An art gallery, a shire horse and a dray

We’re about to start*installing the next exhibition for our Art Gallery. The Art of Advertising will feature posters and paintings from the NRM collection as well as loans from Tate, Bradford Museums and Galleries and York Art Gallery. The exhibition is about an LMS advertising campaign in 1924, when the company took the unusual step of commissioning 16 Royal Academy artists to produce their posters.
As well as artwork and posters, the exhibition will feature an LMS horse-drawn dray, like the kind used by the LMS to publicise their poster series. In 1925, the LMS used a similar dray to display the Royal Academicians’ posters, dressed it with flowers and entered it into a trade and commerce procession in Blackpool. It was a winning entry for the company.
Below you can see how we moved the dray out of its usual home in Station Hall to the back of the Art Gallery ready for installation. The safest way to do this turned out to be with the use of a large shire horse named Murdock, a resident of the Bradford Industrial Museum. Murdock did a great job of pulling the dray out of Station Hall, along Leeman Road and back onto site through the yard. He also generated a fair amount of excitement among the museum staff.
Here are some photos of Murdock (and driver Louise) in action.
Murdock bringing the dray out of Station Hall

Travelling down Leeman Road

Moving back onto site

Bringing the dray into the yard ready for installation in the Art Gallery

Murdock having a rest and a bit of breakfast before heading home

The Art of Advertising is part of Art in Yorkshire and opens on the 15*October 2011.

Filed under: Image collections, Museum news, Rail vehicle collections Tagged: LMS, The Art of Advertising

 

Fantastic! Heavy horses are always a draw at the NRM (no pun intended), something for the "other halves" to admire! It would be wonderful if the Leeman Road stables could be re-commissioned and used for events like this - any chance?

Foxy