Derby Museum & Art Gallery | 13 December 2024 to 23 February 2025
Mall Galleries | 10 to 15 March 2025
The Federation of British Artists at Mall Galleries and Foundation Derbyshire present The Missing Act, an exhibition of work created by Max Gimson, the ninth winner of the Jonathan Vickers Fine Art Award, in response to the people, culture, heritage and landscape of Derbyshire.
Over the past twenty-five years, the Jonathan Vickers Fine Art Award has become one of the most valuable art prizes in the country, bringing a rising artist to Derbyshire to produce a lasting legacy of contemporary work of national importance.
The exhibition runs at Derby Museum and Art Gallery until 23 February, before moving to Mall Galleries from 10 to 15 March.
The Missing Act is inspired by Max Gimson's discovery of the Derby Hippodrome.
To quote writer Will Eaves:
"Many of the great variety acts of the pre- and post Second World War eras, and even some Hollywood stars, played the Derby Hippodrome in Green Lane, built in 1914 to palatial specifications with a swagged-plaster dress circle and a bioscope for the projection of entr’acte films. On its broad stage Marie Lloyd serenaded the boy in the gallery, Max Miller traded one-liners in his flowery suits, Margaret Lockwood comforted the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, and Bela Lugosi reprised his most famous film role, hearkening to the children of the night, in a 1951 revival of Hamilton Deane’s adaptation of Dracula. Then came TV, in the mid-50s, and regional variety never recovered. The Hippodrome closed in 1959 and three years later handed itself over to Mecca Bingo. The last pensioners filed out in 2006, since when the once-packed auditorium has been dark."