Utility to Futility - Until 5 July

For many worldwide, ‘Hereford’ is synonymous with the county’s white-faced, red-coated cattle. The development of this much-loved breed has close connections to North Herefordshire, including The Rodd near Presteigne, a Jacobean manor house formerly home to Aaron Rogers, ‘a pioneer amongst Hereford breeders’.

'A View from Nowhere' is an exhibition presenting a collective creative response to sets and sequences of recently discovered photocopies produced by Sir Sidney Nolan (1917 – 1992), that were made in 1987.
The show launched at the Burren College of Art in the West of Ireland, which is extremely close to where Nolan's ancestors hailed from, and a place he visited and reconnected to from the 1970s on.
www.burrencollege.ie/a-view-from-nowhere/

In tandem with our current exhibition, join Nolan scholar and author of Nolan’s Africa, Andrew Turley, for a deep dive into these fascinating paintings. In this online talk, Turley will unpack the triggers, themes, and making of Nolan’s 1963 African paintings as we journey together with the Nolans through East Africa.

Inspired by Sidney Nolan’s interest in the connection between poetry and painting, we will explore the artworks in the current Africa exhibition and consider how we can respond to it through words and images.

The Healing House is an incredible shadow puppetry and live music show by internationally renowned Fetch Theatre that celebrates the story of Ukrainian folk artist Polina Rayko. This family show is suitable for ages 7 to 97!

Launched in 1981, Quantel’s computer graphics workstation, the ‘Paintbox’ marked the dawn of the digital image and changed the visual world forever. The exhibition reveals the first digital artwork ever created by Sidney Nolan as well as other important artists pioneering this technology.

Kate is an artist-explorer who wonders and wanders in the local landscape, drawing from archaeological artefacts, social history and other forms of research. Moving across disciplines, with story at its heart, her work offers a bittersweet encounter with the natural world. At the Water’s Edge is a layered response to Glacial Lake Wigmore in North Herefordshire, inspired by a postcard that Sidney Nolan sent from his 1964 visit to Antarctica.

Daisy's work seeks out concealed narratives within home spaces, employing speculation and personal experiences to unravel the past. Images created using drawing, print and photography will occupy the space in different ways to heighten the sense of what Daisy has discovered through her engagement with the environment of Rodd Court and its occupation.

Learning to see with ancient eyes – Reflections on climate, education and social change

We are delighted that Ben Rawlence will present the inaugural Sidney Nolan Birthday Lecture. Ben is an award-winning writer and activist. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Black Mountains College. His latest book is The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth.

In this FREE online talk and discussion, pioneering 1980's Paintbox artists Richard Bain and Adrian Wilson will analyze and contextualize Sidney Nolan’s first digital images, created on Quantel's 1981 Paintbox, discussing this revolutionary tool's wider importance and implications, both in the History of Art and in today's digital world.

Learn how to create unique photos by making your own pinhole camera!

Abet is our new arts programme for adults 25+. We meet at The Rodd and explore different aspects of contemporary art practice, make art and eat good food!

Welcome to the annual FREE Community Day at The Sidney Nolan Trust! Join us for a day filled with live music, storytelling, art activities, food and drink. This event is a great opportunity to connect with the community and explore the beautiful surroundings of The Rodd. See you there!

This year we are delighted to have live music by Iris Rei, Toby Hay, Presteigne Pop Choir and storytelling by Fiona Collins.

Earth Photo presents images and short films that focus on the pressing issues affecting our planet to stimulate conversations about our environment and the impact of climate change. A selection of shortlisted entries and prize-winners are presented outdoors at large-scale.

The picturesque Hogback Hills above Kington are an exceptional geological phenomenon - at 700 million years old they are the oldest rocks in Wales. This exhibition presents new drawings, paintings, photography and sculpture by 21 artists to reveal and illuminate the extraordinary geological, ecological and human story of Hanter Hill, Worsell Wood and Stanner Rocks.

In the first of two workshops we will explore the long-standing tradition of making work outdoors ('en plein air'). Using the fantastic landscape surrounding The Rodd, we will use paints and drawing materials to respond to the scenery around us.

Cultivate is our creative programme for young people aged 11 - 18.

In this special summer edition, we are delighted to be working with film maker Lal Davies to create short films with the theme: Sense of Place.

Join us outside in the beautiful setting of the Rodd landscape to be inspired and draw and paint outside from nature.

In this illustrated talk, artist Tim Craven will consider why British artists are innately drawn to a romantic sensibility.

In the first of two DIY printmaking workshops we will explore printing with Tetra Pak. The versatile material is perfect for creating your own Intaglio prints.

In the second of our DIY printmaking workshops we will explore 'kitchen sink' lithogrpahy, using tinfoil and other easily available materials.

In this family friendly workshop we will take a stroll round the grounds getting to know some of the individual trees and the way they live. Everyone is invited to make their own little fold-out artists’ book of drawings as we go and will then create a large portrait of our favourite tree.

Artist Fiona McIntyre is delighted to return to The Rodd to conduct another Pigments into Paints and Ink workshop. A member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and founder member of The Arborealists Fiona works with natural materials combining quality mineral pigments such as lapis, lazuli, terre verte, foraged ochres and plant material.

Exhibition of recent artwork from the Sidney Nolan Trust’s youth arts programmes

The Sidney Nolan Trust’s youth arts programmes MAKE and Cultivate provide young people, with an interest in the arts, the opportunity to develop their creative thinking and making skills through research and experimentation.

A R T F A R is the first solo art exhibition of a Nigerian Dominican priest Gerald Isiguzo OP, a visual artist, and currently a graduate student of Swansea College of Art and Design.

Join Richard Gilbert for a free fun filled drop in workshop to create a 10m long scroll painting of the
geological cross section of southern Britain from Beachy Head to Anglesey.
This is a family friendly drop in activity, no booking required.

CANCELLED due to artist illness. We hope to reschedule in Spring 2025
A short ‘tree safari’ around The Rodd's grounds before settling in front of your chosen treescape to make a series of rapid sketches, capturing character and light. Back in the art room we will spend the afternoon experimenting freely on large sheets of paper, turning our sketches into more personal interpretations.

In this illustrated talk, artist Richard Gilbert considers why British landscape artists through the centuries have taken to hills and high places.

In this workshop, photographer Rebecca Reynolds will be guiding us across the night sky. Discover how to pick out the visible constellations, photograph the stars, process your digital images, print them and make a book to take home. Wrap up warm and journey across space and back in time.

Binderella is a tale for our times, the wild birth-myth of an Anti-Goddess who challenges the forces of greed and despair that seek to steal our future from us. This anarchistic wonder story peeks through the cracks in our society, fusing an environmental rallying cry with an uplifting call for compassion and courage in this age of crisis

A Path to Meaning - An illustrated talk by musician, composer, music critic and author Stephen Johnson

Abet is our latest arts participation programme for people 18+. We meet at The Rodd and explore different aspects of contemporary art practice, make art and eat good food! In this next session we will use the current Hogback Hills exhibition as a starting point for our investigations and making.

Based on our current exhibition Painting with Light, this workshop will playfully explore montage, photography and digital technology.

A joyful, varied workshop to honor the unfurling nature around us and Easter traditions connecting us to the land. Drawing, planting, printing, collecting and making.

Ingrid's practice approaches identity and loss as subjects to reflect on migration as a global phenomenon. Ingrid's residency is in tandem with the exhibition Plant Communitas.

The Plant Communitas exhibition features a community of artists from diverse practices and places. The artists work locally, nationally, and internationally and are united by their interests in human-plant relations.

Earth Photo explores images and short films that focus on the pressing issues affecting our planet to stimulate conversations about our environment and the impact of climate change. The shortlisted entries and prize-winners are presented at large-scale outdoors.

Inspired by the seminal environmental work of Rachel Carson in 1962, the artwork highlights the rapid decline and threat to British breeding birds by reference to their songs, which are rapidly disappearing from our countryside.

SOMETIMES I MISS THE APPLAUSE positions a new Nolan for the 21st century. Informed by his work for the Royal Ballet and originally commissioned by the Heide Museum, Nolan's spiritual home, this exhibition looks at art and life in a post-Nolan Australia.

Sidney Nolan’s former home, 17th Century Rodd Court, will be used to present new and evolving interpretations of the artist’s life and work. A series of new displays reveal the concept of Process as central to Nolan’s artwork and expose new artworks and artefacts from the Trust’s collection and archive.

In culmination of their year with the Trust, 2022 Resident Artists present an exhibition exploring patterns of shadows, light and the darkness formed by the interplay of plants and light, drawing on the influence of Sidney Nolan’s epic Paradise Garden artworks.

This survey exhibition selects from a range of landscapes that have been key sources for the artist over thirty years. There are paintings from the U.K, Ireland, France, Australia, Peru, and Antarctica, drawing parallels with Nolan's travels and captivation with primal landscapes.

Inside Out embraces both exterior and interior landscapes and seeks to honour the natural, feminine and domestic. Responding to the environment at The Rodd, Harvey’s sculptures focus on the emptiness of the Granary, reflecting on manual labour, the dependence on the land and the harvest and storage of fodder.

The Buzzer references the nickname of a Russian military radio station, call-sign UVB-76 that has continuously broadcast the same tone and enigmatic coded messages for many years. It speaks from, and reminds us of the era of the Cold War when the threat of nuclear Armageddon and the projection of military power beyond borders was regarded as an ever-present danger. Two months after this work was completed, Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

This pop-up exhibition presents new artwork made by members of our youth arts programme Cultivate.

The Mappa Marches touring exhibition brings together 7 artist, 2 poets and an aerial filmmaker to celebrate the solace and magic of our landscape history and culture.

In partnership with Aboriginal Art UK, we are delighted to present a major exhibition of indigenous Australian Art. The exhibition features artworks by renowned Aboriginal artists, as well as some emerging talents.

In Dreaming The Land, McIntyre expresses an imagined landscape by a synergy of objects drawn from the personal collection of Sidney Nolan. She is interested in his unique vision of landscape imagined, remembered and expressed from a perspective of separation and time.

Konstantina (Kate Constantine) is a proud Gadigal woman of the Eora nation and a neo-contemporary indigenous artist. She is re-imagining the traditions of her peoples’ dot painters and providing a modern narrative for all Australians to better understand First Nations People as part of the fabric of Australia.

Inspired by his ancestral home in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland, Nolan created a series of large monochrome spray paintings, which reveal his fascination with the ancient Celtic landscape and cultural symbols. This is the first presentation in the UK of Nolan's complete Celtic Image series.

Jim Carter is an environmental artist working in sculpture, ritual, sound and photography to explore themes of loss, remembrance and regeneration in relation to animals and landscape.

Daniel MacCarthy is a painter who studied at the Royal Drawing School and then attended the inventive Turps painting programme. We present a major solo exhibition of his work completed during his 12-month residency at The Rodd.

Sidney Nolan's Photographic Archive extends to some 30,00 images that span his personal life and career. This exhibition focuses on his imaginative use of Polaroid photography.

The World Premiere of Sidney Nolan's Auschwitz paintings.

Sidney Nolan's Photographic Archive extends to some 30,00 images that span his personal life and career. This exhibition focuses on his imaginative use of Polaroid photography.

In 1957/58 Nolan spent time in Paris with the influential printmaker Stanley William Hayter. This exhibition includes previously unseen works that Nolan made in Paris as well as works by leading surrealist artists associated with Hayter's studio.