Exhibitions
Exhibitions at Bruce Castle Museum
We are undertaking a phased approach to reopening Bruce Castle Museum and Archive to make sure it is safe for everyone to visit.
We are delighted that our Museum galleries are now reopening with pre-booked visits to our exhibitions. Please check below on how to book for the first gallery reopenings. More galleries will follow in the coming weeks.
To keep you safe when you visit Bruce Castle Museum and Archive, we recommend and encourage the use of face coverings (unless exempt) for all visitors and staff whilst inside the building. Please also be aware of other visitors and maintain social distancing where possible when moving through the museum.
Thank you for your patience and understanding - we hope you will enjoy your visit and look forward to welcoming you back.
Sisters, Sirens and Saints: Imagining the Women of Beatrice Offor
Special Exhibition of Portraits by Beatrice Offor (1864-1920)
Extended until December 2021
Commemorating the centenary of artist Beatrice Offor (1864-1920) who lived in Tottenham, this exhibition explores her beautiful portraits and the imaginings and portrayals of the women she painted.
Bringing together her artworks from the collections at Bruce Castle Museum alongside recently discovered paintings, this exhibition draws on new research, the influences in her life and the recent invigorated interest in her art.
Beatrice Offor is celebrated as being amongst the first women students who trained at The Slade, going on to become one of the few commercially successful Edwardian female artists. An unusually forward-thinking artist for her time.
To mark the centenary, the Friends of Bruce Castle have come together with Bruce Castle Museum and Archive to help raise money to support the restoration of one of the beautiful paintings by Beatrice Offor. If you would like to find out more about the project and would like to contribute, please visit the Friends' fundraising page here (external link).
How to book your visit:
This exhibition is currently open Wednesday to Saturday for pre-booked visits at specific sessions during the day.
Please note that one booking allows a ticketed entry for one person only. If you require more tickets for the same session, please complete the form again for each person visiting.
For times, availability and how to book, please follow the link below:
Book here for Sisters, Sirens & Saints exhibition
Location: Compton Gallery
We Have Always Been Here: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic LGBTQ+ history in Haringey from the 1970s to 1990s
Until 31 October 2021
This exhibition of archives, artefacts and oral histories from the Haringey Vanguard Collection at Bruce Castle Museum marks the end of an exceptional flagship heritage project, collecting and preserving the history of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic LGBTQ+ community and activism in Haringey from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Our exhibition title is a nod to the 'We Have Always Been Here' Report, authored by Linda King in 1987 to address the exclusion of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic voices from an LGBTQ+ archive.
Exploring the Vanguard collections you can find out about the invaluable work activists undertook to promote acceptance, as well as learn about Haringey Council’s pioneering role in the UK’s fight for equality. You can also look back and celebrate the camaraderie and cultural pride at the heart of community life from that time.
The project Haringey Vanguard was funded between 2018-2021 by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This partnership project was led by Veronica McKenzie, with Haringey Archive and Museum Service at Bruce Castle and supported by London Metropolitan Archives.
How to book your visit:
This exhibition is currently open Wednesday to Saturday for pre-booked visits at specific sessions during the day.
Please note that one booking allows a ticketed entry for one person only. If you require more tickets for the same session, please complete the form again for each person visiting.
For times, availability and how to book, please follow the link below:
Book here for We Have Always Been Here exhibition
For more information about the project, to hear some oral history excerpts and see other digitised archive material, please visit the Haringey Vanguard website (external link).
To look at more of the Haringey Vanguard Collection and to hear full versions of the oral histories, please make an appointment through Bruce Castle’s Archive Search Room.
Location: East Wing Gallery
Weaving Tales of Resilience
Until February 2022
Weaving Tales of Resilience reflects, records and retells stories from 2020 - of how our diverse communities in Tottenham supported one another whilst facing the challenges of COVID-19, stood side by side in response to Black Lives Matter and pulled together the community threads of resilience.
Christelle Mutombo-Cartier and Sonja Scantlebury are artists and community storytellers who work with textiles in Haringey. Their new textile and film-media creations have been made especially for this exhibition at Bruce Castle - to share the remarkable tales of resilience in our locality and to demonstrate that community and diversity matter.
How to book your visit:
This exhibition is currently open Wednesday to Saturday for pre-booked visits at specific sessions during the day.
Please note that one booking allows a ticketed entry for one person only. If you require more tickets for the same session, please complete the form again for each person visiting.
For times, availability and how to book, please follow the link below:
Book here for Weaving Tales of Resilience
Little OPEN OUT Gallery
From December 2020 we have welcomed local schools with our window art gallery takeover programme, with work by our very young artists.
Whilst schools haven't been able to take part in their usual workshops at the Museum, they can now take pride in seeing their own wonderful creations on the outside instead!
Just pop along and see what is new in this changing new art space with local schools and the wonderful art creations by our local young students.
Location: Little Open Out Gallery - external window display, North Façade (facing children's playground).
OPEN OUT Gallery
An art project where you can enjoy works by local artists - outside!
Enjoy this series of artworks - a collaboration between Bruce Castle Museum and Public Surface, a Tottenham-based organisation, encouraging and facilitating creative intervention in the public realm.
Location: OPEN OUT Gallery - external window display, East Wing of North Façade (facing children's playground).
For more information, or if you are a local artist and would like to take part, contact: museum.services@haringey.gov.uk
Follow the project on social media - external links:
- Instagram: @public_surface and @haringeycouncil
- Facebook: haringeycouncil on Facebook
- Twitter: @haringeycouncil
Art in the Tower
A changing display of multi-media artwork by resident art class Art2View in the Tudor Tower at Bruce Castle.
Open on special event days.
- Please note that the Tower is currently closed. Over the summer of 2021, the Tower will be undergoing major works to bring you a newly restored Grade 1 listed building by the autumn.
Works by the artists are for sale, and all proceeds kindly help the Friends of Bruce Castle and the Museum to support the free Family Art and Craft Activities Programme.
Location: Tudor Tower.