Learn

The Study

Through the glass doors off Gallery 4, The Study gives everyone the opportunity to learn more about our exhibitions and the wealth of ideas that inspire art today. There is a carefully collected library of books and magazines that you might like to browse through. Please make yourself comfortable and enjoy this space to think.

Teachers and group leaders can use The Study to plan their visits. Educational resources for groups to borrow while in the building are also kept here.

Settle in The Study and enjoy our books about Diane Arbus and Gert and Uwe Tobias at your leisure. There is always someone from our team working there if you would like to chat about the art works.

In the wood panelled room that leads off it you’ll find our Small Collections, housed in four beautiful antique cabinets. Feel free to open the drawers and look inside. Look out for the exquisite micro-mosaics from Italy. Dating from the 18th and 19th centuries they are made of tiny pieces of coloured glass – containing up to 5,000 per square inch. In fact they are not unlike the images made up of pixels that we see on our computer screens. They proved to be very popular with young noblemen, who brought them back as souvenirs from their Grand Tours. Artist and geographer Trevor Paglen has contributed his ongoing project Symbology – a collection of military patches from covert operations by the US Air Force. They include designs that refer to the secret flights ferrying terrorist suspects as part of the so-called War on Terror.

The two largest cabinets contain a new exhibition by Des Hughes, who has
gathered an eccentric and engaging collection of found objects, including
“antlers, horns, claws, feathers and other things that belong to strange and
curious animals,” he says. His humorous constructions are never quite what they seem. Bone-shaped dog biscuits that make up a skeleton hand are actually carefully crafted from jesmonite and sandstone. Hand modelled versions of mangled safety pins are cast in resin. Spot the tiny man made of corn snacks.