A visit to the New Brewery Arts, Cirencester – contemporary craft in the Cotswolds

editor

13 years ago

A visit to the New Brewery Arts, Cirencester - contemporary craft in the Cotswolds

Located in the centre of the town, Cirencester’s New Brewery Arts centre houses a contemporary art gallery, craft shop, cafe and theatre, plus a host of on-site ‘maker studios’.

Billed as a ‘hub of visual and performing arts and crafts’ – and you can’t go wrong with a ‘hub’ in my book – the beautifully converted Victorian brewery reopened in 2008 after a £2.7million facelift.

Located in the studio complex are glass blowers, textile artists, a ceramicist, upholsterer, bookbinder, stained glass maker and jeweller, and visitors are free to pop into the studios to chat to the artists or just to watch them at work.

Embossed paper press.

The studios are linked via elevated walkways.

Glass blowing.

On the potter’s wheel.

Sadly, there were no amusing “That’s Life”-style clay-based catastrophes to observe, but just in case you fancy taking a break at this point, here’s an archive BBC ‘Interlude’ film of a potter at work. It’s awfully soothing.

First floor cafe

Back to the arts centre, there’s a rather pleasant cafe on the first floor, where we stopped off for a coffee and toasted cheese sandwich. With Double Gloucester cheese, natch.