In February 2020, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery opened entries to its first Open Photography Exhibition. This was a fantastic opportunity for photographers to demonstrate and showcase their photographic skills and creative vision and exhibit their work in a prestigious gallery environment. It was also promoted as an ideal way to celebrate the rich and diverse skills of local and regional photographers with a wider audience.
Over 70 entries were received and our panel of judges, which included a guest judge, Chris Waddell, spent a their time looking thought all the entries before making their selection.
Chris has over 25 year experience in graphic design and photography. He set up and ran igerswiltshire on Instagram for six years, hosting frequent photo walks around Wiltshire with photographers of all abilities. He was also instrumental in rebranding Swindon Open Studios in 2018 which he ran for two years. In 2017 he published The End of the Pier show – a photographic journey around the UK’s remaining pleasure piers.
35 pieces were selected for the exhibition and were hung ready for the exhibition to open on Tuesday 17 March. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Museum and Art Gallery had to close its doors the day after this exhibition opened.
The pandemic has meant that businesses and organisations have had to think creatively about how to promote and deliver their services and the staff at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery have been working tremendously hard to ensure that these wonderful photographs can actually be seen and enjoyed. The Museum and Art Gallery is pleased to announce that they will be running a Virtual Exhibition, a unique way to view the works within the exhibition, to find out about the photographers and to have the opportunity to purchase their work.
From Saturday 4 April, at 6.30pm, over 35 days, one work a day will be posted for all to view on Facebook and Instagram.
