New outdoor National Gallery art installation unveiled in Stoke-on-Trent
A new National Gallery project in partnership with the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery was unveiled today in Stoke-on-Trent.
A total of 15 paintings from the National Gallery's collection were selected by the Potteries Museum and have gone on display in Bethesda Gardens, in Hanley, this morning where they will remain for the rest of the year.
Each painting has been reproduced life-sized, in fine detail and in a printed frame, giving visitors the chance to look closely at the brushstrokes and discover hidden details.
The exhibition is outdoors and free to view any time of day and this is the first exhibition of its kind in the country with similar National Gallery exhibitions set to open in other locations around the UK later this year.
Samantha Howard, curator of arts at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery had the task of carefully selecting the paintings to go on display and decided on the location of Bethesda Gardens.
The exhibition features paintings from Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Caravaggio, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat and Sandro Botticelli.
Samantha told Stoke Nub News: "We hope this will engage members of the public who wouldn't usually go into an art gallery by putting it literally on their doorstep.
"We thought about what locations we could put this in around Hanley and we decided on the Bethesda Gardens because we thought it would be fantastic to have an art exhibition in the open air.
"We considered the choice of the artwork and where the pieces would go. Some of them we have chosen to interact with the architectural surroundings directly and others create a great trick of the eye.
"The selection has been chosen to appeal to a broad range of people and others which are more instantly recognisable such as Picasso.
"This is what we were hoping it would look like so we're very happy."
Jane Knowles, director of public engagement at The National Gallery, said she was "thrilled" when the Potteries Museum and Stoke-on-Trent City Council expressed an interest in the project and hopes it will complement the ongoing centenary celebrations in the city.
She told Stoke Nub News: "We learnt that it was Stoke's centenary this year so the idea of forming even a very small part of that felt like a real honour for us.
"The National Gallery has just celebrated its bicentenary so we know how important these celebrations are so we absolutely leapt at the chance.
"To see what has been created here is amazing. Samantha Howard from the Potteries Museum has chosen this selection from a huge range at the National Gallery and I think she has done an amazing job - it's really tremendous.
"It is an eclectic mix here because the National Gallery is an eclectic mix we have paintings dating from 1250 right through to 1900 so this is a really good representation of our collection."
The outdoor exhibition will be open until 7 January 2026. Find out more here.
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