Gallery turns to home-grown talent for latest exhibition

Work by artists from Abbey Walk Gallery in Grimsby has gone on show at the Ropewalk in Barton-upon-Humber.

Its first major exhibition in September, at Freshney Place Shopping Centre, attracted more than 20,000 visitors eager to see original works of art by artists including Picasso, Dali and Matisse.

Owners Elaine Munson and Gill Gibbon decided to open the gallery after graduating from the East Coast School of Art and Design in 2007. An Arts Council grant of 20,000 went half-way towards the cost of converting the former shipping agent's office which now rents out studios to artists. Mrs Munson said: "We have artists who are at different stages in their career. We have some who come in every day and that's their full-time profession; there are others who have jobs and come in in the evening and at the weekend and others who have just graduated who or studied for an MA.

"Everybody is at different stages but it is great because they can all get together and talk about their artwork and bounce ideas off each other."

Divergence, which opened on Saturday, includes sculpture, painting and original prints. It will run until February 27.