthur Ransome Literary Estate for their help and support in mounting this exhibition and lecture series.
