Register interest to be kept up to date with future talks and symposiums

Join us in the gallery or online.

The Barn at Messums West is a 13th century barn and wooden roof over the heads of discussions and the sharing of information in person about creativity and our environment.

Our season of talks brings together experts and audiences to discuss the role of creativity and the relationship with environment across a range of topics.

Talks are free to attend for Students and online. Tickets are available in advance and where possible up to a limitation of numbers we try to have lunch together on one table for up to 80 people to break bread and share thoughts.

FORTHCOMING SYMPOSIUMS

CERAMICS

Saturday 1 March 2025

Join artists, writers and curators in a day of insight and investigation into ceramic and the innovative artists making with clay today.

DOES ART WORK?

Saturday 24 May 2025

This Symposium seeks to illustrate by way examples from experts within the creative industries, science, education, politics and welfare why the arts not only create but work.

LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD - ART, MAKING & THE ENVIRONMENT

Saturday 14 June 2025

In an age dominated by environmental crises, what is the future of making? It is clear that we cannot justify continuing to extract the planet’s dwindling resources and create objects which neither last, nor can be recycled; and so, we must find a new, sustainable way to exist.

STATIC OBJECTS IN A CHANGING WORLD

Saturday 12 July 2025

What is the place of sculpture in the 21st century? In an era which has seen government funding for the arts hit record lows, the pervasive influence of artificial intelligence in art and culture, the destruction of historic statues around the globe, and a crisis in art education, what is the fate of this medium that has been an integral part of human creativity for millenia.

THE LANGUAGE OF BUILDINGS

Saturday 4 October 2025

This symposium invites us to pause and look harder at contemporary architecture and ask the question, ‘what do the buildings that we encounter every day tell us about the world we live in?’. In talks and panel discussions, architects, designers, architectural historians and critics, will explore the buildings of modern Britain.

SYMPOSIUMS ARCHIVE

EMERGING LANDSCAPE PAINTING TODAY

Monday 11 November 2024

A platform for discussions that bridge artistic expression with environmental awareness, focusing on how landscapes can inspire and be transformed by creative endeavours.

OH! IS FOR OCEANS

Saturday 5 October 2024

The symposium was in partnership with Ocean Rising (an alliance connecting the ocean with culture) and was dedicated to the understanding of our oceans with leading scientists and experts as guest speakers.

ARCHITECTURE: RESTORE NOT MORE - REIMAGINING EXISTING BUILDINGS

Saturday 7 September 2024

This year’s annual architecture symposium focused on the positive impact that rejuvenating, repurposing and refurbishing existing buildings has on both design and sustainability.

PAINT SYMPOSIUM 2024

Saturday 27 July 2024

A symposium on the subject of painting today and the Inaugural John Golding Lecture Series. Leading artists, academics, curators and art historians explored contemporary painting including concepts of abstraction and discussing the current position of abstract painting.

CERAMIC SYMPOSIUM 2024

Saturday 6 April 2024

This symposium took place during Earth Month and focussed on the themes of our ‘Of the Earth’ exhibition. It drew attention to makers that are engaging with the raw materiality of clay and connection with the landscape.

Architectural Symposium: Art in ARchiTecture

Saturday 7 October 2023

This year topics will included creative spaces for arts in the community, the relationship between art and architecture, the interface between sculpture and architecture and the role of beauty in architectural practice considering the relationship between aesthetics and functionality.

ACTIVE ENVIRONMENTALISM SYMPOSIUM

Saturday 3 June 2023

The symposium examined some of the issues we are currently facing in problem solving around the environment. One of the key ones is understanding the metrics we are all working to and whether they are working, is there a consensus?

CERAMIC SYMPOSIUM 2023

Saturday 1 April 2023

The symposium programme included presentations by the exhibiting artists and writers and curators of ceramic. The symposium was paralleled by a ‘Young Clay Symposium’ organised by Messums Creative where participants aged 10+ could celebrate ceramic through hands-on learning.

ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUM: RE-USE, RE-CYCLE, RE-IMAGINE

Saturday 17 September 2022

Our 2022 symposium celebrated the latest innovation and evolution in construction and design. Examining changing practices with current examples of creativity, and ideas of what might be possible.

LIVING WITHIN - ARCHITECTURE 2020

Saturday 7 October 2020

Our architectural models exhibition opened with a symposium that considered the radical changes going on in the spaces we inhabit. From the context of both our own private and individual environments, we have all become increasingly aware of the space we are ‘living within’.

Messums Studios is the educational branch of Messums West.

The Tisbury-based pioneering multi-purpose gallery and Art Centre established Messums Studios in Chilmark in July 2021 as a teaching art studio. Its aim was to support life-long creative learning with the emphasis on the individual’s development of creative language through the tuition of making skills and material knowledge. Underpinned by the ambitious and eye-opening programme of art exhibitions, events and academic symposia, Messums Studios helps to foster a community of creatives of all ages, abilities, and levels of expertise.

Clay, pottery and ceramics was and remains the topic of primary focus. However, now in our fourth year we have expanded into drawing and painting and we seek to explore and grow our creative learning offer to other media and methods such as print and woodwork.

CLAY SCULPTURE AND SAGGAR FIRING | Opportunity for Young People

We have an exciting opportunity for young people aged 13+ living in South West Wiltshire to join us at Messums Studios this May half term 26th May and 30 May 10am -1pm. In this course young people will create hand held sculptures of animals, humans and other creatures. The second part of the workshop is dedicated to outdoor saggar firing of the sculptures. This outdoor method offers unpredictable smoke-like and flashing effects using discarded food tins as the saggars, and dry fruit peel, used tea bags and coffee grains, dry plant materials and bits of wire to create dramatic and unexpected surface decoration. In this course young artists will learn about clay modelling and will have the chance to learn and observe the saggar firing process and participate in unveiling their resulting pieces.

This session is free of charge and is a part of our creative programme for young people generously supported by the South West Wiltshire Area Board. To join us on the26th and 30th May please email to register interest at cr******@me*****.org. Spaces will be awarded on a first come first served basis. We will notify the first ten participants by email.

(Transport: we appreciate that transport to the studio might present an issue to some people. We can organise collection and drop off to and from Tisbury railway station. Get in touch for travel support.)

Clay Workshop for Young People | 26 and 30 May 2025

MESSUMS STUDIOS | Summer Term 2025

21 April – 5 July 2025

Our Summer Term Weekly Classes will run from 21st April – 5th July 2025. Half Term will be the week of 26th May 2025. Any available spaces for the Summer Term will be listed on our website from Tuesday 25th March 2025.

To enquire about our classes during term time, please contact us on cr******@me*****.org.

Short films by Messums Productions to introduce artists and process.

If you have enjoyed the series register for updates and new updates

MAKING INTRODUCTIONS

YAN WANG PRESTON

duration: 5:59 minutes

Dr Yan Wang Preston has created numerous acclaimed series which explore the mercurial relationship between people and place. She has recently exhibited and had work acquired by the V&A. She has also been awarded the RPS Award for Environmental Responsibility.

JEAN-VINCENT SIMONET

duration: 5:53 minutes

Jean-Vincent’s practice fuses analogue images, digital techniques, collage, montage, sculpture and painting with remarkable fluidity. His work is permeated by a sense of overload and exuberance.

POLLY PENROSE

duration: 6:13 minutes

Polly Penrose has been taking self-portraits on a ten-second timer and more recently a remote for nearly 20 years. Her work is unpremeditated and spontaneous and records her responding to her environment.

JACK MCGARRITY

duration: 5:21 minutes

Jack McGarrity trained at the Glasgow School of Art, close to where he grew up in the West of Scotland, before moving to London to study at the Royal Drawing School.

McGarrity creates new narratives that explore notions of the absurd, stillness and alienation in the modern world. His work relates to the great tradition of narrative painting while is also located within the revival of figurative painting in contemporary practice.

Originally exhibited as part of our Emerging Talents programme, McGarrity has a solo exhibition at Messums London in January 2023.

MARTIN SMITH

duration: 4:56 minutes

A key figure in British ceramics, Martin Smith is an artist who approaches clay with the mindset of an architect. He studied at Bristol Polytechnic Faculty of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, emerging in the midst of the new ceramics movement in the late 1970s and becoming known for his multi-disciplinary approach to design and practice.

Smith is a Professor Emeritus at the Royal College of Art having been Professor of Ceramics and Glass at the school for 16 years.

TOM WAUGH

duration: 4:54 minutes

Tom Waugh MRSS is a British sculptor who works in stone and marble. He has been an associate member of the Royal Society of Sculptors since 2018.

With a background in classical stone sculpture, Tom Waugh uses traditional materials and techniques to create contemporary works of art. Stone and marble sculptures, carved in minute detail, depict waste objects, discarded in the wake of human consumption.

THIÉBAUT CHAGUÉ

duration: 5:29 minutes

Thiébaut began his career in 1976, training in France, Belgium and in England under Michael Cardew and Richard Batterham. Returning to France in 1981 he set up his first workshop in the Loire Valley and in 1984 built a new studio in the Vosges with a wood-fired kiln.

Thiébaut built a 6metre high kiln in the tithe barn at Messums Wiltshire in Spring 2023.

FRANCESCO POIANA

duration: 10:31 minutes

We began working with Francesco in 2019 with his debut show following a residency at Messums Wiltshire as part of our emerging talents programme. Francesco trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome before studying fine art printing at the Albicocca workshop in Udine and then taking his masters degree at St Martin’s College of Art in London. He now attends the Royal Drawing School.

PETER BROWN

duration: 10:17 minutes

Peter Brown, known as ‘Pete the Street’, has been capturing the urban environment in oil for most of his life. First becoming captivated by the distinct character of urban architecture in Bath in the mid-1980s he returned to the creamy-gold streets of this Georgian city, where he can be seen painting on-site whatever the weather. He now resides in Bath where he paints and lives with his family, who have lately become one of his main subjects.

TUESDAY RIDDELL

duration: 9:49 minutes

Tuesday Riddell was one of the very first on our emerging talents programme. Tuesday studied at the Painter-Stainers Decorative Surface Fellowship at City & Guilds of London Art School – the only Fellowship in the UK that provides specialist training in the craft of decorative surface techniques to ensure that endangered skills are kept alive and vibrant in contemporary practice.

ANTONY WILLIAMS

duration: 13:16 minutes

Williams works almost exclusively in egg tempera – a painstaking, exacting medium in which egg is used instead of linseed oil as the binding medium. While oil allows for a degree of flexibility and manipulation of the painted surface before it dries, many days after initial application, this technique does not easily allow for alteration. All his work is based on intense observation, particularly of human flesh, creating as a result a heightened sense of realism.

KENNEDY MUNTANGA

duration: 11:37 minutes

Kennedy Junior Muntanga is a movement artist born in Ndola, Zambia where he resided until he was 7. The importance of dance was embedded in him through his African heritage and he began to study dance from the age of 12. Kennedy furthered his training and graduated in Ballet and Contemporary Dance at the Rambert School in July 2019. Kennedy performed at Messums Wiltshire in September 2021.

TYGA HELME

duration: 8:15 minutes

Trained at Edinburgh College of Art and The Royal Drawing School in London, where she won the Machin Foundation Prize, Tyga uses nature as a metaphor for feelings of being overwhelmed. She couples minute observation of the teeming forest floor – where the emerald green of a bramble leaf sits in stark juxtaposition to an array of cold blue silver leaves – with the flux and movement of unceasing growth.

Our Active Environmentalism programme builds our knowledge and ways of seeing and considering our relationship with our environment.

Our own decisions and reasonings are personal but by being informed there is no doubt we are in a better position to make the right choices. Collectively they can help add up to positive change.

Register interest to be kept up to date with future talks and events

Lisa Blair Sails the World

Lisa Blair’s Climate Action Now was born as a means to spread this message, to empower communities to become involved and give individuals a voice on how we can support a positive climate future. As part of this project Lisa has launched a ‘Post it Note’ campaign which will become an art installation with messages of individual efforts to help the environment.

Send us your message to become part of the artwork.

Image credit : Corrina Ridgeway

About Lisa Blair

After discovering sailing when she was 25 years old, a short 7 years later in 2017, Lisa Blair etched her name in history. Lisa becomes the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica with one stop after surviving a dramatic dismasting at sea, demonstrating her resilience and determination. An extraordinary feat aboard her yacht named Climate Action Now. This symbolic name reflected her commitment to a sustainable future and inspired others to take action through her post-it note campaign.

Lisa then went on to lead the first all-female team to compete in the 2017 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in 16 years. She set two more world records in December of 2018, when she sailed solo, non-stop and unassisted around Australia, spending 58 days at sea, all while sleeping for no more than 20 minutes at a time. 2019, she raced her yacht Climate Action Now in the Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race with co-skipper Jackie Parry becoming the first double-handed female team to finish in the history of the race.

On May 25th, 2022, Lisa achieved her latest milestone by becoming the fastest person to sail solo, non-stop, and unassisted around Antarctica, shaving 10 days off the previous record. During this record-setting journey, Lisa seized the opportunity to amplify her message of Climate Action Now and collaborated with a number of scientific organizations such as the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Seabed 2030 project.

EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS

EPHEMERAL BEAUTY

& SCULPTURE IN THE SANDS

24 May – 22 June 2025

In an exploration of creativity and non-hydrocarbon materials, Messums Org invited artists to submit a proposal for a large-scale, site-specific, ephemeral work of art to be previewed in the 13th century tithe barn at Messums West as part of the gallery’s Active Environmentalism programme from 24 May to 14 June 2025; and then presented at the First Light Festival on the beach at Lowestoft on the 21st and 22nd June.

LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD: ART, MAKING & THE ENVIRONMENT

Active Environment Symposium

Saturday 14 June 2025

In an age of environmental crises, what is the future of making? It is clear that we cannot justify continuing to extract the planet’s dwindling resources and create objects which neither last, nor can be recycled; so, as a species, we must find a new, sustainable way to exist, or face extinction. Key to this development is a fresh consideration of materials combined with the power of creativity and imagination.

PAST EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS

LANDSCAPE PAINTING TODAY

11 January – 24 February 2025

“You can cut all the flowers, but you can’t keep spring from coming” – Pablo Neruda

The exhibition originated in an open call out which aimed to discover new and exciting work being produced by emerging and mid-career artists outside the gallery’s immediate sphere. The incredible global response resulted in a hugely successful exhibition at Messums London in 2024.

OH! IS FOR OCEAN: ACTIVE ENVIRONMENTALISM SYMPOSIUM

Sunday 6 October 2024

The symposium ‘Oh! Is for Oceans’ took place at Messums West on 5 October 2024 in partnership with Ocean Rising (an alliance connecting the ocean with culture) is dedicated to the understanding of our oceans with leading scientists and experts giving a series of presentations on a range of topics and the latest discoveries.

TESSA CAMPBELL FRASER 'WHALES - A DEEPER DIALOGUE'

6 October – 6 January 2025

Tessa Campbell Fraser aimed to unravel the interspecies communications between man and animal that are currently at the forefront of scientific research. Three monumental (5.2m, 4.6m and 3m respectively) sculptures of sperm whales were suspended from the roof of the tithe barn.

TIM GEORGESON AND WILLIAM BARTON 'THE HIDDEN'

6 May – 9 July 2023

The Hidden was a sound and film installation by Australian filmmaker and artist Tim Georgeson and composer, performer and proud Kalkadunga man, William Barton. It offers a personal account of the Bundanon land and waterscapes in New South Wales, Australia.

SHAUN FRASER

26 April – 26 May 2023

Shaun Fraser’s work frequently comments upon notions of identity, links to landscape and connections with place. His practice questions how the landscapes, spaces and places which we inhabit form us and can be translated through personal engagement, privileging one’s own memory as a principal source.

TIDELINE

7 May – 3 July 2022

The artists selected engage and expand our understanding of this extraordinary ecosystem and bellwether to change. Their work sets out not just to alert and inform, but to key into our empathy with the underwater environment, to sow the seeds of our imagination and drum up our own sense of agency for change.

SONIA LEBER AND DAVID CHESWORTH 'WHAT LISTENING KNOWS'

16 July – 5 September 2021

What Listening Knows was a 3-channel audio and video installation by Australian artists Sonia Leber & David Chesworth. Three performers acted as ‘field recordists’ in the landscape.

UNKEMPT

16 July – 12 September 2021

Unkempt was an exhibition recognising the advent of a changing aesthetic in landscape – one that is by its nature wild, messy and more empathetic to the environment.

GROUND

7 May – 5 June 2021

Common is the ground we stand on, and perhaps what is now taking place is a shift in our own aesthetics, based on that common knowledge that is helping us to see and appreciate our landscape through subtly different filters.

TALKS ARCHIVE

UNDERSTANDING THE OCEAN WITH OLLIE STEEDS

January 2021

Online conversation with Olly Steeds on his mission to accelerate the sequencing of the ocean genome.

Oliver is Chief Executive and Mission Director of Nekton – a not-for-profit, charitable research foundation established to accelerate the scientific exploration and protection of the ocean.

ENVIRONMENTALISM & CONSERVATION WITH BEN GOLDSMITH

January 2021

Ben Goldsmith, who owns a 300-acre farm, near Bruton in Somerset, plans to transform it into a wild habitat within the next four years.

Ben is chair of the Conservative Environmental Network and is on the Board of DEFRA.

REWILDING WITH ISABELLA TREE

January 2021

Online conversation with writer and conservationist Isabella Tree who spoke with the travel writer and novelist Philip Marsden about her pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex.

Isabella is an award-winning author and travel writer. She had published five non-fiction books and writes for publications such as National Geographic, Granta, The Sunday Times and The Observer.

WILDFLOWERS FOR THE QUEEN WITH HUGO RITSON THOMAS AND PROFESSOR SIR GHILEAN PRANCE

February 2021

Fine Art photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas joined us for an online talk with ecologist and botanist Professor Sir Ghillean Prance.

In partnership with conservation charity Plantlife, Hugo was inspired by the achievements of the Coronation Meadows established by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2013

DANCING WITH BEES: A JOURNEY BACK TO NATURE

February 2021

Online talk with Brigit Strawbridge Howard wildlife gardener, naturalist, and advocate of bees.

Earth is home to more than 20,000 different species of bee. Around 280 of these can be found in Britain & Ireland.

ENVIRONMENTAL LAND MANAGEMENT

February 2021

The NFU’s Nick von Westenholz joined us to discuss Environmental Land Management.

In England 69% of our landscape is farmed, under the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, farmers will be paid for work that enhances the environment, such as tree or hedge planting, river management to mitigate flooding, or creating or restoring habitats for wildlife.

IS PRESERVATION DESTRUCTION BY ANOTHER NAME?

February 2021

Online discussion with Sir Tim Smit where we debated radical thinking at the intersection of science, necessity and the environment.

Sir Tim Smit KBE is a leading environmentalist and businessman particularly recognised for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan and founding the Eden Project International.

THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

March 2021

Chief Executive of the RSPB, Beccy Speight discussed what our migrating & permanent residents tell us about wider changes to the environment.

Since it’s inception in 1889 the threats to birdlife and their habitats have continued to grow but the RSPB have ambitious and wide-reaching conservation plans to change the fate of nature.

SOIL WITH DR DAVID MONTGOMERY AND ANNIE BIKLÉ

April 2021

Husband and wife team David and Annie joined us to discuss the microbial roots of life and health.

Good health—for people and plants—depends on microbiomes, the communities of Earth’s smallest and least-loved creatures.

ARCADIA OR WILDERNESS?

April 2021

Online conversation with landscape architect Kim Wilkie who has worked on the grounds of the Natural History Museum & the V&A.

As a landscape architect Kim tries to understand the memories and associations embedded in a place and the natural flows of people, land, water and climate.

CARBON - THE SOLUTION NOT THE PROBLEM

May 2021

For the past 20 years Charlie Paton has been developing his Seawater Greenhouse concept.

This harnesses solar energy, photosynthesis, evapo-transpiration and the condensation potential of cool seawater to create a virtuous cycle that produces fresh food and potable water in locations where shortages are a significant problem.

SURFERS AGAINST SEWAGE

October 2021

With Hugo Tagholm, who leads the national marine conservation and campaigning charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).

SAS takes action from the beach front to the front benches of Parliament, where it unites a voice for the ocean through its Ocean Conservation All Party Parliamentary Group. It mobilises over 100,000 community beach and river clean volunteers annually.

REAL WILD ESTATES

November 2021

Coinciding with Cop 26 we discussed how to make land pay in an online talk with wildlife conservationist Julian Matthews.

Matthews is the founder of Real Wild Estates, the UK’s first ecosystem and species restoration business.

FARMING TODAY. LEADING OR LOST?

December 2021

NFU President Minette Batters in discussion with Johnny Messum on why farming is facing potential ruin through ill advised trade deals.

What are farmers doing for the environment and net zero and what more they could do given the chance. Minette has agreed a target for the NFU of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Performance at Messums

Performance is the ephemeral artform, experienced in the moment.

It has been part of our artistic programming since 2016.

In 2022, we decided to explore dance and create a platform to support and understand choreography as an artistic language.

We launched
4X20 Choreography Platform and Festival of Dance.

4X20 Choreography Platform

2022-Now

Messums 4X20 is an emerging choreography support platform, which commissions two selected artists annually to present one pre-existing and one newly developed dance work of up to 20 minutes each, with a maximum of 4 performers – hence “4X20.”

The artists receive a financial commission, networking opportunities, production and marketing support, and free rehearsal space in preparation for their performances.

Festival of Dance

July 2022-2023

A ten-day annual summer dance festival, featuring live dance performances from leading UK-based dance companies and emerging artists. Two years in a row, a full theatre was built in the 13th century tythe barn to host spectacular performances, workshops, discussions, dinners and film screenings.

Festival of Dance welcomed companies such as Hofesh Shechter – Shechter II, Alleyne Dance, Spoken Movement and Alexander Whitley.

Festival of Dance also launched the prestigious Messums Dance Film Festival in 2023, which had its own screening and awards ceremony, gathering film-makers and films from across the whole globe.

Moments from 2023, Festival of Dance

All images by Jamie Randall

CONTACT INFORMATION

Opening Hours

REFUNDS & CANCELLATIONS

We appreciate that sometimes things can change. Please see our Refunds & Cancellations Policy for more information.

Register interest to be kept up to date with future talks and symposiums

Join us in the gallery or online.

The Barn at Messums West is a 13th century barn and wooden roof over the heads of discussions and the sharing of information in person about creativity and our environment.

FORTHCOMING SYMPOSIUMS

CERAMICS

DOES ART WORK?

LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD - ART, MAKING & THE ENVIRONMENT

STATIC OBJECTS IN A CHANGING WORLD

THE LANGUAGE OF BUILDINGS

SYMPOSIUMS ARCHIVE

EMERGING LANDSCAPE PAINTING TODAY

OH! IS FOR OCEANS

ARCHITECTURE: RESTORE NOT MORE - REIMAGINING EXISTING BUILDINGS

PAINT SYMPOSIUM 2024

CERAMIC SYMPOSIUM 2024

Architectural Symposium: Art in ARchiTecture

ACTIVE ENVIRONMENTALISM SYMPOSIUM

CERAMIC SYMPOSIUM 2023

ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUM: RE-USE, RE-CYCLE, RE-IMAGINE

LIVING WITHIN - ARCHITECTURE 2020

CONTACT INFORMATION

Opening Hours

REFUNDS & CANCELLATIONS

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