Current Exhibitions
Wiltshire and the World: John Aubrey and the Quest for Knowledge
13 June 2026 – 19 September 2026
400 years after the birth of John Aubrey in Easton Piercy, near Kington St Michael, our summer exhibition will celebrate the life and work of this extraordinary person.
Throughout his life, Aubrey was on a quest for knowledge. Growing up in Wiltshire during a time of rapid change, he developed a global vision shaped by the people, places and landscapes around him. From prehistoric monuments to contemporary ballads sung in the streets, there was little that escaped his notice.
Aubrey’s insatiable thirst for knowledge left an amazing legacy. When he saw historically important things being destroyed, he recorded them before it was too late. He also gathered the life stories of the important and not so important people of his time.
The exhibition will feature significant loans from across the country, bringing original manuscripts, paintings and books back to Wiltshire for the first time since Aubrey’s death in 1697, and forms part of the Chippenham – Our History project.
Permanent Displays
(Not) Still Lifes
Still life paintings depict a single or group of objects, that can be man-made or natural in form. Yet, the term still life is misleading. They are not still. Instead, they are filled with stories and meaning.
Objects continue to play a central role in how we present ourselves today, to the point where we ‘curate’ many aspects of our lives. Similar themes of taste, excess and our inner self are explored in the installation (Not) Guilty Pleasures by Jo Taylor, which won the British Ceramics Biennial Award 2025.
The work highlights a shift away from minimalism towards the bawdy, camp, and flamboyance of historic styles such as rococo, popularised by television shows such as Bridgerton.
Bon à tirer
‘Bon à tirer’ (often abbreviated to B.A.T.), is a French phrase meaning ‘good to pull’ or ‘good to print’. The print that is signed B.A.T. by the artist, serves as the benchmark of quality all subsequent prints in the edition must match to. This is the contract between artist and printer.
This display celebrates ten years of collaboration between artist and printer at INK on PAPER PRESS. Many of the works form part of the studio’s archive held at Chippenham Museum and established through the generosity of the Golder-Thompson Gift.
Upcoming Exhibitions
What’s in Store
3 October 2026 – 21 November 2026
An opportunity to see what’s been going on behind the scenes at Chippenham Museum. From Bronze Age archaeological discoveries to modern and contemporary art, recent additions to the museum collection will be on display for the first time. Alongside this, see the results of recent community projects, including the work of the museum’s Young Curators Group.
DRAWING TOGETHER: The Bath Academy of Art at Corsham
4 December 2026 – 20 February 2027
A touring exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of The Bath Art Academy at Corsham. Created in collaboration with the Young Gallery in Salisbury and staff and students at Bath Spa University, the exhibition will evolve and change as it travels between the three venues, so each space will have something new to see.
- The Young Gallery, Salisbury: 11 September 2026 – 21 November 2026
- Chippenham Museum: 4 December 2026 – 20 February 2027
- Michael Pennie Gallery, Bath Spa University: 5 March 2026 – 11 April 2027
Past Exhibitions
Lady Chatterley’s Cover: The Book Designs of Stephen Russ
7 March 2026 – 30 May 2026
From the forties to the seventies, Russ produced dozens of dust jackets, from striking first editions of Graham Greene at Bodley Head to a wide range of titles at Collins, including nature books and the famous Collins Crime Club.
He is perhaps best known for his work with Penguin, designing covers for the main orange series, the lesser-known music scores, and the highly collectible Penguin Poets series. His phoenix motif for DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover became famous during the 1960 obscenity trial and featured in the marketing that helped make the book a bestseller.
The exhibition also celebrated Russ’s thirty-year career as a tutor at the renowned Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, brought together with the generous support of the Russ family and loans from the Penguin Archive and the University of Bristol.
Subversive Forms: Revolutionary approaches to clay
15 November 2025 – 21 February 2026
This exhibition featured artworks by some of the leading sculptors and innovators working with ceramics in the UK today, shining a spotlight on contemporary artists who push the boundaries of possibility with clay. Each selected artist disrupts and manipulates traditional ceramic preconceptions, creating enigmatic artworks that push the medium beyond the functional, and using clay as a non-apologetic material for sculpture.
Threads: Clothing, Memory and Identity
19 July 2025 – 1 November 2025
A celebration all things fashion which explored ideas of memory and identity through the clothes we wear. As well as the main exhibition there were a number of fashion-themed pop-up displays throughout the museum, including: A Century of Sparkle, As-We-See-It Photographs, Putting on a Show, and Slow Fashion.
John Eaves: Off Beat
17 May 2025 – 12 July 2025
An exhibition of paintings, drawings and collages by John Eaves RWA, now in his 90s. This selection of work was curated by Nick Moore from John’s studio to represent the breadth and continuity of themes and materials across fifty years. John prefers to refer to his paintings as non-figurative rather than abstract, as they are rooted in the inherent geometry of the landscape. Always an improviser, not a planner or geometrician, he is open to the unexpected in the painting process. Having lived in Bath for most of his life, he sees it as ‘a city of huge rhythms – it’s practically musical – if you think of the terraces, they are like staves of music the way they loop around with criss-cross rhythms and zig-zags going up the hills…’
Language of the Physical: Katherine Gili Sculpture
15 March 2025 – 10 May 2025
Language of the Physical: Katherine Gili Sculpture brings together a range of sculptures by Katherine Gili, spanning four decades from 1980 to 2022. Gili’s practice is rooted in a deeply physical engagement with materials – particularly steel, heavy-duty paper, and paper clay – and her work has steadily gained recognition in recent years. Most notably, her sculpture Vertical IV (1975) was recently displayed for the first time at Tate Britain as part of their ongoing collection display, Modern and Contemporary British Art (1965–1980), highlighting Gili’s significant contribution to British sculpture.
Katherine Gili has been making sculpture for over fifty years but has only recently received wider public visibility. Gili was a student of Anthony Caro, one of the leading figures of 20th-century sculpture and the subject of Pitzhanger’s summer exhibition last year. Her work marks a shift from the industrial aesthetic of steel sculpture to an increasingly sensual and subjective approach to abstract form. Alongside the Tate, Gili’s sculptures are held in prominent collections, including Arts Council and Henry Moore Institute.
This exhibition highlights Gili’s exploration of the expressive potential of materials through the physical act of making. Working with steel, bronze, and paper clay, Gili challenges the boundaries of form and construction. Her early paper-based works, sometimes cast into bronze, reflect her experimental approach, while her steel sculptures, shaped through cutting and forging, embody her fascination with the transformative nature of material. Her recent work has shifted towards a more personal engagement with the human body as a source of inspiration.
For more details and images of work, please read the exhibition pamphlet by clicking on the following link – Exhibition Pamphlet.
Spotlight On 4: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection of Chippenham Museum
2 November 2024 – 8 March 2025
This exhibition was the fourth in Chippenham Museum’s Spotlight series dedicated to its growing Modern and Contemporary Art Collection. At the heart of the Collection are works that acknowledge the legacy of the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, a pioneering residential art school that counted some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art amongst its teachers and students. North Wiltshire’s creativity proudly extends beyond the Academy, and the collection records and celebrates the many contemporary artists who continue to live and work in this area today.
Further details about the artworks can also be found in the accompanying catalogue available in the museum shop, in store and online.
John Hitchens: Migrating Thoughts
7 September 2024 – 26 October 2024
Presented a selection of the artist’s abstract landscape paintings that explore interactions between nature, space and form. The exhibition traced these elements back to his early explorations as a student at the Bath Academy of Art Corsham.
Re/imagining Maud Heath
24 June 2024 – 31 August 2024
An exhibition exploring the different ways in which Maud Heath and her Causeway have been celebrated by artists, writers, and everyday people across the centuries. From medieval documents to contemporary art, the exhibition included the opportunity to make your own Causeway and record your memories of this famous local landmark.
Sindy 60th Anniversary
30 March 2024 – 11 May 2024
Step into Spring with the Diamond anniversary celebrations of Sindy, curated by local collectors Karen Colley and Bonita Turner.
Harm Joy
20 January 2024 – 24 February 2024
Ellie Thompson is an artist currently practicing in the South-West. Since graduating from The Ruskin School of Art in 2022, Ellie has exhibited a host of hapless characters across Oxford, London, Bath, Bristol, Rugby and Corsham.
Thompson’s interest in schadenfreude (the joy derived from another’s misfortune), anatomy and a cartoonish sense of humour informs each of her soft sculptures. Her puppet-like characters are at once extinct and alive, forever stuck in a sticky situation.
Harm Joy featured a cast of perpetually wretched skeletons, all made out of felt fabric and created by Thompson over the last year. Though each character is motionless, they are animated by their all-seeing yet unknowing eyes.
Spotlight On 3: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection of Chippenham Museum
18 November 2023 – 24 February 2024
This exhibition was the third in Chippenham Museum’s Spotlight series dedicated to its growing Modern and Contemporary Art Collection.
Further details about the artworks can also be found in the accompanying catalogue available in the museum shop.
Peter Potworowski: West Country Exile
9 September 2023 – 11 November 2023
Born in Poland in 1898, Peter Potworowski was part of the Parisian Artistic community of the 1920s that included the likes of Picasso, Bonnard, and Léger. After the Nazi-occupation of his home-land Potworowski settled in England in 1943, beginning a long association with the West Country.
The majority of works in this selling exhibition are from his time living in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire. In 1949 he joined the teaching staff at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, where his own work as an artist matured in contact with the English landscape.
Chippenham Between the Wars
20 May 2023 – 2 September 2023
This free exhibition explored what life was like in Chippenham in the 1920s & 30s, with objects, costume, photographs & artworks bringing the era to life.
Marking the centenary of the opening of John Coles Park in 1923, this exhibition explored the glamour of the cinema and fashions from the period, as well as strikes, protests and the legacy and threat of war.
Ken Hughes: A Retrospective
1 April 2023 – 13 May 2023
A retrospective exhibition showcasing the work of this influential artist and tutor. Ken Hughes led the Bath Academy of Art’s famous sculpture department for two decades.