Biography
Joseph Ainsley Davidson Shipley (1822-1909), a local Newcastle solicitor and collector, donated 2,500 paintings (only 1/5 of which were finally selected) and a large sum of his wealth to the City of Newcastle for the development of a new public art gallery. However, Newcastle declined his bequest and nearby Gateshead took the initiative instead. The Shipley Art Gallery opened in 1917 in a new building designed by local architect Arthur Stockwell with a significant collection of 16th-17th century Dutch and Flemish pictures and Victorian art including a local favourite such as William Irving's The Blaydon Races, inspired by the Geordie anthem.
The Shipley is now the UK's leading collection for craft and design in the North East, which began in 1977. Both new and established British makers were identified for innovation, experimentation and technical excellence and their work was purchased prior to representation in other public collections. Glassmakers such as Keiko Mukaide, Danny Lane, Bruno Romanelli, Sally Fawkes and David Reekie; the New Jewellery movement such as Julia Manheim and Pierre Degan; the ceramicists Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Martin Smith, Halima Cassell, Kate Malone, Stephen Dixon and Lubna Choudhary; the metalworkers Hiroshi Suzuki, Michael Lloyd and Junko Mori and in textile Audrey Walker, Paddy Killer and Dinah Prentice. Also, the Henry Rothschild Collection of studio ceramics has been on long-term loan to the gallery since 1994.
More recent acquisitions deliberately explore the boundaries between craft and design, and craft and fine art. These include works by Michael Eden, Nicholas Rena, Emma Woofenden, Barnaby Barford, Daniel Fisher, Robert Marsden, Peter Chang, Fred Baier and Alison Britten. It gives an in-depth perspective on the diversity of ceramic practice in the UK. The 2008 Designs for Life galleries showcase over three hundred objects from the last two thousand years.
