Sidney Cooper Gallery Collection

In 1868 Canterbury’s famous artist Sidney Cooper opened a school and gallery at 22-23 St Peters Street called The Sidney Cooper Gallery of Art to widen access to art education. One artist who studied at the school was Mary Tourtel who created the Rupert Bear series. The institution later changed its name to the Canterbury College of Art and School of Architecture and again in 2004, to the Sidney Cooper Gallery when it became part of Canterbury Christ Church University. The gallery curated over 150 exhibitions during its time as part of the university, which included showcasing student work. In 2019 the university ended its lease of the gallery to focus its arts and cultural events on the North Holmes campus, in particular its new arts space, the Daphne Oram building. The Sidney Cooper Gallery collection includes printed promotional material and documents related to the exhibitions and events hosted by the university.

The Canterbury Festival Collection

The Canterbury Festival is an International festival of the arts which was started in the 1920s by the Dean of Canterbury, George Bell. Performance, music, science and other cultural events take place over two weeks in October and November in venues throughout Canterbury and surrounding towns and villages. Canterbury Christ Church University celebrated ten years in 2021 as Partner and Principal Sponsor of the festival and it still continues to play this important role. The university holds printed material from the festival within its Archives and Special Collections.

The collection consists of:

Sidney Cooper Gallery collection

• Posters and art prints
• Promotional workshop leaflets, pamphlets, invitations to exhibitions and viewings, programmes, copies of articles, leaflet maps
• Artist files related to exhibitions
• Canterbury Christ Church University magazine (incomplete)

Canterbury Festival collection

• Programme book (incomplete)
• Pamphlets

NB: An inventory of the collection is currently being produced.

References:

Canterbury Festival (2023) Welcome to Canterbury Festival. Available at: https://canterburyfestival.co.uk/ (Accessed: 13 February 2023).

Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society (no date) Cooper Gallery. Available at: https://www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/cooper-gallery (Accessed: 8 February 2023).

Collection in brief

Contents: Promotional material, exhibition posters and catalogues

Period: 20th and 21st century

Subjects: arts, culture, gallery, Sidney cooper, Canterbury festival, posters, promotional material, exhibition, curation, print, leaflet, pamphlet, invitation, viewings, catalogues, programme