Currently Showing at The Sherborne:
17.01.2026 - 12.04.2026
Airborne over Sherborne
Quentin Blake’s drawings have always carried lift — lines that leap, figures mid-flight, stories that rise off the page. Airborne over Sherborne invites you into that feeling of flight and freedom with a vibrant new series of works made in 2025: birds, contraptions, and impossible inventions that somehow feel completely believable in Blake’s world.
100 Portraits
Created exclusively for The Sherborne, 100 Portraits offers a rare chance to meet Quentin Blake’s imagination now: vivid, warm, and unmistakably his. These are not “likenesses” of specific people, but encounters — characters discovered through drawing, where a tilt of the head, a glance, or a single line can spark an entire personality.
The Folke Altarpiece: The Resurrection
Painted in Baroque drama and light, The Resurrection shows Christ rising above the tomb as angels flank the scene and Roman guards recoil below. Known as the Folke Altarpiece, this newly conserved work attributed to Sir James Thornhill returns to view on loan from St Lawrence Church, Folke — a striking counterpoint to Blake’s airborne imagination within the exhibition.
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Most visitors spend 60–90 minutes in the galleries. If you’d like time to read panels, sketch, and linger, allow a little longer — and why not add lunch or coffee while you’re here?
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Yes. Our exhibitions are family-friendly unless stated otherwise.
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Yes — photography is welcome for personal use, but please, no flash - the images are light sensitive. And absolutely: Quentin Blake is a joyful champion of drawing, so feel free to bring a sketchbook (or borrow a clipboard if available).
A selection of Airborne over Sherborne images is available in our shop as prints and postcards — take a little Quentin home with you. -
No booking required — just drop in during our opening hours.
The galleries are open Monday–Saturday, 10:30am–4pm, and Sunday, 10:30am–3pm.
Past Exhibitions
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Quentin Blake - A Christmas Carol
29.11.2025 - 04.01.2026
This winter, The Sherborne invites visitors into a uniquely magical experience: an intimate, candlelit display of Sir Quentin Blake’s original illustrations for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol—exhibited on the site where Dickens himself delivered a celebrated public reading of the story in 1854.Curated by Liz Gilmore
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Quentin Blake - Our Friends in the Country
27.09.2025 - 04.01.2026
Our Friends in the Country brings Sir Quentin Blake’s figures into rural settings, endowing them with playful narratives and gentle companionship. While specific visuals may vary, the consistent use of watercolour and pen conjures delicate yet vivacious scenes – where every brushstroke is alive with possibility, seemingly embodying characters who have wandered in from a dream.
Curated by Liz Gilmore -
Recurring Intricacies
10.05.2025 - 21.09.2025
Helen Sear, Charlotte Hodes and Amanda Benson
Complimenting and celebrating the extraordinary interiors of the newly restored Grade 1 listed Georgian townhouse, The Sherborne, Recurring Intricacies brings together photography, ceramics, papercuts and sculpture made by three female artists: Helen Sear, Charlotte Hodes and Amanda Benson.
Curated by Tim Martin -
BIND
01.03.2025 - 27.04.2025
Members of Dorset Visual Arts Salon Collective present new works that explore the relationships that bind and differentiate their various approaches to making work, with a focus and exploration on colour, drawing and interdisciplinary practice.
Curated by Dorset Visual Arts
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Drawing on Dorset
10.05.2025 - 21.09.2025
The project sought to celebrate a variety of approaches to drawing, presenting observation, recording, and enquiry. It was a collection of individual perspectives bound by the common thread of the county—its character, culture, and contours, expressed and captured through thought and line.
Curated by Dorset Visual Arts