SUMMER EXHIBITIONS
OPENING TIMES
10am – 6pm every Fri / Sat / Sun from 31st May – 30th June
White House Farm, The Grove, Great Glemham, Suffolk IP17 1LS
We are open every weekend through June showing wonderful new work from a selection of our residency collaborations with guest artists and makers. Highlights include the following exhibitions.
BECKY MUNTING
The Wildfowl, Waterbird & Wetland Residency
A spectacular collection of over forty new paintings from this multi-year residency collaboration with wildlife artist Becky Munting. The residency celebrates the importance of birdlife and wetland habitats along Suffolk’s coast and in its quiet inland river valleys.
CLAUDIA SILVA
A Garden in Great Glemham
We are presenting the first collection of drawings, watercolours and oil paintings from a new residency collaboration with artist and gardener Claudia Silva. This new project marks the twentieth anniversary of our first ever spring exhibition, which was held in 2004 in a small cottage in the centre of Great Glemham village.
RUTH STAGE
Into the Light : An Exploration of the River Alde & its Tributaries
We are delighted to be showing a small collection of new paintings in egg tempera by landscape painter Ruth Stage. Our residency collaboration with Ruth celebrates the passage of the River Alde and its tributaries through the Suffolk countryside - from springs and field ditches on the edge of the Suffolk claylands, through Snape and then on to Aldeburgh and Orford, before finally reaching the sea at Shingle Street.
For more details about the Summer Exhibitions, other Residency Collections and other arts projects at White House Farm, please see below.
Note : We will be re-launching a full Alde Valley Spring Festival in 2025.
NEWSLETTER
We send out a weekly email to our followers with the latest news about exhibitions, farm arts residencies and other local arts / community events. Please click here if you would like to subscribe to our e-Newsletter.
If you would like to find out more about an Artist, Exhibition or particular Residency Collection, please click here.
THE GALLERY SPACES AT WHITE HOUSE FARM
The exhibitions are all housed in barns arranged around our historic farmyard, which opens on to post medieval farm parkland and sign-posted nature walks. Families and children are welcome. Free parking is available in an adjoining paddock. There is wheelchair access to the main exhibition spaces. We ask that any dogs are kept on leads at all times and are not brought into the gallery barns.
PLACES TO MEET & EAT NEARBY
Local apple juices and herb cordials are available in the barns. For more substantial refreshments and dining, we recommend visits to the following local pubs and cafes, all within 2 miles of the farm.
The Crown Inn – Great Glemham – IP17 2DA
Juniper Barn – Rendham – IP17 2AZ
White Horse – Sweffling – IP17 2BB
White Horse – Rendham – IP17 2AF
An excellent choice of cafes, restaurants and delis can be found further afield in local villages, market towns and coastal settlements including Framlingham, Yoxford, Peasenhall, Saxmundham, Snape, Walberswick, Southwold, Thorpeness, Dunwich, Aldeburgh, Orford and Woodbridge.
MORE ABOUT GALLOPER-SANDS
Galloper-Sands is the year round online gallery for works arising from The Alde Valley Spring Festival residency programme at White House Farm, located in the beautiful Upper Alde Valley of East Suffolk UK.
For the past twenty years the farm has been managed using a Set of Sustainability Criteria. Central to this approach for land management is the idea that systems enrichment is vital to our future - in terms of biodiversity, knowledge gain, shared learning, skills and distributed income; and the belief that all land-based activities should be sensitive and proportionate to their social, ecological and economic setting.
The residency programme at White House Farm works with these values and in doing so it celebrates the vital connections that exist between food, farming, landscape and the arts, both in the UK and at other locations around the world. Almost all the residencies are rooted in the landscape at White House Farm and the adjoining Alde Valley and Suffolk Coast – with some located at other venues in the UK and internationally through association with the farm.
Most of the residencies run for periods of 2-5 years. This gives the artists, makers and writers with whom we are so fortunate to work time to respond to the landscape and their chosen subject of inquiry. All the residencies are directly linked to ongoing conservation projects at the farm. The latter are designed to deliver direct significant ecological enrichment to the local landscape – and it means that all works on show are linked to ecological gain.
The work arising from the residency programme has consequently become part of the farm’s seasonal harvest – as much as the crops in the field, timber from the woods or wool from our small resident sheep flock. Increasingly, some residency projects are also connected to international cross-cultural collaborations to communities from Malaysia, Japan and Nepal.
MORE ABOUT THE SUMMER EXHIBITIONS
BECKY MUNTING
The Wildfowl, Waterbird & Wetland Residency
Downstream of White House Farm, the landscape that embraces the River Alde slowly transforms itself from quiet inland river valleys full of pastures, ditches and aldercarr to the comparatively vast areas of mudflats, salt marshes and shingle that define the coastal landscape of East Suffolk and the Suffolk River Valleys. These rivers are part of a larger delta that extends southwards to include the rivers Colne, Blackwater, Thames and Medway; and northwards to enfold the River Blyth and River Waveney. Combined, these rivers and the low-lying maritime delta that they form are globally significant as a home for wildfowl and waterbirds. It is the birdlife in this landscape that artist Becky Munting explores and celebrates in the new Wildfowl, Waterbird & Wetland Residency. The Summer Exhibitions present her largest collection of paintings created so far for the residency, on show in the farm’s early 19th century Threshing Barn.
For more information about Becky’s Residency Paintings, please click here.
CLAUDIA SILVA
A Garden in Great Glemhamy
The Alde Valley Spring Festival had its first beginnings in a cottage near the Church in Great Glemham village. This was the setting for a small art exhibition in the spring of 2004. It was a group show, presenting paintings and drawings by Tessa Newcomb, Jason Gathorne-Hardy and his late grandmother, Fidelity Cranbrook. At the heart of the exhibition was a series of murals about the village painted by Tessa Newcomb. Twenty years on, the exhibitions now occupy the barns at White House Farm. The cottage itself is now home to the artist Claudia Silva and her family. This new residency A Garden in Great Glemham builds on the history of the visual arts in the village and the wonderful heritage of artists working in gardens being. In doing so, it draws inspiration from previous collaborations with Tessa Newcomb and the influence of other gardens on the arts in East Anglia – most notably Benton End in Hadleigh, Bottengoms in Wormingford and The Red House in Aldeburgh.
For more information about Claudia’s Residency Paintings, please click here.
RUTH STAGE
Into the Light : An Exploration of the River Alde & its Tributaries
In this residency collaboration we are working with the painter Ruth Stage to explore the course of the River Alde as it flows through the East Suffolk countryside, from its hidden beginnings near Badingham to join the broad estuary at Snape, before flowing on into the sea at Shingle Street. As the river makes its winding journey through the countryside of East Suffolk, the plant life and scenery along the it’s edges changes dramatically : from thickly vegetated hedgerows, pastures and woodland to tall reed beds and herb-rich saltmarshes. Working in egg tempera, Ruth’s paintings capture the changing scenery, looking into the light through the rich and varied botany along the river’s margins. They often have an ethereal quality, suffused with both sunlight and the quiet beauty of the landscapes that they portray.
For more information about Ruth’s Residency Paintings, please click here.
OTHER RESIDENCY COLLECTIONS
As a home for the arts, crafts and rural writing, White House Farm hosts a variety of multi-year residencies with additional guest artists, makers and writers. We always hold a good selection of works from these other residencies. Short profiles of the residencies are presented below. For more information about each collaboration and its associated collection of work for sale, please contact us by email.
PERIENNE CHRISTIAN
Alive in the Landscape : Dreaming a New Dream
This is the third collection of new paintings and etchings to emerge from Alive in the Landscape, an ongoing multi-year residency collaboration with Perienne Christian. The collaboration focuses on work that relates to the soft eroding landscape of the Suffolk coast and the plants that can be found growing here – in particular along the Deben Peninsula. This low-lying land has a character all of its own. It is bordered on one side by the North Sea, into which it yields its soft, sandy cliffs with the passing tides; and on the other by the meandering creeks, salt marshes and mudflats of the Deben Estuary.
More recently, the artist’s focus has shifted to the Forest of Dean – but retaining an interest in wild plants and their properties. As Perienne Christian's work has grown in scale, depth and confidence, the viewer is increasingly drawn into her vision of the world. It is a fascinating and deeply engaging place to behold. Her paintings, monoprints and etchings from the residency, as much as the plants that she studies, guide the viewer on a journey into the constantly changing British landscape, offering a window into the artist's richly observed and visually vibrant world.
For more information about Perienne’s Residency Paintings, please click here.
JULIAN PERRY
The Pollard Residency
Our collaboration with Julian Perry followed a major solo show by the artist There Rolls the Deep - The Rising Sea Level Paintings at Southampton City Art Gallery in 2022. For The Pollard Residency, Julian explored the appearance and distribution of veteran pollards in the Vale of Great Glemham and Upper Alde Valley. Some of the oldest oak trees in East Anglia are pollards - and there is a genuine concern that the absence of pollarding in modern forestry practices may lead to the loss of many veteran trees. Many of the oldest oak pollards at the farm stand as sentinels in the local landscape. They are messengers from a different time, in which there were no combustion engines and the air was cleaner and wildlife was more abundant. Their presence is perhaps a reminder for us to treat ourselves as co-habitants of the planet and work harder to fetch back more wild plants and animals into our landscape. Julian's paintings have a similar quality : they are like markers in time, capturing the extraordinary character of these trees - and perhaps reminding us to welcome back more wildlife into our lives.
For more information about Julian’s Pollard Residency Paintings, please click here.
JASON GATHORNE-HARDY
Flock Drawings
The Flock Drawings are part of an ongoing collection of work by Jason Gathorne-Hardy that focuses on the sheep flock at White House Farm. Almost all of the drawings are made from life by the artist whilst sitting with the flock at different times of day. Many are drawn at dawn or in the early hours of the morning when the sheep are gathered together like a flotilla of moored boats at anchor under old oak trees, or when they head off to graze on the pastures in the floodplain of the Upper Alde Valley. Other drawings are made at dusk or during rainstorms, when water falling from the sky softens the paper. The flock is a source of fine lustrous wool which we are trialing for spinning and weaving.
For more information about Jason’s Flock Drawings, please click here.
JANE WORMELL
The Hedge Residency
Jane Wormell’s residency celebrates the importance of hedgerows as a home for wildlife in a farmed landscape. They can be a vital source of food, shelter and homes for many animals. Well-established hedges are often remnants of older landscapes, with dozens of plant species living in them. We have been testing eight different ways of managing hedges at the farm, to see which is best for wildlife. Their presence in the landscape has what we call a ‘woolly jumper’ effect : the land becomes warmer and more welcoming to wildlife. Jane’s ongoing Hedge Residency explores the abundant biodiversity of the hedges through her detailed, immersive paintings.
For more information about Jane’s Hedgerow Paintings, please click here.
EMMA GREEN
A Suffolk Sakura : The 'Cherry' Ingram Blossom Residency
Emma Green's Blossom Residency follows the flowering season of over forty cherry trees that grow at White House Farm and in the adjoining Vale of Great Glemham. Her paintings from the 2023 Sakura season focused on Matsumae varieties created by Mr Masatoshi Asari from Hokkaido in Japan as well as other varieties created or revived by Collingwood Ingram. Recent subjects include the following Prunus varieties : Taihaku, Hokusai, Kursar, Korean Hill Cherry, Okame, Collingwood Ingram, Kanzan, Fragrant Cloud, Chocolate Ice / Matsumae-Fuki, Taoyame, Amanogawa and Fugenzo.
Working with the writer Naoko Abe and selected tree nurseries, we are exploring the creation of a new Matsumae Cherry Collection and Masatoshi Asari Peace Park at White House Farm and in Great Glemham village - in tribute to Mr Masatoshi Asari's lifelong devotion to flowering cherries. We are also exploring a collaboration between Emma Green and the composer / Taiko Drummer Joji Hirota for the 2025 Alde Valley Spring Festival.
For more information about Emma’s Blossom Residency Paintings, please click here.
JENNY NUTBEEM
Textile & Natural Dye Residency
This ongoing residency project explores natural dyes at the farm. In 2022 and 2023, Jenny created stunning collections of new Suffolk Sakura Silk Scarves. These were made using blossom and leaves collected from cherry trees at the farm and dyes gathered from other plants growing nearby. The results were two exquisite collections of 24 hand printed and hand dyed Suffolk Sakura Silk Scarves - made in pairs but sold individually. They were hung in the order in which the cherry trees flowered, with an invitation for viewers to walk through the avenue of scarves and have a wish at the end. We usually have a selection of Jenny’s Sakura Silk Scarves in stock.
For more information about Jenny’s Suffolk Sakura Silk Scarves, please click here.
HISTORIC COLLECTIONS
HARRY BECKER
Drawings, Lithographs & Watercolours
We are delighted to be able to offer for sale lithographs, drawings and paintings by Harry Becker. All works are sourced from the Loftus Family Collection, which received much of the artist’s estate. Harry Becker grew up in Colchester in the 1870s and trained at the Antwerp Academy from the age of 14, a few years ahead of van Gogh. He was celebrated in his own lifetime for his etchings and lithographs, many of which feature in important museum collections around Europe. He was less well known for his drawings and paintings, but he is arguably one of East Anglia’s most important impressionists from the first half of the twentieth century.
He moved with his family, his wife Georgina and daughter Janet, to Wenhaston in East Suffolk in the early 1900s. Here, until his death in 1928, he spent his days and the passing seasons watching and drawing people at work in the local landscape. His work has more recently gained a much wider audience and a very loyal following. We are honoured and delighted to be able to work on behalf of the Loftus Family Collection, releasing selected works for sale. We always have a good selection of work on show or for viewing by appointment.
For more information about Harry Becker or to book an appointment to view available works, please click here.
WRITING AT GREAT GLEMHAM
Since 2014, White House Farm has hosted an informal residency project called Writing at Great Glemham. This takes inspiration from a rich local seam of rural writing that includes the work of George Crabbe, HW Freeman, George Ewart Evans, Ronald Blythe, Hugh Barrett and, more recently, Melissa Harrison - with Adrian Bell and Julian Seymour also writing nearby. In the past ten years, we have welcomed over thirty writers to the farm and the beautiful Vale of Great Glemham – and also to more remote writing venues in mid Wales and the Howgill Fells of Cumbria.
Words are an important currency in our lives. The ones we choose to use and the ones we choose to discard has a bearing on how we live our lives and also how we experience the act of being alive. Words have shape, weight and form as well as meaning. There is also an often overlooked musicality to language, which means that words can have resonance or effect that reaches beyond their intellectual meaning into the realm of sonic impact.
One of Suffolk’s more idiosyncratic local authors - from the Deben river valley - was Nathaniel Fairfax of Woodbridge. In his publication Bulk & Selvedge of the World [1674] he took a firm view on vocabulary and dialect :
"I think it will become those of us who have a more hearty love for what is our own, than wanton longings after what is others, to fetch back some of our own words that have been jostled out in the wrong .. or else to call in from the fields and waters, shops and workhousen, that well-fraught world of words that answers works; by which all learners are taught to do and not to make a clatter."
Fairfax was writing from a land in which Isaac and Ash was a scythe, Phoebe was the sun and a mavis was a thrush. All are local dialect : they are words that somehow resonate with the soft Suffolk landscape. We are returning to the Writing at Great Glemham residency programme in 2024 after past collaborations with the University of East Anglia, Flipside Festival, the Suffolk Poetry Society and Poetry in Aldeburgh.
BESPOKE FURNITURE FROM THE FARM
Handmade Tables, Benches and Stools
Working with a small number of carefully selected guest makers, we can offer customers an in-house design and build service for handmade chairs, stools, benches, coffee tables and dining tables.
Our specialities include benches, stools and large single plank dining tables made from slabs of home-grown / locally sourced oak, ash and Cedar of Lebanon. For more information please contact us by email.
Location : How to Find Us
We are located on The Grove lane between the villages of Great Glemham and Sweffling in the beautiful Upper Alde Valley of East Suffolk UK :
White House Farm
The Grove
Great Glemham
Suffolk IP17 1LS
Find us
Contact : enquiries@galloper-sands.co.uk / [00 44] 1728 663531
Instagram : @gallopersands | @aldevalleyfestival
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Galloper-Sands is part of The Alde Valley Spring Festival Ltd - Company No 7592977 - Based at White House Farm, Suffolk UK.