RAMM reaches fundraising goal to host Dartmoor inspired programme
Published: 29 May 2024
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery has reached its fundraising goal for a Dartmoor-themed programme of activity starting this year, centred around new contemporary art exhibition Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape.
The museum, an Exeter City Council service, has achieved its goal of raising the funds needed to host an ambitious Dartmoor inspired programme starting this autumn. This includes £8,000 of support from local donors and supporters, a figure matched by lead partner, the Dartmoor Preservation Association.
These funds have contributed not only to the acquisition of a major new artwork by renowned Devon-based artist Garry Fabian Miller, ‘The Darkroom’s Fading Presence’, supported by a £10,000 grant from ArtFund, but also to exhibition costs, and a photography project for young people with mental health challenges. ‘The Darkroom’s Fading Presence’ (2020) will be on show for Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape in October.
Since the mid-1980s, Garry Fabian Miller has created beautiful artworks without a camera using the techniques of early nineteenth-century photographic processes experimenting with light as both medium and subject. Miller has lived and worked on Dartmoor for over 30 years where he continues to be inspired by his home on the moor.
The work will not only be on display in the temporary exhibition Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape at RAMM, but also becomes part of Exeter’s fine art collection ensuring generations to come will be able to enjoy its mesmerising and evocative beauty.
Garry Fabian Miller says of the work: ‘I look at this late exposure existing in a state of flux and auto-destruction. It creates both intense beauty and wonder, while seeming to also destroy itself. I am delighted that it finds a new home in RAMM, my local museum.’
RAMM’s Collections & Content Manager Julien Parsons said: ‘This good news is testament to the local community’s affection for its museum. We are looking forward to seeing the young people’s Dartmoor photography in the café; the major curated exhibition in our beautiful gallery spaces and of course the stunning new artwork by one of the UK’s most progressive photographic artists, Garry Fabian Miller.’
The Dartmoor Preservation Association’s CEO Tom Usher said: ’We are delighted to be partnering with RAMM to deliver this excellent exhibition. Dartmoor is a living, working, landscape that inspires so many. These contemporary photographers who know and love the moor help us to see it in a new light and reaffirm our commitment to protecting it.’