The New Art Gallery Walsaal

The Garman Ryan Collection was donated to the Borough in 1973 by Lady Kathleen Garman. It consists of 365 works of art, over a third of them being three-dimensional works. Two remarkable women created this collection: Kathleen Garman, lover and later wife of artist Jacob Epstein, and her life-long friend Sally Ryan, a talented sculptor.

Kathleen left the area and moved to London but made regular visits to Walsall and the Black Country. She was Sir Jacob Epstein’s long time mistress and eventually they married, when he died she was the sole beneficiary of his private art collection.

Much of the collection was sold but Kathleen started her own collection with her friend, sculptor Sally Ryan, together, they formed an art collection that is intimate, adventurous and eclectic, reflecting their wide-ranging tastes from many different cultures and periods around the world. In later life Kathleen was looking to give her collection a more permanent home and considered the old family home, Oakeswell Hall, unfortunately the hall was about to be demolished and so she came to Walsall and gifted the collection to Walsall Council.

The old Museum and Art Gallery in Lichfield Street housed the collection for many years but it was apparent these amazing works of art needed more space and special conditions. The Garman Ryan collection was the main impetus for the new gallery building we now see in Gallery Square which took ten years to plan and five years to build.

The galleries permanent collections contain over 1,500 sculptures, painting and prints.

Our mission is to present, collect and interpret historic and contemporary art in innovative and challenging ways that encourage the engagement and enjoyment of existing and future audiences.

Our purpose is to provide a cultural and educational service of the very highest quality and to act as a focus for civic pride and community identity for the people of Walsall and the region.

Our artistic programming, the development of our collections and our approaches to access, engagement and interpretation explore new models of how art galleries can contribute to people’s lives.

As an art gallery of outstanding excellence, we seek to disseminate our work as widely as possible, thus drawing national and international attention to Walsall and its achievements.

Our vision is to:

•  inspire lifelong engagement with art through positive learning experiences

•  be creative in our approach to all our work

•  support and nurture artists and audiences

•  bring artists and audiences together

•  to care for the assets entrusted to us

•  be inclusive and welcoming in everything we do

•  explore and be open to innovative and  challenging ideas, including those using new technologies

•  explore and develop partnerships and collaborations, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

The Gallery offers unpaid work experience and voluntary placements across various departments including; Exhibitions & Artists’ Studio, Technical, Collections, Art Library & Archive, Education & Audience Development and Marketing. There is not a set programme of placements per year; the number of placements offered being dependent upon the nature of the Gallery programme and the opportunities arising from this.