We’ve been loving everything that’s going on at Torre Abbey recently. The team over there have been doing some really wonderful work this year and we’ve been taking full advantage of our annual passes – which every local resident should have by the way(!) – so the Abbey’s begun to feel like a bit of a second home. We had a lovely weekend in April for Grinagog (which is back next year!) then shortly after visited for Thread a stunning exhibition from the Quilters’ Guild. The Agatha Christie Festival toured through which we enjoyed exploring and was promptly followed by Face2Face bringing award winning contemporary art to the Bay from the Arts Council Collection. And most recently we went along and caught the Devon Birds exhibition with spectacular wildlife photography on offer, and got stuck in with a print making workshop in the Learning Lab with Squircle Arts.
However, our final visit of the year was for Winter Fest, a wintry weekend craft fair which took place across the whole ground floor of the Abbey and welcomed creatives from across Torbay. This is a great new event to the museum that we hope will become a staple of their calendar and we were pleased to have a stall here representing some of our 3D artists. Alongside us were some friendly faces; Gail Tresize (ceramic artist) and Janet Ventre (mosaic artist) from Cockington Craft Studios had both brought along some lovely pieces, and Purple Valley were also in attendance.
Fellow Exhibitors in the Gathering Space
The weekend absolutely flew by in a blur of Christmas tunes, arty folk and stollen cake! It was exceptionally well attended, particularly considering it was the first year of the event, and we sent some visitors home with local Christmas gifts. The offer of half-price entry to the Abbey was certainly an added bonus and a great chance to see the schools’ artwork exhibition for Remembrance 2017.
Overall, another great addition to what has already been a fantastic year at Torre Abbey. We’re excited to see what’s on in 2018!
