New Art Gallery Walsall

This is a nice gallery tucked away at the top of Walsall’s main shopping area. A good variety of exhibits, well worth a visit.

The New Art Gallery offers many permanent exhibits and also some very good temporary ones. Not only this but it has some excellent views of Walsall and the surrounding area from the balcony and a nice Costa coffee shop overlooking the wharf.
Walsall is not a particularly nice town but this is one of the few decent things it has to offer besides its fascinating history. Best thing is that The New Art Gallery is free to get in.

My favourite part of the Art Gallery is the rooftop, from which you can look out towards St Matthew’s Church on the hill and across the town itself. Whilst it takes some getting used to as a building design, it creates an excellent space inside for an interesting spread of art, and is well worth a trip. The art itself varies (to my taste) but is an important statement both for Walsall and for art.
It does lose a star for the lack of an independent coffee shop, and also for being closed on Sundays and Bank Holidays, which is when I expect museums and other tourist attractions to be especially open!

I’m a frequent visitor to Walsall art gallery. There’s always something new to see as exhibitions change on a regular basis. For contemporary art, I much prefer this place to Birmingham’s Ikon gallery. Café is adequate — a Costa place. Shop is limited. They do host opening nights and occasional special events, which are usually interesting and fun, with free buffet food, and ONE, count it, ONE glass of wine.

My second visit visit is for the Damien Hirst launch. Yes really, New Art Gallery is worth the 20 minute journey from central Birmingham. Quite how the New Art Gallery landed in Walsall is besides the point, which is that it deserves a visit — perhaps several. However, the fact that New Art have landed the Damien Hirst puts it on another scale.
It all started when the Garman Ryan Collection was donated to the gallery in 1972 and now the new building is right in the centre of town, just a few minute from the train station and on several floors once you enter the spacious reception. New Art Gallery, first opened in 2000 and has a mission to bring us historical, modern and contemporary work. Indeed I love that the new Damien Hirst is mixed in with historic works of art.
As gallery director Stephen Snoddy, says they like to use every bit of space they have including the corridor which makes sense to a a reluctant, accidental hoarder like me.
Despite the Hirst landing, they are still ambitious and are after getting the Turner Prize exhibited in 2015, for their 15^th anniversary.
They lose a star as it would be brilliant to have a local independent running the coffee shop but otherwise, the place is outstanding.
Free admission so there is absolutely no excuse.

I love Walsall Art Gallery, not least because of the free food they dish out at private views. They used to have school style dinner ladies, spooning out curry from big silver trolleys but last time I went they had the most amazing samosas. They probably don’t even do free food any more due to all the cuts but the gallery is worth a visit any day time — private view or not — because it’s a beautiful building and usually well curated.
I can’t say much for their shop as it’s nothing in comparison to the Ikon shop but they do have some lovely pieces by Tatty Devine.

Looking like something out of Grand Designs New Art Gallery is a fresh, modern building in an otherwise outdated town centre. I think it’s quite funny that it is called New Art Gallery even though it has been open since 2000. Housing the Garman Ryan collection which is a permanent fixture featuring works by the likes of Jacob Epstein alongside artists in residence such as Bob and Roberta Smith, the New Art Gallery also features various tempoarary exhibitions which are usually held on the upper floors. The New Art Gallery has a splendid mix of contemporary and historic artwork.
I went recently specifically to see the touring exhibtion Transmitter/​Receiver: The Persistence of Collage which features works by Grayson Perry, Eric Bainbridge and Margaret Harrison amongst others.
Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to look at some of the other art on show, one of the standout areas for me was the section dedicated to Epstein’s Rima which is a memorial sculpture that seems fairly innocuous to modern eyes but when it was revealed by the then prime Minister Stanley Baldwin it proved to be very controversial, as well as showing sketches of the design process there are also newspaper articles of the day which recount the outrage caused at its unveiling.
On the whole I think the various areas are set out well but there was one piece which seemed out of place in iits section. David Shrigley’s All The Arrows Missed Thank God was placed alongside traditional representations of religious artwork. Maybe I’m missing the point but apart from it using the words Thank God I couldn’t work out why it was there. Perhaps one of the curators has a dark sense of humour!

this review if the childrens section downstairs. its awesome and well thought out. its free and child freindly. there is even a nice worker who goes round tidying up after the kids. needs to be seen and shared by all

A real gem in the heart of Walsall! It’s a permanent home to the Garman Ryan collection of sculptures and Jacob Epstein paintings. It’s worth popping back regularly as they have ever-​changing temporary exhibitions.
The gallery’s family friendly, offers lots of free activities for children and holds community events.
There is a new stylish Costa Coffee on the ground floor, which is great for a bite to eat or drink overlooking the canal basin. Admission is free and it’s located in the town centre, very close to the bus/​train stations.