My first experience of curating an exhibition, ‘In Reading Gaol by Reading Town’ was an exhibition of artwork by 20 Reading based artists inspired by Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’. The exhibtion was held in the Turbine House at the Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock in September 2019. Working with experienced curator Jenny Halstead and the artists to put on this exhibition was a great experience. Somewhere along the way I had the idea of ‘hugging’ the Gaol, to support the campaign to save it from housing developers and get it converted to a cultural hub instead. That’s a separate story. We had amazing feedback on the exhibition, including local radio and regional TV coverage.
