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FESTIVAL OF WESSEX 2026 • 31 PAUL CLEDEN ‘POTTERY KILN FIRING’ Muchelney Pottery Open Day Muchelney Pottery is gearing up for their next open day and there is plenty planned… The July kiln firing will be unpacked on the day, with visitors able to choose pots fresh from the cooling chambers. The kiln shed will gradually be filled with over 1,000 new pots - from mugs, jugs, bowls and plates to signed personal work by Mark Melbourne, Ben Leach and Hannah Leach. Mark will be demonstrating on the Leach kick-wheel in the pottery yard. Printmaker Paul Cleden will unveil a brand new collection of work inspired by time spent with the pottery crew studying the shapes and rhythms that make up life at the pottery. He will be available on the day to discuss the new prints and will also be demonstrating and offering visitors a chance to have a go on the printing press. There will also be live music from Hannah Leach, the launch of brand new Potters of the World Ignite tankards, a display of beautiful disasters, food from the Kind Kitchen Baker, and Dunleavy Vineyards will be offering tastings of their award winning English wine. 25 July: Muchelney Pottery, MUCHELNEY, near Langport, TA10 0DW. 10am - 4pm. Free entry. johnleachpottery.co.uk . Glenn Brown: Arrows of Desire Glenn Brown is one of the most celebrated painters to come out of the Young British Artist generation. He is famous for borrowing images, colours, painterly brushstrokes and drawn lines from art history to create fresh yet disturbing paintings that reveal a dark humour. He has created a fantastical pictorial language of his own. Glenn will be hanging a selection of his past works amongst the cycle of the renowned English paintings in the Holburne’s permanent collection, as well as smaller drawings in antique frames in adjoining galleries. Brown’s interventions will introduce the uncanny, the excessive, and the unsettling into spaces usually associated with refinement and order. This tension makes the familiar unfamiliar, sharpening our attention to both the historical artworks and Brown’s contemporary practice. Having studied at Bath School of Art and Design between 1995 and 1988, Brown is back in Bath, bringing his own twist on the Holburne’s collection. Until 6 September: The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, BATH, BA2 4DB. 10am - 5pm. £16.50. holburne.org . ‘ON THE WAY TO THE LEISURE CENTRE’ (2017) ELAINE COLLETT ‘OUTFLOW’ Wesca: Water, River, Source Wesca is a longstanding group of 25 professional and semi-professional Wessex artists, formed to provide mutual support, promote contemporary arts, and create opportunities in the Wessex area. Currently they are engaged in an 18-month site responsive exploratory project, titled Water River Source , inspired by the social history, habitat, landscape and wildlife of local rivers. Artists are taking the pulse of our rivers, documenting their ideas and sharing discoveries from their individual lines of enquiry. They are aiming to open a conversation with viewers about our rivers. 2 - 8 September: The Gallery, Shaftesbury Arts Centre, 11 - 13 Bell Street, SHAFTESBURY, SP7 8AR. 10am - 4pm. 07500 870702 / wesca.co.uk / shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk RACHAEL REES, MARK MELBOURNE, HANNAH LEACH, BEN LEACH