The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre

Havant Arts Centre and Museum have recently combined to form The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre in this small Hampshire town. Situated on East Street, the centre is easily recognisable because of the curvaceous pieces of sculpture by Ben Barrell that stand in the courtyard.

The box office is to the right of the main entrance, and ahead is the light and spacious Sadler Gallery where temporary exhibitions by local artists are held. There are tables and chairs so that you can sit and enjoy the works of art while sampling the fare of the Spring Cafe. The cafe is open from 9.30am until 3pm every day except Sunday; lunch is served between 11.30am and 2.30pm. Everything except the savoury tart with a large salad is under £5. The cafe does also serve cooked meals before evening shows at the centre, but you need to book by noon the day before the show.

I arrived just before 11am on a Tuesday and was surprised at how busy the cafe was. A large group of people, mainly senior citizens, had gathered to set off on an hour's walk, so when they left at 11 o'clock the place was much quieter. I ordered a cappuccino (all coffee is fair trade) and a slice of low-fat carrot cake and settled myself at a table near the bar from where I still had a good view of some of the works of art on show. Just to my left was a small area beyond the Sadler Gallery dedicated to a coastal heritage display focusing on the local harbours of Langstone and Chichester. Young children will enjoy the colourful feelie boxes here as well as the sea anemones in two tanks on the opposite wall.

Within the gallery area are several glass cabinets of jewellery, ceramics and textiles that are for sale. These would make beautiful and original gifts, so the centre is an excellent place to come for Christmas shopping or birthday presents. The art in the Sadler Gallery is sometimes for sale but prices can of course be high. The 'Affordable Art Gallery' exhibits works of art that are at more modest prices. At the time of writing there is a series of black-and-white photographs of Hayling Island by Stuart Burnes that were selling at £40 each.

Between the Sadler Gallery and the coastal heritage display are two showcases for private collections of local people. At the time of my visit they were inhabited by Isabel Baron's charming teddy bears that date back fifty years. Any local person can apply to put a collection on show at the centre.

Leaving the galleries and cafe area behind, I went through to the museum which houses a permanent collection. The local theme of the centre is continued here, and I was fascinated to find the works of a clock formerly at St Faith's Church in Havant ticking away. Railway enthusiasts will be interested by the showcase that remembers the days when there was a train service from Havant to Hayling Island known as the Hayling Billy line. You can enter a small room that has been set up as a 1950's kitchen in the Leigh Park housing estate that is part of Havant. There is no refrigerator here, just a pantry, and washing was done in a top-loading boiler.

At the far end of the museum is a research room, but this was cordoned off at the time of my visit. It obviously had a good supply of box files on the shelf. It has two computers with Internet access for research as well as a collection of local maps.

Walking back through the museum area I finally visited the Oyster Gift Shop which, like the makers' cabinets in the galleries, sells jewellery, ceramics and textiles by local artists. I bought some beautiful greetings cards there and would consider making a special journey in the autumn for Christmas shopping.

The Spring Centre does of course have a theatre for dance, music, comedy, film and theatrical productions, including shows specially for children. On Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April 2010, for example, there is a jazz weekend, and towards the end of April the Bench Theatre will be putting on eight performances of Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible'. On the afternoon of 15th May there will be a musical adaptation of David McKee's 'Elmer the Elephant'. The theatre has easy access for wheelchairs and there is a disabled toilet as well as baby-changing facilities. Tickets can be booked at the box office in person, by telephone or online via the Spring's website.

A number of classes are run at the centre for the local community, including drawing, yoga, music and various types of dancing. There are also several classes in theatre and dance especially for young people; most of these last one hour and are held between 4pm and 7pm on weekdays. Children's workshops are usually organized during school holidays as well.

Details of all the activities are available on the centre's website at www.thespring.co.uk , where you can download the Spring's latest brochure.

The Spring is just a few minutes' walk from Havant railway station, and the 700 bus service from either Portsmouth or Brighton stops right outside the centre. It is a vibrant place that is definitely worth a visit by anyone interested in the arts or local history. If you live in the area make a point of going to see an exhibition or a show, or even just dropping in for a drink and finding out what's coming up in the next few weeks. I certainly enjoyed the time I spent there, and it was worth making the journey from Southsea.

The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre

56 East Street

Havant

Hampshire

PO9 1BS

Box Office 023 9247 2700

www.thespring.co.uk

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Having recently visited Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery, I was interested to see how its counterpart in Bristol compared. I expected that perhaps it would be a grander affair, and I was right. Whereas Portsmouth concentrates mainly on local history and art, Bristol, whilst giving prominence to local artists and exhibits, has world-class displays in its galleries.

The museum is housed in an imposing three-storey Edwardian building; the stairs are not steep and there is a lift to certain areas on the upper floors, but you do have to call an attendant to operate the lift. How easy it is to do this I do not know. However, if you are at all interested in Ancient Egypt you are in for a treat, as there is a new display on the ground floor. This is where we started our visit.

The Egyptian exhibits here are based on the themes of life, death and the afterlife. Everything is behind glass, unsurprisingly considering the age of these artefacts. Even after more than twenty years of living in Egypt, I can still marvel at tiny amulets that look almost as if they were made yesterday, the mummy of a woman, or examples of hieroglyphics and other writing on a fragment of papyrus or a piece of stone. Touch screens placed low enough for children who can read allow visitors to access information on the individual items in each case. As well as the themes of life and death, attention is drawn to the way the Egyptians worked with different materials such as wood (as in the case for the mummy) and stone.

Moving further down this gallery, there are some fine examples of Assyrian reliefs. These are finely executed, but personally they didn't thrill me in quite the way that the Egyptian exhibits did.

At the top of the stairs leading to second floor is a gypsy caravan; turning left, we found ourselves in the Oriental gallery where Chinese dragons are to be seen wherever you look. There is even a tee-shirt from Tammy Girl decorated with a dragon. It was interesting that although this gallery was one of the quieter ones, there were two children sitting drawing whilst their parents looked around. Emerging from the dragon room, you find yourself admiring one of the best collections of Chinese glass outside Asia.

From Oriental art you proceed to British art. The first gallery is devoted to a collection of beautiful silver artefacts amid paintings of Bristol as it was over two hundred years ago. Realising that we did not have time to see everything in one visit, we passed fairly quickly through this room; I really must go back one day to admire the silver. We made a beeline for the more modern exhibits such as the paintings of the St Ives group. Barbara Hepworth is represented here by a painting rather than a sculpture, alongside Ben Nicholson in Gallery 5. I was also particularly interested to find Bristol-born Richard Long's Delabole Slate Circle, acquired from Tate Modern in 1997. Long was a great influence of mine in my students days, as was Tom Phillips, one of whose paintings I was delighted to find here.

If you are not a fan of modern art, you might prefer the work of the Pre-Raphaelites in Gallery 6 where both Millais and Burne-Jones are represented amongst others. There are a few examples of Impressionist paintings in the European room, notably by Renoir, Sisley and Lucien Pissaro. Beyond the French gallery is a display of pottery and ceramics, but this was another room that I had to leave for a future visit.

Going back down to the first floor we were greeted by a fibreglass replica of a dinosaur as well as a huge dinosaur leg skeleton. This area was obviously one of the most popular ones for children, so we decided to leave them to it as they greatly outnumbered us.

The display of minerals was one we spent more time on. Although there are exquisite pieces from all over the world, perhaps my favourite was a slice of Blue John from Derbyshire. It's true that this mineral holds a special place in my heart because I spent some wonderful holidays in the Peak District during my childhood, but I loved the colours in this example, which ranged from orange through to purple. My son prefered the pyrophyllite with its fascinating geometrical forms.

Minerals were followed by fossils, including some that were unearthed during the building of the Great Western Railway. Then came the wildlife area, but we decided to give it a miss as it looked to be swarming with children and must be one of the most popular sections of the museum. Many of the exhibits there focus on rare, endangered or extinct species of wildlife. British wildlife can be seen on the ground floor.

Descending the staircase to the ground floor once again, we walked past the shop without taking a look, as I don't usually buy souvenirs from museums. We noticed an enclosed area for temporary exhibitions where paintings were waiting to be hung. There is a cafe in an open area on the ground floor which seemed to be frequented mostly by families with young children who probably needed a break from all the excitement of dinosaurs and gorillas. Organic and fair trade food and drinks are served here. The cafe, as well as the toilets, are due for refurbishment during the course of 2008.

As we were leaving I suddenly noticed a huge biplane suspended from the lofty ceiling above the entrance hall – despite its size, neither of us had looked up and spotted it on our way in.

Certain areas of the museum are great attractions for children, and there were plenty around on the grey Saturday afternoon when we visited. There is even a play area called Small World for the under-fives on the ground floor. The museum would be an excellent choice for a family outing, whether your children are into dinosaurs, wild animals or mummies. As for adults, I'm sure everyone will find a display here that fascinates them. Since it's free, there is nothing to lose by paying a visit.

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Queen's Road

Bristol

BS8 1RL

Tel. 0117 922 4749

www.bristol.gov.uk/museums

Open Daily, 10am-5pm (hours may change in 2009)

Lifts to some floors; space to leave buggies in front hall; baby-change; toilets' wheelchairs; highchairs available in cafe.

Car parks are situated five minutes' walk from the museum in either West End or Trenchard Street. On foot, the museum is ten minutes from the city centre and twenty-five minutes from Bristol Temple Meads railway station.

Art and History in Portsmouth

The Portsmouth City Museum and Records Office is barely a mile from where I live, so I decided one Sunday morning to see what sort of culture there was right on my doorstep. To my surprise, I discovered a small sculpture by Barbara Hepworth as well as a work by Victor Pasmore; I hadn't expected to see works by any major artists.

An imposing red brick building, the museum is not purpose built but a former barracks. It is situated on Museum Road, very close to the university as well as Portsmouth Grammar School, and only about five minutes' walk from Gunwharf Quays. There is an area of lawn with one or two seats in front of the entrance. On entering you find a reception desk in front of you, but admission is absolutely free, even for the temporary exhibitions.

The intention is that you turn to your right and walk through the shop area; you won't miss anything through the door you see on the left, as you will come back and finish your tour of the museum there. The room on the right on the ground floor is set aside for special exhibitions, and I was indeed lucky to make my visit on the final day of The Magic of Masks and Puppets display. I had heard about this and thought it was a children's exhibition, but I was charmed by what I saw. The puppets in particular were gorgeous, whether from India, Japan, Bali or from British touring puppet companies. The Russian ones were so big that it's hard to imagine they could easily be moved around. One or two of the exhibits had been specially made for BBC television shows, and I also saw Baby Dawn from the film 'Trainspotting'. I don't know if this is a touring exhibition, but if you see it advertised at a museum near you, I would recommend a visit.

Emerging from this room, you are then faced with a lot of stairs to climb. I believe there is a lift, but I did not actually see it myself. Having reached the first floor I found that the records office was to my left and was just about to turn right when an attendant greeted me and recommended the display on the second floor. So I climbed another flight of stairs and found the effort to be worth my while. The sight that greeted my eyes was an eclectic collection of traditional furniture, contemporary works of art and older pieces of porcelain. Reading the notices, it became apparent that to qualify for display in this collection, the work of art had to be either made in Portsmouth, made using processes that involved changes in temperature, or fitting the category 'under and over'. (I didn't actually find a definition for the last of the three.)

I was surprised to find here a few sizeable canvases painted by artists who had been lecturers at Portsmouth Polytechnic (now Portsmouth University), and I actually recognised the names of one or two of them, having attended as a student for a year many moons ago. It was here too that I found the small but delightful 'Figure in a Landscape' by Barbara Hepworth. Interspersed with these modern works were a grandfather clock, one or two contemporary chairs, a porcelain water fountain and various other treasures. A strange mixture, yet somehow I found it refreshing, and I certainly hadn't expected to find anything of this nature in my local museum.

I went back down to the first floor where the rooms are devoted to the history of Portsmouth and Southsea. There are reconstructions of rooms of houses from yesteryear, the oldest one being a seventeenth-century bedroom complete with sound effects of a mother and father breathing heavily but not quite snoring. There are illustrations of Victoria Park and Southsea seafront that each take up almost the whole of one wall, a reconstruction of a booth in Verrechia's ice-cream parlour, and an area given over to Portsmouth Football Club's history which may just need updating very soon. Emerging from this area, you find yourself in a room which again houses temporary exhibitions. At the time of my visit there was a superb collection of photographs entitled 'A Walk Along Portsmouth Seafront' that ranged from views of South Parade Pier to close-ups of the ebbing tide, mostly in black-and-white. I noticed that it was possible to order prints of these.

The final room on the first floor has a display of paintings of various genres, mostly by local artists or of local scenes. They range from the traditional and figurative to the contemporary and abstract, a wide variety but not quite so impressive for me as the exhibition on the second floor. If you are tired by this time, you can sit at a table and look at a handful of reference books while you get your breath. I looked up Portsmouth Museum in one of these books and found that the consensus was that it is more suited to the historical reconstruction displays of the first floor than to the display of fine art. That may be so, but the top floor was the area I personally appreciated most.

I was just about to go down the stairs when I noticed an embroidery of an area of Southsea based on an Ordnance Survey map and dedicated to Thomas Ellis Owen, the architect of many of Southsea's finest nineteenth-century buildings. It was of particular interest to me because the nursery where I work is in fact housed in one of these buildings. Moreover, Annie Stunnell, who had the original idea for this embroidery, worked part-time at the nursery a few years ago. I was surprised that I hadn't known of its existence sooner.

Back on the ground floor, I wandered through the final area which houses a display entitled 'A Study in Sherlock: Uncovering the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection'. This has been bequeathed to the city of Portsmouth by Richard Lancelyn Green, who is considered to be the foremost collector of Conan Doyle memorabilia. Here you can see posters, photographs, letters and other documents and objects relating to the author, as well as his actual desk. A film of a Sherlock Holmes mystery is playing on two screens simultaneously as you walk around, with narration by Stephen Fry, the patron of the collection. As a recent addition to the museum's collection, this exhibition is likely to attract a fair number of visitors.

You then find yourself back at the reception desk. There is a small cafeteria offering hot meals as well as drinks or snacks but I did not visit it. The shop stocks cards, postcards, books and gifts of various prices; on the whole the quality of what was on sale was high rather than tacky.

I would recommend a visit to the museum if you are in either Portsmouth or Southsea, especially if the weather does not entice you to the seafront or you don't find the prospect of shopping with the crowds at Gunwharf Quays attractive. The main toilets are on the first floor, but there is an accessible toilet with baby-changing facilities on the ground floor. Not a great deal here will attract very young children, but adults and families with school-age children will I'm sure find something of interest. As it is free of charge, it's worth setting aside an hour or so for a visit.

The museum is open daily from 10am until 5pm or 5.30pm from April to September. It is closed from 24 to 26 December. Groups and schools are asked to book in advance: telephone 023 9229 6905.There is a free car park, but coaches would have to park in nearby St George's Road.