At the heart of the popular local Williamson Art Gallery is a courtyard as big as any gallery, but unknown and overgrown with weeds. 

Two years ago the Friends of the gallery drew up ambitious designs to open up the courtyard as an outdoor gallery where all visitors can enjoy a place of quiet sitting amidst greenery and sculpture. We are now well on our way to achieving our dream. The paving, planting beds and bases for sculpture are all in place and next month the planting will go in. 

To bring the Green Gallery to life so that it can be really used by anyone who visits the Williamson, we now need to furnish it. We hope to fund the purchase of benches by donations in memory of loved ones, but we need to raise funds for the tables and chairs where people will be able to sit and read, drink their coffee, or just enjoy a moment of quiet in beautiful surroundings. We also need to be able to install electricity and lighting to enable evening use and small scale outdoor performances. The gallery has 30,000 visitors a year, mostly local people, runs many art classes for disadvantaged children, hosts the university of the Third Age and visits from schoolchildren, and all of these people and more would be able to freely enjoy the delight of the Green Gallery. Being able to offer a beautiful outdoor space in which to sit and relax, eat lunch, listen to music, and allow children to play, will enable us to attract more people to the Williamson to enjoy and be a part of our broad range of enriching activities.