Lidia Ranns, a visual artist and designer in Lancaster, explains how she wants to encourage more people to embrace their creativity and encourage them to exhibit their work no matter their experience.
Lidia, who is also a volunteer at The Gregson Centre, a local Arts and Community Centre in Lancaster said: “This role has enabled me to nurture artists and creatives and help facilitate monthly exhibitions with artists who are from all kinds of backgrounds, both grass roots level and also those more established with many years experience behind them. We are a very unique community centre here, and that community spirit is at the absolute core of what the centre stands for, it’s such a welcoming and inclusive place. We don’t have any set criteria for exhibiting, as long as it’s family friendly and not offensive!
We have had such a different type of exhibitor each month, including wood crafts, willow weaving, photographers, college groups and Chinese calligraphers. I’ve assisted artists exhibiting here that have never shown their work publicly before and have had successful exhibitions which has helped their confidence and encouraged them to progress their art journeys further. We have a good contribution from female artists here too and that in itself is something to nurture and encourage. Females are very underrepresented in the creative sector overall, but the diversity and support of our community centre make it a really unique go to place to set great foundations on your artistic journey. We’ve all been there, wondering how to actually get our art out of the studio/living rooms/spare rooms and show it to a wider audience, so being able to assist and help artists realise their talents and potential is a really satisfying thing to do. I absolutely love my volunteer role here, it really does bring a lot of joy!”
As a centre, they encourage their exhibiting artists to have an art social evening, a very informal ‘meet the artist’ gathering, usually accompanied by the centre’s weekly jazz session, in which the musicians jamming form a very relaxing and entertaining ambience to the event.
“The art socials are a great way to meet the exhibitors and chat about their work. We turn to art for a variety of reasons, whether as a creator or a viewer, but the one thing art does is connect us, it can be a great conversation starter! Art and creativity is a conductor of our emotions and also forms a very personal interaction too.”
The popularity of the centre as a go to place for exhibiting artists is growing from strength to strength and the waiting list stands testament to this and the commitment from the centres staff and volunteers. “The waiting list to exhibit is getting longer. Our next available slot is March 2026, I hope I’m still here in this role then, because i just love it.”
The Gregson’s CEO Charles Tyrer added: “The Gregson is Lancaster’s oldest community and cultural hub. It is community owned and community led. Our walls belong to our local community, to local artists. As such our artistic policy is anyone who wants to exhibit can!
Our approach to how our exhibitions run really is our approach to how most activity runs here at the centre. Our mission is for people to be in the driving seat of their community and cultural experiences. So, we encourage everyone to make things happen here. Incredibly we are now home to over 60 different creative and community groups. There’s so much happening here – everything from parent and child groups, choirs, dance groups, arts and crafts workshops and a host of exciting one off events throughout the year. Incredibly we have 107 volunteers who also run a range of events from quizzes in our cafe bar to craft and chat groups. In a world that seems increasingly disconnected, where more of us feel isolated and where community can seem in decline, the Gregson is a beacon of hope. We invite you to come and check us out and find out more on our website
