A GRADE I listed Georgian building will reopen to the public after three years of essential renovation work on Saturday (May 20).
Abbot Hall, which is on the banks of the River Kent in Kendal, was closed in February 2020 to enable the work to start.
The hall first opened as an art gallery in 1962. The building displays historic and contemporary art and has featured works by Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, Andy Goldsworthy, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Paula Rego, John Ruskin, Kurt Schwitters, Emma Stibbon, JMW Turner and Charmaine Watkiss.
The first exhibition, called What is it That Will Last? will be from Scotland-based artist Julie Brook. It will be on display from May 20 to December 30. Running across both floors of Abbot Hall, this exhibition offers a rare insight into Julie’s extensive body of work made in remote locations in Scotland, Japan and Cumbria.
READ MORE: Kendal’s Abbot Hall to reopen in 2023
Incorporating sound, photography and drawing, What is it That Will Last? presents the artist's immersive relationship with the landscape.
She has also created a large-scale outdoor sculpture at Holker Hall's Deer Park.
She works primarily in remote landscapes, creating large-scale sculptural interventions that express the invisible forces - gravity, time and tide – that govern our lives.
Julie said: “I am so pleased to have my work exhibited in the Lake District. The show at Abbot Hall will focus on work I’ve made in remote landscapes in the form of sound, film, photography and drawing.
“I am excited for people to experience the exhibition and then travel into the landscape to see the physical piece at Holker Hall. The installation resonates with what people will see in the exhibition.
“The piece, made of Brathay Cumbrian Black stone, is in dialogue with the hills where it originally came from and is accessible to people of all ages.”
The hall will also launch a new digital gallery guide, joining more than 150 cultural institutions around the globe on the Bloomberg Connects network.
There will be a coffee bar serving drinks and cakes in the hall.
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