The day trip to the Wirral, to the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead and the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight was voted another success, a visit to two very different galleries.

The Williamson Art Gallery – like many others – is showing the effects of changed financial circumstances, in contrast to the era when it was built. The information on their website was out-of-date and we arrived to find things we were expecting to see not there at all, and despite some wonderful art in many forms, presentation contrasting with what we then saw at the Lady Lever, where galleries reopened only 4 years ago after a £2.8m major re-development, removing decades of building ‘improvements’ and returning them to the original architectural style of 1922. When we visit galleries and exhibitions, our attention goes first to the art we’re there to see, but the contrasting 21st century situations of these two galleries highlights what goes on behind the scenes to make the art available for us to even look at.

The day gave something for everyone, with plenty of contrasts. At the Lady Lever there was the wonderful late Turner, portraits by Reynolds, Pre-Raphaelite paintings by all the big names and then the work made by Matisse in the later stage of his life. At the Williamson, a project developed out of a chance discovery of an old collection of family photos contrasted with the contemporary portrait photography of the women working at the city’s Cammell Laird shipyard. There was the contrast of a very large collection of Wedgewood plus Chinese ceramics at the Lady Lever with the Arts and Crafts ceramics from Birkenhead’s Della Robbia factory.

Both galleries were established by people who believed that making art available for their local community to see was so important that they made major investments into it. The Lever brothers’ 19th century soap business and the development of Port Sunlight – including the art gallery – was part of that. In Birkenhead, the Williamson Art Gallery is named after one of the directors of Cunard, John Williamson. A legacy from him and his son funded its building, which opened in 1928 (six years after the Lady Lever opened). Birkenhead Council had already built up an art collection, believing in the need for this for their city. The number of people wanting to visit art galleries – including us – has grown and grown. A century ago, these key individuals, influencers in their own time, supported a trend still growing and which we are part of.

The great variety of photos captured by Mike White, Anne Linton and Jennifer Wallace, of which the above are just a sample (thank you all!), show the spirit of our day and how much we enjoyed it. We are also especially grateful to Jennifer and Jillian Wallace for organising the day for us, and to Jennifer for putting together the text of this report.

Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery and Cathedral are next door to each other, giving us more than enough to fill the autumn galleries day trip without going farther afield (unless you wanted to).

Like most city galleries, The Herbert has an art collection which is a reflection of purchases over many years which combine local interests with making a wide range of high quality art available to everyone. Their Peace and Reconciliation gallery, for example includes the painting by John Piper of the Cathedral in flames, his response to seeing the ruins the day after the bombing of the city and it’s no coincidence that the current exhibition, Coventry Biennial – The Twin, shows a range of contemporary international artists’ insights and responses to globalisation, looking in particular at cities Coventry is twinned with.

The Radical Drawing exhibition came out of Coventry’s history with Courtaulds, and their link with the London art gallery. It brings together Courtauld collection drawings and drawings from public collections of West Midlands galleries and was more than food for thought about drawing past and present – something of interest for all of us who make art, regardless of media and genre.

From the 1940 bombing of the old Coventry Cathedral, came a unique collaboration between architect and artists. Sir Basil Spence commissioned artists including Jacob Epsten, Elizabeth Frink, John Hutton, John Piper, and Graham Sutherland – commissions unequalled for the 1950s? Again, no coincidence that as part of the Coventry Biennial, in the Chapter House they were showing Bosnian artist Šejla Kamerić’s video installation, 1395 Days without Red, about 4 years of siege in another of Coventry’s twin cities, Sarajevo.

An unexpected extra was being in the cathedral when the rehearsal for the evening’s performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius was on – what a wonderful way to escape all the rain that we might all be remembering this autumn for?

Thank you to our trip organisers Jennifer and Jillian Wallace, and to Jennifer, Anne Linton and Karen Worrall for the photos that give a flavour of all that we saw.