Venue: Welcome Space
New year, new arrivals at Reading Museum!
Visit our Welcome Space and discover a range of recently-displayed artworks, both made and acquired within the last two years.
Several pieces—including Oh Beautiful World!, our sewing group's lockdown quilt, and original artworks from Sally Castle's beautiful version of The Happy Prince (published by Two Rivers Press)—represent a series of responses to the local legacy of Oscar Wilde. In 2021, Wilde's imprisonment in Reading from 1895 to 1897 made world news, when legendary street artist Banksy painted his own artistic response on the walls of Reading Gaol.
Meanwhile, Cornelia Parker's vivid etching Light from the North presents a striking abstract image, which resonates with the distorted sense of reality, and desire for spiritual comfort, felt by many during the last two years.
