A DIVERSE group of artists from the Wessex region have been working with The Salisbury Museum to celebrate the re-housing of their unique archaeology collection with a new temporary exhibition.

Conversations with Collections will open on Saturday, July 11, exactly a year to the day since the Grand Opening of the world-class Wessex Gallery.

This exhibition offers a compelling insight exploring a modern artist’s response to the artistry and vision of their Wessex ancestors.

Sarum Artists, all former Fine Art students from Wiltshire College, was founded in 2006. The group meets once a month to share news, discuss work-in-progress and to arrange exhibitions. In December 2013, they approached the museum with the idea of working with the collections. This was a key time in the re-development of the museum and the perfect opportunity to focus on celebrating the new Wessex Gallery. At the time, the archaeological collection was in temporary storage, as its own, purpose-built gallery neared completion. The Sarum Artists are the first group to respond to the new displays.

Artists and museum staff have worked closely from the start, from discussions of the initial proposals, through preparatory ideas to the final selection and hanging of the work. When the Wessex Gallery opened, each artist chose their own inspiration from over 2,000 objects. Adrian Green, the Director, gave the artists tours of the gallery and behind the scenes access, where they had opportunities to handle some of the items such as arrowheads and pots – one-time objects of daily life. The artists were also able to visit freely, sketching and making notes.

The responses to this opportunity were unanimous. “This wonderful space houses an amazing array of artefacts which take you back through time. The journey starts at Old Sarum, just as the founding of the modern cathedral is about to bring a new town, Salisbury, into being. From here you travel back to earlier Anglo-Saxon settlements, further back to the Roman invaders, further still... right into the Palaeolithic Era, when mammoths roamed and our Stone Age ancestors made their first flint hand axes.” said artist Jutta Manser.

Such close contact with the past was remarkable and stimulating, prompting exclamations from the artists such as: “It’s amazing! Feel how it fits your hand.”

“What was this axe was last used for? Scraping skins perhaps, or making shafts for arrows?”

“Look at the image of Caesar on this coin – such detail.”

Slowly ‘Conversations with the Collection’ took shape. This exhibition is more than just pictures of objects; it is the outcome of imagination inspired by the past, linking to the present.

The ‘Conversations’ between Sarum Artists and people of the past, span over 40 centuries. They are a just a tiny part of a continual dialogue between today and yesterday. From the earliest times, mankind has employed ingenuity and skill to make tools and weapons, create images and ornaments, to trade and amass wealth. The preoccupations of our ancestors can be glimpsed in the objects (and the bones) they left behind. How like or unlike us were they? If you go to the Museum, you can see for yourself and join the Conversation!

Conversations with the Collection is on show at Salisbury Museum during normal opening hours from July 11 until September 12.