We’re just about ready at the Tithebarn Workshops for our 2025 Spring Fling. Our brand new Garden Bar is set up and waiting for its first customers when we open tomorrow.
We have lined up live music, tasty tacos, loads of arty goodies, pottery, glass and much more, with stalls in the garden and open studios.
The weather forecast is possible showers, but that won’t dampen our spirits and we are looking forward to welcoming everyone for a special day.
Preparations are continuing for the Tithebarn Workshops Spring Fling on Saturday 19th April. As well at the 9 stalls that will be selling their arts and creations from the garden, we now also have Tacos and Dreams providing their delicious food, a selection of live music and we have created the all new ‘Garden Bar’…
Thanks to a combination of hard work from the TBW gang, the painting skills of Serena and fabulous wordworking from Tim of TH Furniture, we now have our very own pop up bar ready for events. We have event licences in place for both the Spring Fling and the weekend of the Green Man Festival and we’re all very excited to welcome our first customers! Guest bar tending slots will be filled by all the crew down here, so watch out for your favourite bar staff!!
We hope to see everyone down at the Workshops next weekend!
A warm welcome awaits at SerenArts Gallery, part of the Tithebarn Workshops in Barton Farm Country Park, Bradford on Avon.
If you’re struggling to find that special gift your dear old Mum… why not pop down and see what we’ve got to offer. Perhaps a piece from our new, artistic aluminium jewellery range:
We have a selection of stunning designs and styles to choose from and each piece is completely hand crafted and unique.
From a fridge magnet to a fine art painting, we might just have the pressie you’re looking for!
We wanted to let you know that we have now set the date for Serena’s Pop Up Summer Exhibition… the weekend of 21st and 22nd June 2025. This not only marks the first official day of summer but also Serena’s first local exhibition at the Tithebarn Workshops.
The exhibition will take place in our brand new gazebo in the beautiful gardens of the Workshops. It will be open from 9am to 6pm both Saturday and Sunday and we are having a preview evening on Friday 20th June from 5pm to 9pm (please contact us for an invitation).
The show will feature all Serena’s very latest works and will give you the opportunity for a first look and maybe make a purchase before it goes into our gallery and on to the website.
In previous years we have attended various art fairs around the country. However, this year we made the decision to stay closer to home and offer our customers are more affordable and approachable way of buying art.
If you would like more information about the exhibition or would like to come along on the preview evening, please feel free to contact us.
Yes I had to Google it! It means ‘through difficulty to heights’ and is a frequently used Latin phrase apparently! We just thought it summed up our 2024 quite well… It’s been a bit of a year!
Why not start the year with a little bit of light flooding?! Not the best way to start 2024 but it only came into the gallery up to about our ankles so we were able to get up and running again quickly. It is always a quiet time of year at the Tithebarn Workshops, so it could have been worse!!
Feburary saw Serena working hard towards Bath Art Fair with lots of paintings being done. It was our second visit to the Fair at the amazing Bath Pavilion, after a very successful 2023 event. We had a great reaction to the latest work and also a few sales, which is always nice.
March saw the final stages of the huge Wessex Water project at the top of Pound Lane. Sinking an enormous 160,000 litre tank to give additional storage for storm water… well that was the plan! This job caused a lot of disruption to the businesses at Barton Farm in the early part of the year and had a detrimental impact on the Lions Day in 2024.
April saw a set back to our new years plans to get fit and walk to work every day! Serena went and fell over, breaking her ankle. This was in the middle of preparation for our next art fair. Exercise isn’t always good for you!
Despite anklegate… we made it Rochester Art Fair in May and it was really interesting to travel away from our area of the country and guage peoples reaction to Serena’s latest work. Being upstairs didn’t make things easy for the prospective buyers (or Serena on crutches!) but again the work was very well received and sales were made.
June was a quiet month with time to relax a bit before the summer season really got going. Sitting outside our beautiful gallery with smell of the roses all around.
2024 saw some absolutely cracking events at the Tithebarn Workshops, including our Summer Fayre in July. Music, food, art and lots of lots of fun for the whole family. These events have been hugely entertaining and great fun to put on… 2025 will see more!
It may not seem much in the great scheme of things, but when we got our new signs at the top of Pound Lane it marked a big moment for the Barton Farm area. We had been putting out temporary signs for over 14 years and now everybody knew where we were! Thank you to the Town Council for their help with this.
And on the subject of signage… our rebranding was completed with some stunning structures put up by Felix Byrne. Even the local cat seemed impressed!
The Bradford on Avon Pumpkin Trail was handed over to us at the Workshops in October and SerenArts Gallery became Pumpkin Trail HQ. Over 35 businesses took part this year and the Ex-Libris book token prizes went down very well.
Told you there’d be more of this! November saw the worst flooding we’ve ever had during our time here, surpassing the awful floods of 2013. The levels went as high as 3.51m and although that was only 9cm more than 2013, the difference was significant. We were down here at 4am getting everything lifted and ready, but this surprised us with the speed and levels it got to. A lot of cleaning to be done and once everything dries out properly we will have to replace some flooring and walls. We were luckier than many other businesses hit in Bradford… at least our gallery is a cow shed and kind of built for this sort of problem. Hopefully this wake up call will be enough for developers and coucillors to see sense and not build on any flood plains in and around the town.
December has been a lovely month with the Christmas bikes and lights up around the workshops (thank you Katie and her team at Burbidge Electrical) and the hugely successful late night shopping event we held. Pop up shops within each studio, mulled cider, mince pies, music and a whole lot of festive support from locals for us all down here. It was so nice to get the backing of community after a difficult time.
There have been up and downs in 2024 but we are a resilient lot down at the Workshops and you’re always guaranteed a smile here. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2025 and thank you to every one who visited and supported us all this year.
Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous new year.
If you get stuck in Bradford on Avon’s rather notorious traffic, why not give yourself a little break from the stress and follow one of these signs…
… head down Pound Lane to Barton Farm – a wonderful spot at the heart of Bradford on Avon.
We are lucky enough to call this our place of work, although it’s an absolute pleasure to be coming here each day! You will find not just the stunning Tithe Barn but a great selection of studios, shops and cafes, together with the West Barn, which regularly hosts exhibtions and events.
There aren’t many better spots on a beautiful sunny day like today…
Our gallery is tucked neatly at the centre of this oasis and can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday all year round and even on Bank Holidays!
You can also take advantage of other activities in the area such as paddle boarding or canoeing on the River Avon and Kennet and Avon Canal, all of which is within a 2 minute walk from the Barton Farm car park.
We look forward to welcoming you to Barton Farm soon and don’t forget the Tithebarn Workshops Autumn Fayre on Sunday 22nd September!
We have recently opened up our first Etsy shop to promote and sell Serena’s range of fine art prints that we offer.
The best way to get hold of Serena’s artwork is to come and meet the artist at our beautiful gallery, at the Tithebarn Workshops, and buy it in person. But if you’re not able to get to Bradford on Avon then our new Etsy outlet is a great place to obtain a giclee print. A larger range of original artwork and prints are also available from Serena’s website.
This time next week we should hopefully be arriving in Rochester (M25 permitting!) and setting up in the Corn Exchange, for a weekend of Art Fairing! It promises to be a busy weekend as the Fair coincides with the Sweeps Festival which brings big crowds to the town. Serena is busy putting the final touches to the last few works and we’ll be ready to go.
Our gallery is going to remain open over the weekend while we’re away, as the lovely Martha and Dominic (Bramble Moon) are taking the reins at SerenArts. They are bringing in their magnificant selection of home propagated house plants and crystals and setting up a little pop-up shop within a shop!
We will be back and ready for the first bank holiday on 6th May… unless we sell out of paintings at Rochester!!
With just a couple of weeks to go now until the Tithebarn Workshops Spring Fling, we thought we would share some of the promotional images that have been created to advertise this event…
The team at the Tithebarn Workshops now includes…
In addition to these lovely people, we would also have live music, art stalls in the garden, food, a bar and much more…
We hope to see you all very soon for some flinging in the garden!
Just a quick heads up to let you know about another fun event taking place at the Tithebarn Workshops next month. More details will follow but you can pop 20th April into your diaries if you like. It would be great to see everyone here again.
SerenArts Gallery 