“Falmouth Art Gallery worked in partnership with Falmouth Youth Club, Swamp Circus and leading Falmouth artists John Dyer and Jo Short to create an exciting float for the Falmouth Carnival. The theme was ‘Falmouth Youth Club visits Falmouth Art Gallery’.

The workshops were funded by Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the

activities surrounding the purchase of what many experts regard as John Opie’s finest painting A Beggar boy. The idea of the workshops was to help the community to value Cornwall’s rich and distinctive artistic heritage.

The curator would like to thank and acknowledge the tremendous work contributed by Councillors Gerald Chin-Quee and Lesley Trenchard. The artwork produced included John Dyer-style seagulls, elaborate gilt frames (made from cardboard!), individual costumes and large scale masterpieces copied or interpreted from the Falmouth Art Gallery collection. Some masterpieces from other galleries crept in, including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo and a landscape by Van Gogh.

Sadly, the Carnival was called off due to bad weather. To reduce the

children’s disappointment a fancy dress party was held the following week at the gallery. The ‘masterpieces’ and seagulls were hung from the rafters. Swamp circus kindly travelled from St Austell, where they were performing, to help entertain the children. The fancy dress competition was won jointly by all the children, who received as a prize a copy of Samantha Seagull VisitsFalmouth Art Gallery, a recent publication funded by The Heritage Lottery

Fund. Parents, staff and volunteers from the Gallery, and Youth Club workers came joint second in the fancy dress competition and were given biscuits and refreshments.