Time is of the essence (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Time is of the essence

1:20pm Friday 14th March 2008 in Leisure

SHANDY Hall at Coxwold in North Yorkshire has become part of a museums hub whose aim is to promote visual arts in Yorkshire.

Its partners, all funded by Renaissance, are Harewood House, Sheffield Museums and Galleries Trust and Rotherham Museum. Co-operation between these bodies will lead to a sharing of expertise and items from collections.

The latest exhibition at Shandy Hall is Wings of Time, which opens on Easter Sunday, March 23, at 11am, with a general invitation to the public. It will include a 15-minute film by Thomas Newton, whose work was a huge hit in last year's exhibition, A Bitter Draught, about slavery.

His innovative photographic editing techniques are particularly suitable for an exhibition whose starting point is a quotation from Sterne's Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman which reads: "Time wastes too fast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows my pen: the days and hours of it, more precious, my dear Jenny! than the rubies about thy neck, are flying over our heads like light clouds of a windy day, never to return more - every thing presses on - whilst thou art twisting that lock, -see!

it grows grey; and every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, and every absence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make."

Mr Newton spent three weeks at Shandy Hall as artist-in-residence.

His film will be accompanied by a sound-scape by Craig Vear, a composer from York.

The artist Nigel Hutchinson has painted clouds all over the ceiling of the gallery, and several other artists are represented, including Royal Academicians Tom Phillips and the sculptor Alison Wilding.

The project, funded by Renaissance, involved pupils of Husthwaite Primary School being taught 18th century dance steps by the choreographer Jan Liddle- Hume. They also took part in bird ringing and climbed the tower at St Michael's Church to see the clock in the company of its winder, John Kendrew.

Admission to Wings of Time is free; Sundays only until the end of April and then every day except Saturdays until the end of June, 11am-4pm. For more details, contact the curator Patrick Wildgust on 01347-868465.