Thomas Ferens –
Collecting for Hull
Tuesday 16th September 2025
Join a member of the Ferens curatorial team to learn more about new research into the Ferens Art Gallery’s founder Thomas Ferens and his early collecting for the people of Hull. This research is informing our plans ahead of 2027, the centenary of the opening of the Ferens.
The talk will start at 2.00p.m.
Book tickets at:
https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/museum-events/thomas-ferens-collecting-for-hull
Building the Humber Bridge
Thursday 18th September 2025
This talk is a rare opportunity to hear ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ the challenges and triumphs of building the magnificent Humber Bridge, which commenced in 1973. Douglas Strachan, the Project Director of the original construction contract, recounts the story.
Takes place from 1.30pm – 2.30p.m.
Book tickets at:
https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/museum-events/building-the-humber-bridge
Carborundum and Dry Point Printmaking Workshop with Dawn Brooks
Saturday 13th September 2025 • 10.00a.m.
Starting with a gallery tour, looking at key artworks we’ll explore texture, line and form to inspire our own prints. We’ll then experiment with Carborundum, a versatile technique that creates rich tones and textures with painterly and graphic effects, including an embossing-like impression. We will also explore dry point, a simple, direct intaglio process where lines are scratched into a plate, holding ink to produce soft, velvety marks. This technique allows for spontaneous, expressive mark-making without chemicals, resulting in rich, textured prints. All resources are provided.
Ticketed, £65.00
Bookbinding for Beginners: Bradel Binding with Glen Malkin
Wednesday 24th September 2025 • 10.00a.m.
Work with Glen, an award winning bookmaker and elected Fellow of Designer Bookbinders. The Bradel style of binding a book is common in continental Europe. In this workshop we shall make a Bradel bound book from scratch, starting out by piercing and hand-sewing blank pages. We will then create the hard back case which forms the binding and then cover it with book cloth and decorative paper before securing the endpapers. You will take away a completed book and detailed notes so you can make further books at home. Suitable for beginners, we shall also discuss the choice of materials and basic equipment for bookbinding. All resources are provided. Important note: Participants will need to be able to comfortably handle a needle and thread as well as use a craft knife and other basic craft tools.
Ticketed, £75.00
Collagraph Printmaking Workshop:
With Dawn Brooks
Saturday 22nd November 2025 • 10.00a.m.
Starting with a brief tour of the art gallery, we’ll explore key artworks and focus on the use of line, pattern and tone. Drawing from these influences we’ll create collagraph prints using the Tetra Pak printing technique. This technique offers a versatile introduction to both intaglio and collagraph processes, making it perfect for both beginners and more experienced printmakers. By repurposing everyday materials like juice, milk, and soup cartons, we’ll explore how to create intricate, textured plates for printmaking. This creative process offers an exciting, sustainable alternative to traditional printmaking, encouraging us to think innovatively while reducing waste. All resources are provided.
Ticketed, £65.00
Fabric Charms: Embroidery and appliqué workshop with Erin Ledsom
Saturday 6th December 2025 • 10.00a.m.
Work with Erin, an award-winning graduate of the Royal School of Needlework, to design and stitch your own small fabric charms using embroidery, appliqué, and embellishments. These mini textile pieces can be used as brooches, decorations, gifts or keepsakes. All resources provided.
Ticketed, £65.00
For further information and booking details for the workshops
click on the link below:
https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/museum-events?page=1&location=Ferens%20Art%20Gallery%20#events
Guided Tour of Ferens Art Gallery
Explore the city’s art collection on a free guided tour of Ferens Art Gallery. The informative and friendly guides, will give you an overview of some of the highlights of the Gallery. In the hour-long tour, among others, they will reveal the stories of work by the 14th century Italian artist, Lorenzetti, art from the Dutch Golden Age, paintings of great 19th-century female artists and the more local talent of Atkinson Grimshaw.
Dates and times
Please select a month:
September 2025
October 2025
November 2025
https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/museum-events/guided-tour-of-ferens-art-gallery
Young Artist Open Exhibition 2025
Friday 10th October – Sunday 11th January 2026
The Young Artist Open exhibition has been held annually at the Ferens Art Gallery since 2003 and celebrates the creative talent of young people in Hull and the surrounding area.
2025 Open Exhibition
Friday 10th October – Sunday 11th January 2026
For full guidance: https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/homepage/88/open-exhibition
National Gallery Partnership To Bring Monet To Ferens
Image: Claude Monet The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil 1872 Oil on canvas, 52.6 x 71.8 cm
© The National Gallery, London
The National Gallery has announced it will partner with the Ferens Art Gallery as part of its
Masterpiece Tour 2025-27.
The work selected for the first year is Monet’s The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil (1872), a work which has left the Gallery only once in the last 20 years. Monet depicts a tranquil scene of a winter day on the outskirts of the small suburban town of Argenteuil, not far from Paris. Although the town was already partly industrialised and a popular location for sailing and leisure boating, Monet only hints at this developing bustle with a few scattered buildings behind a screen of trees. Instead, he focuses on an intimate moment by the river. The orderly composition, variety of brushstrokes and reflection in the water are all regular features of Monet’s work.
The Ferens Art Gallery exhibition will be co-curated with Flourish, Ferens Art Gallery’s creative group for children and young people, organised with and for disabled and neurodivergent visitors. Together, they will create a multi-sensory immersive space that is an olfactory, acoustic and tactile experience. The exhibition will showcase select works from the Ferens’s vast collection alongside contemporary responses from Flourish to enable visitors to see and experience art from a new and inclusive perspective.
Madame Clapham: Dressmaker to Royalty
Tuesday 16th September 2025
Find out more about celebrated Hull dressmaker Madame Clapham, who she made dresses for, and what made her salon so successful.
Takes place 1pm – 2pm and 2.20pm – 3.30pm
Ticketed – click below for details:
https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/museum-events/madame-clapham-dressmaker-to-royalty
Classic Car Days
Saturday 27th September 2025
Stroll through the Museums Quarter Garden to explore vintage and classic motor vehicles from the East Yorkshire Thoroughbred Car Club, find out the history of the vehicles and take photos of your favourites.
Please do not touch any of the vehicles without the owner’s permission.
Free, drop-in
NEWS | Historic Skeletons return to Hull Maritime Museum as transformation progresses
Five historically important whale skeletons and other marine specimens have returned to Hull Maritime Museum following an extensive and meticulous programme of cleaning and conservation.
These large specimens are among the first major items to be reinstalled as part of the museum’s multi-million-pound transformation. Led by renowned natural history conservator Nigel Larkin, the project has included the careful dismantling, cleaning, conservation and remounting of the specimens.
Several specimens will be dramatically suspended in the museum’s revitalised galleries, they include a minke whale, a killer whale, lesser rorqual, false killer whale, a bottle-nosed whale and the huge four-metre-long jawbones of a sperm whale. The 15-metre-long juvenile North Atlantic right whale is due to return early next year.
Councillor Mike Ross, Leader of Hull City Council, said: “It is great to see the museum entering this stage of the transformation. The suspension of these fragile skeletons is a huge undertaking and will offer visitors a unique view of these conserved artefacts. This is an exciting chapter in the project as the museum comes back to life.”
Nigel Larkin, a specialist in conservation and curation of skeleton materials, said: “It is very satisfying to see these beautiful skeletons return to their home and be on display again for the public to enjoy. It has been a huge project for me to dismantle each skeleton, carefully clean and assess every bone and then remount them with modern techniques and materials so that they can be enjoyed by visitors for many more decades to come. It has been a privilege to spend so much time with these beautiful animals.”
In the coming months Marcon, who are leaders in their field, will create, test and install the audio visual and IT hardware. The general fit-out of the building will include installing display cases, joinery items, plinths, stands. Electrical services including projectors, speakers, screens, exhibition lighting will also be fitted. The team at Marcon will create mechanical interactives, making of models and props, and work alongside our museum staff on the all-important final installation of the museum collections.
The museum is expected to reopen in 2026 once the hundreds of artefacts have returned, and the many stories can take centre stage once again.
NEWS | Final phase of Spurn Lightship Dockside Works underway
The final stage of work on the historic Spurn Lightship and its dockside surroundings is now underway, marking an important milestone in the ongoing Hull Maritime project.
Local engineering and construction firm C R Reynolds has begun landscaping the area around the lightship on the Hull Marina, delivering shore-side interpretation and essential enhancements to transform the space into an inviting gateway for visitors as well as improving accessibility to the marina and city centre for nearby residents. Key features of this phase include connecting the gangway for safe public access to the ship, installing barrier fencing around the marina edge, and planting vibrant seasonal flowers and greenery.
The Yorkshire Coast By Rail
5th to 21st September 2025
Thursday – Sunday – 11.00am – 4.00pm
A exhibition to celebrate memories of traveling by rail to the Yorkshire Coast. Featuring photographs, memorabilia, old railway posts and model engines this fascinating exhibition takes us back to the heyday of British seaside holidays.
This exhibition and events has been made possible with the support of Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership, Northern Rail and TransPennine Express.
Old Parcels Office
Railway Station Car Park, Westborough, Scarborough YO11 1TU
info@oldparcelsoffice.org
THE FRIENDS OF THE FERENS ART GALLERY
Please click the link below to view a detailed explanation of the Friends and the role of the Friends Trustees
FoFAG structure 3-fold contacts
