Now on display in Colour Shape Pattern, Makutu by Barbara Hepworth draws the eye not only to its curves and surface, but to its void — the opening carved through its centre like a breath held in metal. Its name, Makutu, is drawn from Māori, meaning “enchantment” or “spell”.

There’s a new artwork on the block. Created especially for this exhibition by Suffolk’s own Lily Hammond. Come see it at Colour Shape Pattern: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape-pattern

If you took part in #wolseywriters today and would like to share your creative writing with Jade and @ipswichmuseums.bsky.social please email me. Finally, thank you to our brilliant friends at #NewWolsey Theatre #Ipswich @dougrintoul.bsky.social for welcoming us back after the summer break. 3/3

In turn, these inspired entirely new stories, poetry and original characters. The work shared in the room was as excellent and as compelling as ever. Thank you to everyone who took part in this workshop, especially for your fabulous feedback. 2/3 #wolseywriters @ipswichmuseums.bsky.social

A #WolseyWriters for the history books! THANK YOU to our wonderful guest speaker, Jade-Marie O’Grady from @ipswichmuseums.bsky.social What an absolute privilege it was to be allowed to see and hold some of the fascinating, precious artefacts unearthed in Ipswich town. 1/3

On display now in Colour Shape Pattern, Dale Devereux Barker’s Swim is one of a small edition of six, using a saturated palette to conjure the joy and motion of bodies in water. Or more precisely, above water. Figures contort mid-dive, limbs akimbo, caught between control and abandon.

This isn’t just an exhibition. It’s a celebration. Of print. Of design. Of shape. And it’s waiting for you at Christchurch Mansion: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape...

This vibrant painting pulses with saturated contrast: acidic green meets a bold slash of scarlet, bisected by curved teal shapes that seem to shift and realign the longer you look. It’s not just an exploration of form — it’s a conversation between colour fields, edges and energy.

🖼️ Fancy a gallery day? We’ve got colour, shape, and pattern in abundance. On loan from the Fitzwilliam. Curated in Ipswich: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape...

Sharp angles, colliding colours, and no clear front or back — Curt, November 1976 by Graham Crowley doesn’t ask for your attention, it grabs it. You can feel the influence of Crowley’s early fascination with street culture, industrial design, and abstraction, all forged in the heat of 1970s London.

As autumn settles in, take a moment to reconnect with local history. 🍂 Join a Peep into the Past tour at Christchurch Mansion and hear how this much-loved building has evolved over the centuries. These free guided tours are led by the Friends of Ipswich Museums, some of the people who know it best.

Art, but make it bold. Colour Shape Pattern includes eye-popping work by Bridget Riley, Josef Albers, Barbara Hepworth and more. Now showing at Christchurch Mansion: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape...

Josef Albers’ White Line Square Nine is a masterclass in controlled colour and optical rhythm. At first glance, it’s a study in orange. But spend a little longer, and you’ll see it shift. That slim white line isn’t decorative — it’s a fault line in space, disrupting your sense of depth and balance.

Gleaming like a frozen rainbow, this is the shell of the pāua, a sea snail species found in New Zealand waters. The inside shimmers with natural iridescence, caused by layers of nacre (mother-of-pearl) that once protected the animal from predators and pounding waves.

🔎 A new way to see an old story. A fragment of a Benin cast plaque from the Ipswich collections is now live in the Museum of West African Art’s digital collection, beautifully captured using 3D photogrammetry.

Fancy yourself a bit of a mastermind? Or just enjoy an evening of snacks, drinks, and shouting "I KNEW THAT" too late? Join us for our very first quiz night at Christchurch Mansion: a historic setting for some healthy competition (and a drink or two).

Make a date with modern art. Your ticket to Colour Shape Pattern includes access to the rest of Christchurch Mansion, so you can see Constable and ceramics too: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape...

Last chance to catch Summer Art Discovery Day before it wraps at 3pm! We’ve got a Mansion full of artists happy to share how they work. Even if you’ve only got 20 minutes, it’s worth the visit. You never know which piece (or person!) might stick with you. ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/events/summe...

Two hours left! There’s a buzz in every room: from the bold to the botanical, the mystical to the meticulously hand-drawn. No pressure to buy, just come and take it all in. ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/events/summe...

Summer Art Discovery Day is officially underway at Christchurch Mansion! From ceramics to print, pastel to paint, come and explore the work of over 20 local artists set up throughout the ground floor. 🎨 Entry is free, just drop in and follow the creativity. 📍 10am–3pm | All ages welcome

From Mayfair to the Food Museum, Spadge Hopkins has spent the last decade shaping East Anglia’s artistic landscape, quite literally. Now he’s bringing his bold, brain-tickling work to Summer Art Discovery Day, TODAY at Christchurch Mansion.

A Historical Fiction creative writing workshop - with real historical artefacts! ⚱️ #WolseyWriters x @ipswichmuseums.bsky.social Jade-Marie O’Grady and 'Ipswich in a Box' 📜 SAT 6 SEPT, 10:30am-12pm 🏹 At #NewWolsey Theatre, IP1 2AS Pay what you feel £0-£25 ⤵️ www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/events/wolse...

Step into a world of surreal charm and sideways wit with illustrator Michael Sheehy, joining us at Summer Art Discovery Day TOMORROW at Christchurch Mansion.

Mary Malenoir’s Cortile (Italian Courtyard) draws you into an architectural daydream. Light washes of graphite and pastel build a space that’s precise and suggestive: the walls are outlined, the plants are ghosted in, and the shadows of arches and objects blend into one another with quiet fluidity.

From tailors to takeaways, this #ThrowbackThursday is the junction where Queen Street, Falcon Street and Friars Street all meet. In the 20th-century photo, C.H. Greengrass’s “Old Corner Shop” was preparing for demolition—note the signs in the windows!

This busy corner shop once stood at the heart of a very recognisable junction in Ipswich, but can you name it? Look closely, and don’t miss the curve of the street just beyond… Can you picture what this area looks like today? We’ll reveal all this afternoon! #ThrowbackThursday

Have you seen the new exhibition yet? 📍 Colour Shape Pattern is now open in the Wolsey Art Gallery 🧒 Fun for families 🎨 Packed with pattern and print 🔗https://ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape-pattern

These photographs from our collections capture life aboard the paddle steamer Stour, which ferried passengers between Harwich and likely the Essex or Suffolk coasts.

An owl looms, bats hang, shadows ripple, and somewhere in the chaos, a pattern begins to emerge. Owl in Suspension by Graham Sutherland is one of the more enigmatic works in our Colour Shape Pattern exhibition.

“Right then, everyone stand still. And no blinking.” Taken around 1936, this scene captures life on Permit Office Street, viewed from Cox Lane in Ipswich. A crowd of children (and a few grown-ups keeping a watchful eye) have gathered.

This week, our Museum on the Move team brought Fossils Unearthed to the YMCA and unearthed plenty of curiosity along the way. We explored how fossils are formed, from living creatures to stone, before handling real specimens from the collections.

Before WiFi, contactless cards or heated seats, there was this. An early double-decker Eastern Counties bus, complete with open top deck, solid tyres, and a top speed best described as “leisurely.”

This is nice. Go and see it.

Our #ThrowbackThursday is the Gardener’s Arms, still standing at the corner of Plough Street, though the view behind it has changed dramatically. Gone are the wires and chimney stacks. One thing hasn’t changed, though: it’s still a local landmark.

Spot the Sonia Delaunay. Find the Magritte. Get lost in the Hockney. Explore Colour Shape Pattern at Christchurch Mansion: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape-pattern

A jug, a pan, a square. William Scott, born in Scotland and raised in Northern Ireland, made a career of turning the domestic and familiar into the abstract and elemental. He was fascinated by the language of objects: how a saucepan or a cup could carry not just use, but feeling.

This portrait of Mary Kilderbee was originally painted while Thomas Gainsborough was living in Ipswich, sometime before 1759. But Mary wasn’t content to let her image go out of fashion.

Amanda Marks has paddled canoes down the Congo, crossed Africa behind the wheel, and stood face-to-face with wild gorillas, but these days, her journeys are more pastel than petrol-powered. Join her at Summer Art Discovery Day, where she’ll be sharing her felt and pastel artworks.

Looking for a family-friendly activity this summer? ☀️ Step inside Christchurch Mansion and travel back through time with our Peep into the Past tours. Kids and grown-ups alike can explore everything from Tudor times to Victorian treasures. No need to book — just turn up and be curious.

From trolley wires to modern glass and metal! Our #ThrowbackThursday is St Helen’s Street, looking toward Major’s Corner. Back in the day, this was a quieter stretch. Fast-forward to today, and it’s all sleek curves and glass frontage. Check out the transformation where the old houses once stood!

We’re rewinding to an Ipswich street scene packed with atmospheric charm (and overhead trolleybus cables!) Can you guess where in town this was taken? This area looks very different today. Do you have any guesses before we reveal it this afternoon? #ThrowbackThursday

Spotted in Ipswich: a whole room bursting with colour and iconic art. You’ll find it inside Christchurch Mansion. Colour Shape Pattern is on now: ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/colour-shape-pattern

Painter, printmaker, observer of trees and truth: Steve Joyce brings a lifetime of looking closely to this year’s Summer Art Discovery Day, 20 August at Christchurch Mansion.

Oops, we overshot! Earlier, we shared a post about Orwell Bridge travel delays... except the works have finished. So, no more cones, no more crawling traffic. Just a nice smooth drive into Ipswich.

We have only the finest of museum bums in our Mansion. 😉

Don’t just take our word for it, our lovely visitors will tell you about the latest exhibition!

The water churns, the ferry rocks, and a flash of red marks a secret waiting to be found. Painted around 1814, The Mill Stream by John Constable offers one of the most atmospheric views of Flatford Mill, with the now-famous Willy Lott’s House standing quietly to the left.

A stroll, a strut or a bit of a show? George Frost’s Ladies in the Mall is a genteel scene with more drama than first meets the eye. Based on a painting by Thomas Gainsborough, it shows fashionable women parading through St James’ Park: gowns swishing, hats towering, small dogs very much on display.

Before rollercoasters, there was this: the height of thrill and steam-powered glamour. This sepia photograph captures a moment of pure Edwardian joy: crowds gathering at a local fair, probably in an Ipswich park, to ride a magnificent steam-driven carousel.

☀️ Woolly’s back—and he’s got his wellies on. ☔ This summer, join everyone’s favourite mammoth for Woolly’s Water Trail at Christchurch Mansion, running from 22 July to 31 August. Hunt for watery clues hidden around the Mansion and win a prize!