moving on...

After five wonderful years, thewhitegallery will be closing at the end of June. We are moving into Macclesfield, to a house where the children can have a trampoline in the garden and a dog to fuss over.

Of course, the joy of living at 13 Wellington Road has been the front room gallery, which has been a shop since the 1920's. First a cobblers, then a haberdashers, then a corsetieres, then the Greenhouse Gallery before we moved here in 2007 to set up thewhitegallery. Quite a journey for the house, and for us as a family. We've loved every minute of it, from the preview parties, to the exhibitions, to the last-minute christmas shoppers, to all the new friends we've made along the way.

I'm going to take a short break before launching myself back into my photography and writing, which i've been doing a lot more of recently. However, I won't be turning my back on the visual arts, and intend to carry on exhibiting and promoting new and established artists at every opportunity - I just won't be using a permanent or conventional gallery space to do it. I look forward to updating you via this blog, very soon. Also, I will continue to mail out interesting and unusual arts events and happenings that I'm either involved with, or find out about on my travels. There is so much going on in and around Macclesfield these days and I look forward to telling people more about it.

To start with, there's Macclesfield Barnaby Festival which starts on Thursday 21 June with Bell-issimo! a mass ring-in (involving church bells, hand bells, bicycle bells, alarm bells, mobile phone bells, people called bell..you get the picture!) and continues until Sunday 24 June with any number of fabulous things in between, including art exhibitions, live music and performances, the fete and carnival parade, midsummer tea party and evening feast, comedy, workshops and a touch of magic which will leave you breathless.

People all around us are busy creating something extremely special so please take part, visit the town over Barnaby and enjoy seeing Macclesfield at its very best. For more information, please visit www.barnabyfestival.org.uk

And please let me know if you'd like to be on my mailing list, or if you'd like to be removed. I can still be contacted on fionabailey@mac.com or by phone on 0776 167 7370.

It's been great getting to know all my customers over the years, and thinking of many of them now as friends. And of course, a special mention to all my lovely artists. Thank you for all your support and kindness. Until soon....