Treasures - Scavenged Finds from Black Ven is an art exhibition running in the Rotunda Gallery in the museum from 2 April until 23 May featuring recent work by popular local artist Christine Allison.

As she explains: “The blue lias clay at the base of Black Ven is washed twice daily by the sea and continues to reveal crazy pieces of rusty metal, fragments of decorated china, pieces of sea glass and strange objects … all remnants from the cliff-top Victorian tip, which continues to collapse onto the beach. I like to scavenge. I like the thrill of finding an oddity. I like to imagine the life each treasure has had. Who ate off that plate or drank out of that cup or fixed that bit of metal?”

“Each object has a story, a history. I like to arrange these treasures into assemblages, juxtaposing unlikely pieces together; making new relationships between fragile, decorated fragments of china and weathered shapes of metal, richly coloured with the patina of time. These assembled treasures then become the subject matter for my artworks. Through my drawings and paintings, I celebrate their unique beauty and give them another life.”

Christine is also running two exciting Creative Drawing weekends from the museum based on beachcombed items from Black Ven.