The Fry Art Gallery

17/06/2026

One final place at Saturday’s workshop with Chloe Cheese now available. Book via our website today!

FINAL PLACE AVAILABLE!
Playing with Still Life inspired by Fry’s Popular Delights – one day workshop with Chloë Cheese

Saturday 20th June 10am – 4.30pm
£90
Venue: United Reform Church Hall, Abbey Lane, Saffron Walden, CB10 1AG
Maximum 14 students
With Chloë Cheese as your guide, create your own still life using a mixture of drawing, paint, and collage, inspired by visiting the current exhibition at the Fry Art Gallery Fry’s Popular Delights.
This is intended to be a friendly and non-competitive process and should suit all levels.

07/06/2026

FINAL PLACE AVAILABLE!
Playing with Still Life inspired by Fry’s Popular Delights – one day workshop with Chloë Cheese

Saturday 20th June 10am – 4.30pm
£90
Venue: United Reform Church Hall, Abbey Lane, Saffron Walden, CB10 1AG
Maximum 14 students
With Chloë Cheese as your guide, create your own still life using a mixture of drawing, paint, and collage, inspired by visiting the current exhibition at the Fry Art Gallery Fry’s Popular Delights.
This is intended to be a friendly and non-competitive process and should suit all levels.

04/06/2026

Original pen and ink drawing by Edward Bawden for a chapter heading for Good Food by Ambrose Heath. First published by Faber & Faber in 1932, Good Food contains a chapter for every month of the year, and features cover artwork and illustrations by Edward Bawden. The image is of two children hunting for strawberries under bird netting. It is based on the walled kitchen garden in Bridge End Garden, Saffron Walden.
Ambrose Heath (born Francis Geoffrey Miller 1891 – 1969) was one of the most celebrated food and drink writers of his day, and Good Food launched a prolific series of recipe collections and books on food from the 1930s through to the 1970s.
June for jubilation! For now Mother Earth almost embarrasses us with her riches, and the gastronomic year enters upon its most glorious stage.
You will find a selection of Ambrose Heath’s cookery books on show in the exhibition Fry’s Popular Delights on now at the Fry Art Gallery until Sunday 25th October.

31/05/2026

Congratulations to , whose prints She Rises and Skater have been selected for this year's Summer Exhibition.

Both works can currently be seen in Papercuts: 30 Years of Collage & Illustration in the Gibson Room at the Fry Art Gallery, where Michelle's solo exhibition continues until 28 June.

Both prints are available from Michelle's website.

21/05/2026

With a warm Bank Holiday in prospect, many of you will already be making plans for the long weekend. Our current exhibitions are perfect for all the family, so we hope to see you then. Immerse yourselves in Fry’s Popular Delights in the main gallery, and get your skates on to see Michelle Thompson’s solo show (closing 28 June) in the Gibson Room marking 30 years of collage design. Both exhibitions are a true celebration of N W Essex creativity past and present.
Images: Bernard Cheese and Michelle Thompson

17/05/2026

On 9 May, World Collage Day, our workshop led by with was the place to be. A creative, entertaining day produced some wonderful work!

05/05/2026

Morris Dancing at Thaxted, Dunmow, Essex by Walter Hoyle 1964 is our work of the month.
This poster commissioned by the Post Office Savings Bank shows the Thaxted Morris Men rounding the top of Watling Street in Thaxted decked out in their famous red and white waistcoats.
Founded in 1911, the Thaxted Morris Men were part of the revival of interest in Morris dancing begun by Cecil Sharp and Mary Neal. In 1952 the Squire of Thaxted Morris Men was Alec Butler Hunter, who worked as director and production manager at Warner & Sons textiles of Braintree. He commissioned a new set of waistcoats for the group made from a fabric from Warners, known as “Norwich Weave”, The fabric had been designed in 1947 by Marianne Straub as curtain fabric for RMS Caronia, a Cunard White Star Line passenger ship. Alec Hunter gave his own waistcoat to Marianne Straub, and she in turn passed it on to the Fry Art Gallery. It is now on display in our current exhibition Fry’s Popular Delights.
The Thaxted Morris Men dance in Thaxted every Bank Holiday Monday, and stage a ‘Weekend of Dance’ over the Whitsun weekend at the end of May. For more details see: https://www.thaxtedmorris.org/
Fry’s Popular Delights runs throughout the season in the main gallery and the Bawden room until Sunday 25th October 2026.

30/04/2026

Our One Day Collage Event with Michelle Thompson on Saturday 9 May 10-4pm is a perfect opportunity to indulge your creative side, or treat a friend!

Venue: The United Reform Church Hall, Abbey Lane, Saffron Walden, CB10 1AG. There is ample parking.

In the workshop you will explore with the theme of Fragments of the World – Reimagined. Together we’ll see how everyday printed materials can be transformed into personal artworks, gathering images, textures, and words to create new compositions inspired by memory, place, and imagination.

We shall begin by meeting at the hall, then take a short walk together to view the Papercuts Exhibition at the Fry Art Gallery before returning to create our own collages in response to what we’ve seen.
Participants are asked to bring collage materials such as old postcards, magazines, and scissors.

Additional basic materials will be provided. Tea and coffee will be available throughout the day, and there will be a one-hour break for lunch.

£90. Book now via our website.

Images: Boom! ; Custard Dreams ; Paper

22/04/2026

For’Fry's Popular Delights' curators Mark Hearld and Colin Wilkin created some exciting paste papers for the Main Gallery, which work so well with the exhibition's lively, eclectic displays. Visit us soon and enjoy the best of the North West Essex Collection at your leisure.
Photos: Doug Atfield

19/04/2026

Three woodcuts from the North West Essex Collection by Michael Rothenstein feature in The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial at this summer.
The works are: Body of Summer - Odysseus Elytis, The Crazed Moon - WB Yates, and Le Soleil - Baudelaire.
Opening 5 June, the exhibition spans two floors and nine galleries, bringing together art, installations and rare objects that explore how these forces have shaped art, science, belief and imagination across cultures and centuries.
5 June – 8 September 2026�Supported by �Tickets: saatchigallery.com