March 24 –May 24. Cat & Mouse… From Canada to Computers; Paddy Killer a retrospective… Stunning, retrospective exhibition of internationally acclaimed textile artist Paddy Killer.

• Included drawings, woven textiles, tapestry and drawn and painted works on textile from delicate intimate pieces to life size portraits.
• Exhibition included story-telling sessions by Taffy Thomas wearing the amazing Storytelling Coat made by Paddy Killer.

May 27- – July 19 2002: Golden Years. An exhibition of camera obscuras, giant photographs of Whitehaven and the surrounding area, produced by pinhole photography, and digital works on iMac.

Artist Martin Newth used pinhole photography and hand-built giant camera obscuras, as well as digital image making in order to examine perceptions of the changes in Whitehaven, rural Copeland and the wider world over the past 50 years.

• The exhibition included work produced by pupils from Whitehaven School and Wyndham School, in Egremont. The students’ photographs were put together along with images from the Beacon’s photographic archive to make a large mural entitled Photographic Memory.
  
• For Watchtower West and East Newth transformed the Watchtower (one of the oldest buildings within Whitehaven harbour) into a giant pinhole camera.
  
• The clash between natural beauty and heavy industry was explored in the two-colour images Sunset - Sellafield and Sunset -  Marchon. Produced by wrapping the inside of cardboard pinhole cameras with colour photographic paper, they were exposed over twenty minutes as the sun set, and were displayed folded out as cross shaped images on the Beacon Gallery’s walls.
  
• A graduate of the Slade School of Art Martin Newth has exhibited in Britain and abroad. He completed a Boise Travel Scholarship in the USA in 2001 and lives and works in London.

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July 22 – Sept 13 2002: Messages from the North: Touring exhibition from the Leeds City Museums and Galleries Service.

• LeedsPostcards, ‘an independent, interventionist press’ was founded in 1979 as a counterblast to the metropolitan domination of political message making. Over the last twenty three years the images put out into the world as postcards from LEEDS, map out a social and political history of the Eighties and Nineties and Noughties, from diverse, and invariably ‘off-message’, perspectives.
  

Putting to new use early 20th century agit-prop tactics of photo-montage, as well as a host of other artistic strategies and styles – work includes images by– Steve Bell, and Gerald Scarfe; school children; re-workings of old posters and  ‘old masters’ .. often working in collaboration with other agencies – groups such as CND, Friends of the Earth, Liberty; City Councils; and smaller community-based groups - LEEDS POSTCARDS’ crusade and achievement is to show that political images need not be dry, dull nor necessarily emanate from the Capital, and that cultural and political issues had and have a life and a currency outside London.

• Showing alongside Messages from the North was a fascinating selection of postcards from the Beacon’s archive. Illustrating the richness of Copeland’s past, the selection included cards showing local places, mining and industry, ships and the harbour, the people and characters of Whitehaven, cards that celebrated occasions, and cards with messages…
  
• Artist/Workshops included: Lesley Anne Rose (Travel writer and artist) and artist Fran Riley.

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Sept 16-Nov 22 2002: Rhythms, dots, stories and skylines... (10 years of CAE): A Cumbrian Blue(s)/CAE touring exhibition. Artist Tony Stallard's exhibition celebrated ten Years of Cumbria Arts in Education. CAE is a unique organisation, which exists to engage artists (of all kinds) to work with schools and other educational organisations. Stallard created Drop in the Ocean, a time capsule submerged in the bay at Whitehaven. The dramatic process of dropping the capsule in the harbour was recorded prior to installation of the exhibition at the Beacon Museum and Art Gallery in September.

The exhibition installation included neon, and digital film projection. Alongside Stallard’s installation and events the exhibition included work made by artists and the community during residencies hosted to co-incide with the exhibition… Sculptors Sam McGeever, and Lilian Nabuline, artist Graham Patterson, and Hans Ullrich ceramist

Associated events also included a teachers’ seminar and CAE’s AGM..

Nov 25- Jan 28 2002 REAL ART: A retrospective exhibition of the Real Art archive with specially commissioned new works.

Real Art creates and publishes limited edition artist books. Rachel and Malcolm Gibson work from North East Cumbria, Andrew and Elsbeth Law and James Hall are based in London. Other artists contribute original and editioned work for artist book projects. Each Real Art Publication is devoted entirely to visuals and techniques include screen and block printing collage, digital imagery and handmade materials.

Real Art had been established for fifteen years and has a national and international reputation for producing innovative book art. Publications form part of a number of major collections including the Tate Gallery and the National Art Library.

Artist Residencies/Workshops included: Malcolm and Rachael Gibson, Sue Stockwell, Marie Wright and Gill Naylor.

Jan 31 -March 25 2003 Are You Sitting Comfortably, The Watercloset Workshop. Touring exhibition from the Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

A collection of thirty (including sculptures/artworks made from) sinks and waterclosets. Produced by artists during the international symposium held in the Gustavsberg Sanitaryware factory (just outside Stockholm) in November 2000…Included artworks by Conrad Atkinson (UK/USA), Lillemor Pettersson (Sweden), Les Lawrence and Mary Jo Bole (USA), and Paul Scott (UK) the Beacon’s Artist in Residence/Visual Arts Curator.

The Exhibition programme was produced by Artist in Residence/Visual Arts Curator, Paul Scott in a unique one-year project funded by Northern Arts, Copeland Borough Council, the National Lotteries Board and the Beacon.

Beacon Museum and Art Gallery
West Strand
Whitehaven
Cumbria
CA28 7LY
Tel: 01946 592 302

All exhibitions were in the Harbour Gallery..