Huge 102% rise in visitor numbers at Mercer Art Gallery

Harrogate’s main cultural contribution to the Yorkshire Festival has been hailed a phenomenal success.

Visitor numbers have rises by a 102 per cent at Mercer Art Gallery since it launched its Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney exhibition in April.

An exhibition of art inspired by God’s own county has become one of the Mercer Art Gallery’s most successful ever exhibitions with over 24,000 visitors to the arts venue in the first five months.

Thanks to critically-acclaimed exhibition, which ends this Sunday, sales of books and souvenirs at the gallery increased by 378% compared to the same period last year.

Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney features more than 100 paintings, photographs and sculptures highlighting Yorkshire’s influence on the world of art.

From J M W Turner’s familiar landscapes to Atkinson Grimshaw’s moonlit harbour scenes and early work by Bradford-born David Hockney; the exhibition has been put together by Mercer Art Gallery curator Jane Sellars to place past masters and contemporary artists together in a new context.

The exhibition is the latest visitor success for the district as a summer of culture exploded in conjunction with the arrival of the Tour de France.

Art and Yorkshire runs to Sunday, October 12 at Mercer Gallery, 31 Swan Road, Harrogate.