The day that became a fortnight

Over 500 visitors attended our opening exhibition over a five week period. Tomorrow (Monday), I will publish some figures about visitor times and the best days for visitors and how this has led us to changing The Crocus Gallery opening hours to 11am–4pm, Tuesday–Saturday.

The original plan had been that Saturday 26 June would be a 'Lenton Living History Day', but as the idea progressed, it became a week, then a fortnight and a 'combo' show, including artworks and photographs relating to contemporary Lenton and Nottingham, plus a Nottingham City Council public consultation on the future of Lenton's two conservation areas.  We hope you will come along and see what's on for yourself, but just as we did last time, we have put together a 'virtual' tour. Because we just use a digital camera, some of the pics catch the light, so not all the artworks or photographs are as clear as would like. But hey, we're on a budget of 9p (well, a little more) and, once again, Alyn has wrought a miracle of sorts.

The table and chairs are so that visitors can sit down and contribute to the living history, a local consultation and a conservation areas consultation by Nottingham City Council planners.

The virtual tour begins on the left-hand front wall.

The left-hand rear gallery corner and table devoted to the Lenton Living History Project and a wider consultation about local issues, being led by the Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum and The Lenton centre.

The right-hand side of the rear gallery wall shows a display by the City Council's Planning Department about the New and Old Lenton Conservation Areas public consultation, which ends on 12 July 2010. There are copies of the two reports, which both contain excellent appraisals of the areas and how there present state came about, as well as proposals propsals for future, including a small enlargement of each area. Links to online versions of the reports can be found at: www.mynottingham.gov.uk/planningnews.

As I was doing the virtual tour, I caught Alyn hanging the last pics, which were taken by Patsy Shaw, a long-time Lenton residents, who was talking about creating a Lenton community artspace with workshops long before The Crocus Gallery was a twinkle in anyone's eye.

The right-hand rear wall (I will add the names of exhibitors later in the week to all the pics).

And so another virtual tour comes to end at the right-hand front wall. The exhibits look much, much better in 'the real', so come on down and see for yourself. Then pop next door and in the Crocus Café for refreshments and a snack (lunch even). We look forward to seeing you.