Creative Conversations

Creative Conversations: Studio Ceramics from The Stradling Collection is the largest ever display of the Stradling Collection's mid to late 20th century British Studio Ceramics. Bringing together some 100 works by makers including Bernard Leach, Lucy Rie, Gordon Baldwin, and Gillian Lowndes, the exhibition explores the deeply personal exchanges between collector Ken Stradling and the makers whose work he championed. The exhibition also marks the first public showing of paintings by Betty Stradling (née Haggar), Ken's wife. Many of her works take ceramics as their subject, and here they are placed in direct conversation with the pots Ken collected and chose to live with. Creative Conversations invites visitors to reflect on how taste is formed, how collections evolve, and how personal and professional exchange contributes to the construction of cultural value.