Volunteer Trip to Dulwich Picture Gallery
by Kimberley Coates, Visitor Services and Volunteer Manager
On Friday 15 January the Jewish Museum volunteers took a well-earned day off and, along with the Visitor Services Team (and curatorial reps), went on a day trip to Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The trip celebrated our volunteer’s hard work over the past year: 2015 was the busiest year for the museum with record numbers of young people visiting our Judith Kerr exhibition in the summer.
Our volunteers did an exceptional job coping with the large amount of visitors, including very excited children, and we received great feedback about our volunteers helping our guests make the most out of their visit. This fantastic and eventful year was made possible by the support of our wonderful team of volunteers.
The Dulwich Picture Gallery (founded in 1811) is the world’s first purpose built public art gallery, housing some of the country’s finest Old Masters artwork. After exploring a bit ourselves, we were treated to an insightful tour of the permanent collection from one of the gallery’s knowledgeable volunteers. We then visited the fantastically unusual exhibition The Amazing World of M.C Escher.
Escher, a Dutch graphic designer, is one of the world’s most famous graphic artists and this was the first major UK show of his work. The exhibition told the story of his incredible body of work and showcased nearly 100 pieces.
One of the most prolific graphic artists, Escher created 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. His play with perspective and surrealist points continued to the 1960’s where he was one of the most sought after artists. The interplay between 2-D and 3-D in his artwork was particularly striking.
Our volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and after our visit the gallery’s Visitor Services Team kindly organised refreshments for us, before we headed back out into the cold for our journey home. It was a fantastic outing and we look forward to more ‘thank you’ volunteer trips to come in 2016!
Special thanks to our Visitor Services Manager Danielle Sargent (above) for organising a great trip!
