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Thursday 11am - 3pm Friday 11am - 3pm Saturday 11am - 3pm Sunday 11am - 3pm

Nicholas Cliff

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Nicholas Cliff

New Art Gallery at 34 St. Nicholas Cliff, Scarborough.

20/09/2026

🔘 When work on our new gallery - Nicholas Cliff - came to a halt due to rising costs, we went public and asked for help getting the ball rolling again. We were tired of seeing it as a shell of what it could be. So we had a think and came up with the idea of an open call as a way to raise funds and get us motivated. We settled on the General Strike of 1926 as a theme, then invited artists, makers, writers and members of the public to respond creatively to the themes of solidarity, labour, community and resistance.

Click on the link to see images of the winning entries and get the full story of Nicholas Cliff.

☑️ A PEOPLE's VOTE

While you're there, please help us find two people's choice winners. We have uploaded ALL the entries sent to us (and not just those that made it through to exhibition).

Perhaps you agree with our judges? If not, HAVE YOUR SAY, by clicking on the link in the comments ➡️

09/09/2026

Recent flood damage caused the closure of our brand new gallery a week after opening but we're delighted to announce the open call exhibition at NICHOLAS CLIFF will reopen today.

150 people came to the opening of the exhibition and in the following days before the flood damage happened another 300 people visited. The feedback has been tremendous and we thank everyone for their support and good wishes.

The General Strike 1926 Centenary Exhition is officially open Thursday-Sunday 11am-3pm, but we will be opening a day early (Wednesday) to make up a little bit for lost time.

NICHOLAS CLIFF 34 St. Nicholas Cliff, Scarborough. YO11 2ES

04/09/2026

Nicholas Cliff is closed until further notice.

Due to flood damage taking out the lights and parts of the ceiling, our Open Call exhibition at Nicholas Cliff is closed today and will remain closed until we can identify the source and fix the problem.

We're very happy to report that the artwork itself is not damaged but we currently have no lights, and it isn’t safe to let the public in.

Since we opened last week and not counting the opening event itself, just short of 300 people have been in to see the exhibition, so we're really disappointed and a bit gutted by what we've woken up to today. We know people are travelling to come and see this show.

We’ll reopen with the current exhibition as soon as we possibly can. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for all your support.

15/08/2026

A huge congratulations to all our finalists for making it through to exhibition at Nicholas Cliff Gallery.

The exhibition opens Thursday 27th August at Nicholas Cliff Gallery (34 St. Nicholas Cliff, Scarborough YO11 2ES). Drinks served 6pm-9pm.

One postcard and one newsprint entrant will be chosen as winners of their category each receiving a £500 prize. The winners will be announced at 8pm.

All five judges will be with us in person. They are:

Wendy Barratt – Winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023
Chloe Barnes – Winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2025
Katie Jones – Finalist in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2025
Lauren Ross – Finalist in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2025
Christopher Shaw – Head of North Yorks Art School | Bookaclass

We’d love to see you at this inaugural exhibition at Nicholas Cliff marking 100 years since the nine-day walkout in May 1926. If you can’t make the opening, Nicholas Cliff will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday 11am-3pm until 25th October 2026...........
We'd also like to extend a huge thank you to all those whose work didn't make the exhibition. It was a very difficult and competitive process and if space wasn't an issue we would have included a lot more. We're just thrilled you took part. Your contribution has directly helped us get phase one of the gallery completed.

An online exhibition of all the unselected returned works will go live on social media and on the Nicholas Cliff website at 6pm on Friday 18th September. A public vote will then determine a ‘People’s Choice Winner’ who will receive £100 worth of Bookaclass vouchers. Please do share the link with friends and family when it goes live.

For updates and information about events at Nicholas Cliff, visit the Nicholas Cliff website where you can subscribe to our newsletter (the link is in the comments).

08/08/2026

The ceiling tiles go in. We’re going with some of the inherited features of this space after initially mulling over the idea of returning it to how it might have originally looked. But, seeing the potential of this suspended ceiling has saved us thousands.

I’ve never believed a gallery is just a room like any other. It’s always been important to me to build spaces that are created for the specific purpose of showing artworks. To banish shadows and minimise other distracting but unavoidable features like light switches and fire extinguishers has always been a big part of the process.

This space had a very ugly floor which meant no plinth would have been able to stand up straight and that was the biggest challenge and was almost a deal breaker until our carpenter resolved the problem by shaving the beams underneath the floorboards. The shadow gaps I wanted instead of skirting will still be a challenge but that’s a problem for next year when the new floor will be laid.

Thank you to everyone who entered our Open Call. You have paid for this ceiling. Our exhibition opens 27 August 7-9pm.

31/07/2026

We are thrilled to announce that a new exhibition commemorating 100 years since the General Strike of 1926 is set to open at the end of August at Nicholas Cliff in Scarborough at the end of August.

We invited artists, makers, writers and members of the public to respond creatively to the themes of solidarity, labour, community and resistance, and in the process help us get the completion of our new gallery space over the line... and you did!

In total, 346 people entered the Open Call with 162 people opting to work on newsprint and 289 on postcards. This was a terrific response and so we'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took part – your support has directly helped us build the walls and iron out some structural problems we had with the floor. These old Scarborough buildings are something of a nightmare, but with your generosity, we're almost ready to launch.

But not just yet!

First, the huge task of processing all the entries which continue to arrive every day is underway and we really love what we're seeing - including the one featured on the image accompanying this post by Claire Madden. We could have picked many more besides. We're delighted that people have taken great care with the materials we posted out to them, and there's still time to return your finished work if you haven't already done so.

Everything MUST be returned to us by Friday 7 August 2026. You can still find full details here: www.bookaclass.com/open-call

––––––

The inaugural exhibition at Nicholas Cliff commemorating 100 Years since the General Strike of 1926 takes place on Thursday 27 August 2026. Doors open at 7pm. At 8pm, the winners in each category—newsprint and postcard—will be announced and presented with their awards by judges Chloe Barnes and Wendy Barratt – the winners of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 and 2025.

After the opening, the exhibition will be open to the public Thursday–Sunday, 11am–3pm until 25th October 2026

We can’t wait to share the work with you. See you on the 27th!

07/05/2026

➡️ Our Open Call is now OPEN FOR ENTRIES. Here is a timeline of events for anyone interested in being part of the inaugural exhibition at our new exhibition space Nicholas Cliff.

For more information and to enter, click the link in the comments:

06/05/2026

OPEN CALL: National Mail Art Competition
Marking 100 Years Since The 1926 GENERAL STRIKE.

Calling ALL artists and makers to take part in this exciting competition. The exhibition will take place this August and will be the inaugural exhibition at Scarborough's newest exhibition space Nicholas Cliff.

For full details on how to enter this OPEN CALL, click on the link: https://www.bookaclass.com/open-call

02/02/2026

Our new gallery Nicholas Cliff has been on the back-burner for ages. We walk past in miserable windy conditions and it looks derelict. It’s hard to see what it might be in just a few months.

We discovered the floor was unstable and so our landlord got our shared joiner to fix the problem but his remit didn’t extend to fixing the wildly uneven floor which was more of a cosmetic concern.

Then our shared joiner was unable to work for what seemed like another age, so we found a new joiner and I’m delighted that he’s fixed the uneven floor. He took all the boards up, shaved an inch and a half of the guilty joists and we now have a floor we can lay new floorboards over.

Once that’s done we’ll erect new, strong walls (mdf base topped with plaster boards and then plastered) and then do something with the lights and ceiling.

That floor has kept me awake nights. It felt like too much of a compromise not to fix it but it’s not as if the building we’re fixing is ours.

I’m very happy it’s done though. It means Nicholas Cliff should be up and running later this year. By which time we’ll be able to have evening events on again just like in the old Three Works days.

Address

34 Street Nicholas Cliff
Scarborough
YO112ES

Opening Hours

Thursday	11am - 3pm
Friday	11am - 3pm
Saturday	11am - 3pm
Sunday	11am - 3pm

Website

http://www.nicholascliff.com/, https://www.bookaclass.com/open-call, https://www.instagram.com/nicholascliffgallery/

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