The Cloud Gazers have initiated this exciting, visionary proposal for The Cloud Gallery, an inspirational visual experience for artists and craftspeople, professionals and the public. It will be a place for people to come together to discuss, interact and support:

• art in the landscape
• sustainable design and construction
• ethical working relationships
• community involvement

You can download a copy of our brochure:

Brochure pdf file (3.7MB)

An introduction to the project by Anne De Charmant, Director, Meadow Gallery:

"Ecological issues have now risen to the very top of the political agenda and become, all at once, undeniably global, but also intimate to each individual. And now more than ever, art that is anchored in the landscape has a primordial role in communicating ideas and making connections.

Since it first became a genre in itself in the 18th Century, landscape art has always been an invaluable tool for charting our complex relationship to our environment. More recently, during the later 20th century the various movements of Land art or Environmental art were at the forefront of the rising environmental consciousness, highlighting issues and creating new context.

In the global environmental conversation, arts and artists in rural places have an invaluable voice to add. They speak the language of the land and understand how to truly engage with it from an invaluable perspective. Questions about the very nature of the countryside and the related social issues are another source of interrogations, and art in rural areas has a unique opportunity to involve the community in a reflection process.

But for this to take place, a space must exist which will focus energies and concentrate resources. In the last decades, various models for creating and showing art in rural areas have been explored, from the sculpture park to the temporary site-specific installation. All work in different ways, inspired by different environments, motivated by different perspectives and all have proved extremely valuable.

In South Shropshire, where there is an unusually high concentration of artistic talents and a receptive and ready audience, there has long been a very real need for a high profile venue dedicated to visual arts. With its amazing landscape that has inspired so many artists, the area needs and deserves a vibrant centre from where creativity can radiate and towards which important outside influence can gravitate. By giving local artists studio and exhibition spaces, but also by attracting artists from outside the region, The Cloud Gallery prepares to do just that.

The Cloud Gallery’s approach is both mindful and ambitious. By formulating a building that is at the cutting edge of ecological design, sustainability and ethical involvement, the Cloud Gazers demonstrate their commitment to establishing healthy roots; in their wish to provide a highly creative and stimulating creative environment they express a far reaching ambition."

Anne De Charmant