About the hall
A drying loft turned picture gallery, a learning team with a cupboard full of pencils, and the people who keep it all open.
A loft full of north light
Ochre Hall takes its name from the colour of the old tannery walls, which we still match every time a room is repainted. The long room upstairs was a drying loft; its north windows are the reason the paintings look the way they do.
The history on this page is sample content for an invented museum.
- 1871
A tannery warehouse
Built on Tannery Row to dry and store hides, with tall north windows and a long top-lit loft.
- 1924
A painters' society moves in
Local painters rent the loft as a shared studio and start collecting the pictures nobody else wants.
- 1968
The hall opens
The society gives its collection to the city. The loft becomes the long room, and the doors open six days a week.
- 2019
The Garden Court
The old drying yard is roofed in glass and becomes the café and the conservation studio.
- Today
About four hundred paintings
A hundred and twenty on the walls, three exhibitions a year, and free entry for everyone under 18.
The painting most often drawn by school groups, Room II
For schools, families and anyone with a pencil
- Schools
Free morning visits
Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 to 12:00, for classes of up to thirty. A host meets you at the door and every child leaves with a drawing.
Book a school visit - Families
Weekend trails and drawing bags
A new trail every month and a drawing bag to borrow from the desk, with pencils, a clipboard and a magnifier.
See this month's trail - Adults
Talks, lates and the slow-looking hour
Thursday evening talks, a slow-looking hour on the first Tuesday of the month and a winter course on reading paintings.
See the talks - Drawing
Drawing in the galleries
Saturday mornings at 11:00, led by a visiting artist. Stools, pencils and paper provided. No experience needed.
Save a stool
Who keeps the lights low
Curators
Choose what hangs, write the room notes and plan the exhibitions two years ahead.
Conservators
Clean, repair and watch over the paintings, in the studio and on the walls.
Hosts
Meet you at the door and in every room. Ask them anything; most of them draw.
Learning team
Run the school mornings, the family trails and the Saturday drawing sessions.
Technicians
Hang and light every room, and move four hundred paintings very carefully.
Volunteers
Guide tours, help at the desk and keep the Garden Court growing.
Write to the desk
We answer every message within two working days. For anything on the day of your visit, call the front desk.
+1 555 010 0158- Visiting and ticketsvisit@example.com
- Schools and learninglearning@example.com
- Accessaccess@example.com
- Membership and givingsupport@example.com
- Press and imagespress@example.com
Come in, and take your time
Doors open at ten. Thursdays stay open until nine, with the lights a little lower and the rooms a little quieter.
Under 18s and members walk in free