Harley Gallery and Foundation

The Harley Gallery and Foundation is an educational charity situated on the ducal estate of Welbeck Abbey in North Nottinghamshire.

The Harley Foundation was set up in 1977 by Ivy, Duchess of Portland, "to encourage creativity in all of us". The Harley Foundation works towards this aim through the activities of The Harley Gallery and The Harley Foundation Studios. The Harley Foundation is a registered charity and in 2010-11 had a gross income of £11,416,110.

The Gallery works towards the Foundation's objectives through the historical and contemporary exhibition programme, craft shop, events and education activities. The Gallery won a HETB award for excellence in tourism.

The Harley Gallery was built in 1994, "converted with great aplomb by Leo Godlewski from the old estate gasworks built by the 5th Duke in 1860."

The gas works were built to illuminate the 5th Duke's "New Works" at Welbeck, and were one of his early buildings. These works provided light and heat for the gallops, gardens and "underground drives which lace the Park... lit both by circular, plate glass skylights and gas lamps fed from the Duke's own purpose-built gas works (now the Harley Gallery)." The gas works were in a state of ruin when work began to convert them into the Gallery; however, parts of the original detail and character of the original building were retained - including an original roof truss which is still visible within the building.

The building won a Civic Trust Award for Architecture in 1995.

The Gallery has four exhibition spaces - one of which is the "Treasury" Gallery / Museum which is the only exhibition space in the UK dedicated to The Portland Collection. This is the historical fine and decorative art collection of the Cavendish-Bentinck family, including "one of the great unknown British aristocratic collections of plate". The displays show a selection of items from the collection, and are themed to illustrate the lives of selected family members, and change every two years.

The other three galleries are used to exhibit a wide variety of contemporary and historical art and craft, with exhibitions changing five times a year. Previous fine art exhibitions have included David Hockney, Peter Blake, Euan Uglow and George Stubbs. Craft exhibitions have included Kate Malone, Junko Mori and Hiroshi Suzuki.

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