Northampton BID

Rose Finn Kelcey: House Rules
2026-08-01 10:00 - 17:00 (Europe/London) | NN Contemporary, Vulcan Works, northampton, Northamptonshire, NN1 1EW, United Kingdom
Arts Collective launches its new gallery programme with an exhibition revisiting the pioneering work of British conceptual artist Rose Finn-Kelcey, curated by Emer Grant. This marks the first presentation of the artist’s work in her hometown of Northampton.
Featuring photographic, installation and video works loaned from national collections and archives, the exhibition recontextualises Finn-Kelcey’s groundbreaking practice through architectural space and coded forms. It considers how formal systems and power structures shape experience through architecture, language, ritual and atmosphere.
Exhibited publicly for the first time since its original installation, Bar Doors (1991) captures architectural thresholds, foregrounding moments of passage between spaces. The photographic documentation of Finn-Kelcey’s site-specific installation—seven saloon-style doors installed in a Houston city park—invites viewers to reconsider familiar architectural features as markers of access and permission.
The exhibition also explores Finn-Kelcey’s fascination with spirituality and its connections to the commercial and domestic structures of contemporary life, featuring works such as It Pays to Pray (1990), God Kennel – A Tabernacle (1992) and Jolly God (1997). Her iconic flag works are also presented, including documentation of Power for the People (1972), in which a collective political declaration was placed directly onto the monumental architecture of Battersea Power Station while it remained operational.
Throughout the exhibition, architecture, movement and attention shape how the works are encountered. Finn-Kelcey’s work offers a lens through which to experience 24 Guildhall Road as an active structure—shaped by play, language and collective imagination.

Image Credit: Rose Finn-Kelcey Bar Doors (Photograph of installation) 1991
Wood, Houston International Festival, Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston, Texas. USA
©The Estate of Rose Finn-Kelcey. Courtesy the Estate and Kate MacGarry

From the Collection: Drawings
2026-08-02 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-04 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-05 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-06 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-07 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-08 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-09 12:00 - 17:00, 2026-08-11 10:00 - 17:00 and 21 more dates | Northampton Museum And Art Gallery, 4-6 Guildhall Rd,, Northampton, Northamptonshire, NN1 1DP, United Kingdom
An exhibition of drawings from the Northampton Museums & Art Gallery collection.
This exhibition explores drawing as a fundamental artistic language, presenting preparatory sketches and finished works that reveal how ideas take shape on paper. Through the delicate studies of Henry Moore, the atmospheric sketches of Walter Sickert, the imaginative designs of Sir Edward Burne Jones, and the expressive drawings of Clare Abbatt, amongst others, visitors are invited to consider drawing not merely as a preliminary step but as an art form in its own right. The works on display highlight how artists across different periods and practices use line, tone, and observation to experiment, problem solve, and refine their vision. Together, they celebrate drawing’s enduring role as a tool for exploration, invention, and creative thinking.
