Truro School Art Exhibition – Heseltine Collection

Rarely seen artworks from Truro School’s Art Collection will feature in Royal Cornwall Museum’s latest exhibition set to open on Tuesday 30 January. The show will feature iconic artworks from St Ives, West Penwith, Newlyn halls of Fame, and Falmouth Art School, expressed through diverse subjects and media.

David Heseltine, former Head of Art at Truro School, began building the collection in the early 1980s. As an independent school, Truro School was unable to borrow works from Cornwall Council Schools Art Collection. In response, Hesletine began the school’s own Collection in order that generations of students might learn from looking at the real thing.

The Collection is rarely seen outside of the school, and this is only the second time that the Collection has featured in an exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum in forty years. It draws from Heseltine’s unique personal archive and stories he gathered when visiting the many artists who gifted to the Collection or from whom he purchased.

Today, the Collection encompasses nearly 300 artworks representing a veritable A-Z of late 20th and early 21st century artists, the majority of whom lived and worked in Cornwall. Some, such as Jeremy Le Grice and Peter Lanyon, even had international influence in the art world. The exhibition features a diversity of works from artists including Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Kate Nicholson and Margot Maeckelburghe.

A selection from Truro School Art Collection will be on show from Tuesday 30 January – Saturday 18 May. Entry to the exhibition is included in standard entry price, which also includes an annual pass. Standard entry is £7.50, under 18s go free.