24 November - 12 January 2007

I CAME: I SAW An Open Art Exhibition of Ipswich First Impressions

I came; I saw... offered the chance to exhibit and build on your art collection. This 'open' selling show displayed an eclectic mix of artworks from across the community. Artists and non-artists, young and old, insiders, outsiders and strangers to Ipswich were all invited to submit work in any medium, the only brief being that works should respond to their first impressions of Ipswich.

The brief was purposely ambiguous and open to absolutely everybody - those who have lived in Ipswich some or all of their life, and those who have visited or have never been - with the intention of gathering ‘memories’ together with ‘ideas’ of Ipswich, either based on firsthand experience or from imagined pre-/mis-conceptions and even reputation.

Over 100 artworks were submitted from across the country displaying responses in a range of media: drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, woodwork, fashion, textiles, printmaking, photography, film and more. Purveying multiple themes that swing from the personal (memories and feelings) to the more humorous and anecdotal, illustrating key places, characters and periods of time.