There have now been 83 exhibitions run at TAAG since our relaunch in July 2023 to December 2025:
July 2023 to March 2024 - 26 exhibitions / 518 participants
April 2024 to March 2025 - 27 exhibitions / 426 participants
April to Dec 2025 - 30 exhibitions / Approx 460 participants
During 2024 / 2025 we were able to offer several Solo shows and new collaborative exhibitions for local artists, long term supporters of TAAG and private groups. These ran alongside our own annual Open exhibitions & still provided ample space for community Art Societies to show the diverse work of members at all levels.
The Exhibition programme has continued to be extremely popular. The gallery calendar is fully allocated up to December 2027. We have actively endeavoured to expand the reach of the gallery through exhibition invitations to individual artists and organisations from further afield.
For TAAG to prosper it is essential that adequate opportunities are created within the annual calendar of events to support new local makers while providing a varied, fresh programme of stimulating, informative, diverse and sometimes challenging shows for our visitors. This in turn will attract new visitors and help to develop TAAG as significant Arts Venue for the SW. Planning and aspiration is essential.
Gallery booking fees have been frozen between April 2024 & March 2026 and have provided a modest but stable income to cover running costs. Gallery sales since Spring 2024 have been noticeably down on 2023/24 figures. This is in line with national trends from gallery owners across the UK, mainly due to economic challenges and national financial uncertainty. I do not believe this is any away a reflection on the range and quality of the work being exhibited. Regular feedback from our visitors has offered positive affirmation for our artists and has clearly indicated an appreciation for the raising of standards of work and displays within the gallery.
Workshops
Since reopening the TAAG Arts Centre we have been able to offer a wide range of taster workshops in bookbinding, printmaking (relief, collagraph, drypoint, gelli print, monoprint), sketchbook development, watercolour & mixed media painting and textile arts. We have introduced a monthly programme of Textile and printmaking clubs with over 70 regular participants signed up.
The Sketchbook Journey Programme (originally an online fundraiser project) has expanded to include regular one day workshops and mini residencies in the gallery. We continue to deliver our weekly community support Arts programmes three days per week.
We have been operating from a small workshop space on the ground floor. This has unfortunately stifled the potential growth of our workshop programmes but we have started to expand into the gallery whenever appropriate. From March 2026 the workshop will be relocated to the front of the gallery to raise the profile and visibility of our classes while providing a little more space.
This is a temporary measure until we can complete the work on the large purpose-built workshop space on the first floor. There is considerable interest from the community for regular, affordable Arts & Crafts workshops and hire of the space for independent groups once the work is completed.
We also took on a new premises in May 2025 - The Makery @ TAAG. This has helped significantly in supporting our Community Arts initiatives. Sam Lock, the driving force behind The Makery, has done a short separate blog post about some of what has been done in the year.
Funding for workshops
Through the fundraiser Sketchbook Journey Programme, various donations, and a lottery grant from MAKE Southwest, we have been able to offer free or low cost art, textiles and printmaking workshops since 2023.
This covers:
resource costs for the Print Club and Textiles@TAAG (two sessions of 10 people per month).
a small management Fee for the artist running the session.
workshop hire.
This funding runs out in December 2026.
Future education & workshop programmes
We have completed the initial registration to be able to deliver the national Arts Awards programme. The hope is also to begin offering a weekend Arts programme for school age participants as soon as the upper floor workshop is available. (Possibly introducing the national Saturday Club project).
Communications
We have an expanding mailing list for our weekly TAAG Newsletter, providing up to date information on workshops, events, Arts Centre shows and Arts related activities within Devon. This is our main source of communication with our supportive community, sitting alongside our regularly updated website www.teignmoutharts.org
We utilise Facebook & instagram to share news and exhibition information. Where practical we have started to introduce short taster videos and digital catalogues for specific shows. All these tasks are currently managed by volunteers.
Looking Forward
Since reopening in 2023 the Exhibition and Workshop programmes have been coordinated & managed by one of the Trustees (the Programmes Manager).
We are currently seeking several volunteers to take on more administrative and management tasks. It is intended that the overall co-ordinating role will eventually become a paid position for a new member of staff once the centre is fully operational. This could be a really exciting development opportunity for someone interested in a career in gallery and arts administration.
