A Geopark-supported art exhibition, celebrating the rise of animal life, has been extended into 2025, giving more people the opportunity to visit this amazing collaboration between artists and scientists.
‘First Imprints’ is on display in the Balcony Gallery at Loughborough’s Town Hall, and features artworks inspired by the fossils of Charnwood Forest Geopark, as well as other important sites around the world, including Canada and China.
The exhibition is the product of a collaboration between the artists of the Oxford Printmakers’ Co-operative, and research scientists from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. In 2019 the museum opened a major new exhibition, First Animals, bringing together fossil specimens from around the world that told the story of the rise of animal life. In advance of the opening, Oxford Printmakers were given access to the fossils, with the aim of bringing them to life through art. Many of the early animals are preserved as impressions in the rock, so it was appropriate that the artistic reflections on these fossils should be made through the “pressed” processes of printmaking. Following the end of the First Animals exhibition, we were pleased to welcome a selection of the works from the associated First Imprints collection to Loughborough Town Hall.
The exhibition is open on the Balcony Galley at Loughborough’s Town Hall, and can be seen free of charge. You can attend the Town Hall to see the exhibition on Monday-Friday 10am-4pm, and Saturdays 10am-3pm.