Our current exhibitions
W Ratcliffe, The Red Curtain, 1916
‘No worldly goods to worry about’: the art of William Ratcliffe
4 October – 30 November
This is the museum’s first ever exhibition dedicated to William Ratcliffe (1870 – 1955), a Garden City artist and founding member of the progressive ‘Camden Town Group’ – comprised of sixteen, young contemporary artists who painted realist scenes of everyday life and landscape in a range of Post-Impressionist styles. The show features more than fifty works – including oils, watercolours, prints and drawings – drawn from the museum’s collection. North Herts Museum holds the largest collection of Ratcliffe’s work in the country, largely due to his residence in Letchworth Garden City and the subsequent donation of his works to the former Letchworth Museum.
The exhibition also includes three rare oils by fellow Camden Town artist Spencer Gore (1878–1914), a colleague of Ratcliffe’s who produced some of his most significant works
during a stay in Letchworth in 1912.
Ratcliffe pursued his art with an unwavering devotion. Though he rarely sold his paintings during his lifetime, he was largely content to live on almost nothing. His only solo exhibition was at the former Letchworth Museum in 1954, the year before his death. As a close friend wrote later, ‘William was lucky in a way. He had no worldly goods to worry about. He was able to be single-minded and concentrate on his work entirely.’
The exhibition is a chance to rediscover the wide range of Ratcliffe’s modest output, from his delicate drawings and watercolours to his colourful oils and striking woodcuts. A fully illustrated book with over 100 of Ratcliffe’s colour illustrations, written by North Herts Museum’s Ros Allwood will be available to purchase on sale for £10. A selection of exhibition-related merchandise will also be on sale in the museum shop.
Adventures in paint – An exhibition of recent work by Mark Wearne
4 November – 14 December
In his work Mark Wearne explores the emotive power of abstraction and the expressive potential of mixed media. Born in Cornwall he trained in Interior Design at Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham. In 1979 he moved to Hitchin with his wife Diane and young daughters Joanne and Ruth and began work as a freelance architectural illustrator. Mark’s creative journey has seen him evolve from architectural precision to exploration in paint.
As an architectural illustrator he worked on projects for well-known names like Harrods and Selfridges across the UK and internationally. Mark also put his creative talent to work locally, creating, for example, stage backdrops, posters and promotional graphics for Rhythms of the World, the popular music festival that he played a role in founding. Mark also helped develop the artistic side of local young people in his schools’ Street Art banner-making projects. Most notably this saw the creation of Dream Catcher, a monumental installation involving nine local primary schools, which transformed Windmill Hill into a colourful canvas of collective imagination.
Upon retiring Mark committed fully to exploring his interests in fine art. He attended an intensive course at Newlyn School of Art in Cornwall and several abstract landscape courses. From his studio in Hitchin Mark spends his time creating new works, often inspired by Cornwall, its coast, the windswept wildness of its landscape, extreme weather and abstract expressionism of the St Ives School of artists. Mark’s former life as an architectural illustrator also helps inform his fine art work. He has exhibited locally and in Cornwall and won the 2025 Artist of the Year award at Letchworth’s Wynd Gallery.
Museum Talks
For more information and to book tickets click here to go to Ticket Source, have a look at the events on our Facebook page or ask at the Museum reception and we can book it for you.
Are you part of a local group or society?
We offer a number of bookable talks given by our expert museum staff. The talks need to be pre-booked and cost £65. Talks can be held at the Museum or at your own venue; if your venue is outside the district, we have to charge travelling expenses.
They can be for up to 40 people. The talks usually last an hour and can be daytime or evening.
It is also possible to arrange online talks using platforms such as Zoom. Please ask for further details.
For more information or to book a talk please email Rebecca Barkus.
To see a full list of available talks, please click here.