Gallery Oldham is a free-to-view public art gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

 found in the Cultural Quarter of central Oldham

Oldham

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...

, in Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Design

Designed by architects Pringle Richards Sharratt

Pringle Richards Sharratt

Pringle Richards Sharratt is an architectural firm that was formed in 1996 by John Pringle [b. 1951], Penny Richards [b.1950] and Ian Sharratt [b.1948]. Based in London, the practice has worked on public buildings, art galleries, museums, libraries, archives, university and transport buildings...

, Gallery Oldham was completed in its original form in February 2002. The art gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

 is a state-of-the-art building which has brought about an integration of the once separate local museum and gallery services. The building was extended to include a £13 million revamped Oldham Library and Lifelong Learning Centre which adjoins Gallery Oldham, which was officially opened April 2006. The building includes state-of-the-art library and learning facilities.

Programming

Programming incorporates Oldham's extensive art, social and natural history collections alongside touring work, newly commissioned and contemporary art, international art and work produced with local communities.

The gallery holds the civic collection of Oldham and much of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Oldham

Metropolitan Borough of Oldham

The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 219,600, and spans . The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of...

.

Exhibits

With no permanent displays and four temporary galleries to fill Gallery Oldham has one of the busiest exhibitions programmes in the region. Exhibitions mix touring shows with those that feature the Gallery's own collections of Art, Social History and Natural History.

The gallery holds a vast catalogue of works by local artists including Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley MBE was an artist born in the village of Lees, Lancashire, England. Her oil paintings vividly depict Lancashire life as it was between 1900 and 1910....

, William Stott (artist)

William Stott (artist)

William Stott-of-Oldham as he signed his works in order to distinguish himself from Edward Stott, was a British painter born in Oldham, Lancashire, England. He was the son of an Oldham cotton mill owner...

 and Alan Rankle

Alan Rankle

Alan Rankle is a British artist, born in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1952. He studied at RochdaleSchool of Art , and Goldsmiths, University of London . He is one of the leading artists of his generation to explore social and environmental issues of the day through Landscape Art...

. The art collections also feature works by an impressive range of British artists such as L. S. Lowry

L. S. Lowry

Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist born in Barrett Street, Stretford, Lancashire. Many of his drawings and paintings depict nearby Salford and surrounding areas, including Pendlebury, where he lived and worked for over 40 years at 117 Station Road , opposite St...

, John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He worked several decades after the breakup of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which had seen its heydey in the mid-nineteenth century, leading him to have gained the moniker of "the modern Pre-Raphaelite"...

 and Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Bridget Louise Riley CH CBE is an English painter who is one of the foremost proponents of Op art.-Early life:...

. In recent years the gallery has also built up its collection of Studio pottery

Studio pottery

Studio pottery is made by modern artists working alone or in small groups, producing unique items of pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by one individual. Much studio pottery is tableware or cookware but an increasing number of studio potters produce...

and regularly displays ceramic works by modern makers.