The Art Museum Galleries and Tea Room are closed until Monday 29th March 2027.
Office, shop and curatorial staff and volunteers remain working throughout the winter, Monday to Friday. Please call or email if you have an enquiry.
To enquire about a group visit in 2027 then please complete the online form.
For archive and curatorial enquiries: curator@munningsmuseum.org.uk
Address: Munnings Art Museum
Castle House, Castle Hill
Dedham, Colchester, Essex
CO7 6AZ
“Who would have thought I should ever be President of the Royal Academy, or be knighted by the King? ” What a “go ! ” as an Essex farmer friend wrote to me in a letter.” – Alfred Munnings
Royal Patronage
Her Majesty Queen Camilla has accepted an invitation to become Royal Patron of the Munnings Art Museum
(October 2026) The Trustees and Director of the Munnings Art Museum are delighted to announce that following the visit by Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla in February, The Queen has accepted an invitation to become the museum’s first Royal Patron.
Chairman, James Johnston said: “Her Majesty’s patronage is a wonderful affirmation of our ongoing work to engage people with the museum’s world-class collection. This wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and dedication of everyone involved with the museum.”.
Jenny Hand, Museum Director, added “Violet Munnings was the driving force behind opening the museum in 1961 and it is as much her legacy as it is that of her husband. She would be delighted with the news of our Royal Patronage. It is a wonderful way to conclude our 65th anniversary year celebrations and offers motivation for the future.”.
Available to buy:
Christmas cards, Pack of 10 (2 x 5 designs) and individual cards
Munnings Art Museum 2027 calendar
Shop Christmas >>
YOU TUBE – New to the Munnings Art Museum’s You Tube Channel
Sitting alongside our “At Home with Munnings” podcast is a series of short videos about the paintings featured in the podcast episodes.
To watch please follow this link >>
PODCAST – At Home with Munnings
Produced by our volunteer engagement team we are delighted to present our brand new podcast series “At Home with Munnings”.
Episodes 1, 2 and 3 available now exploring three paintings by Sir Alfred Munnings, “Path to the Orchard”, “Tagg’s Island” and “Does the Subject Matter?” >> PLAY EPISODES
Listen on your usual podcast provider just search for “At Home with Munnings”.
About the Art Museum
A home which houses the only permanent retrospective of paintings by Sir Alfred Munnings
Each April to October the walls of the museum, Sir Alfred Munnings’ former home, Castle House, are sumptuously adorned with well-known pictures and lesser seen sketches and studies taken from the studio when he died in 1959. Thickly painted impressionistic scenes of ponies standing against a bright East Anglian sky jostle for position with smooth and shiny thoroughbreds whose jockeys are a-blaze in brightly coloured silks.
Explore the Art Collection >>
Read more about Castle House & Studio >>
Special Exhibitions in 2027
22nd May to 12th September 2027
The Art of the Newlyn School: Paintings from The Bowerman Collection
Some of the most important paintings of the Newlyn School are coming to Dedham in the summer of 2027. Thirty-four works from the celebrated Bowerman Collection will be displayed alongside masterpieces by Sir Alfred Munnings from the museum’s own nationally important collection of his work.
The Art of the Newlyn School: Paintings from The Bowerman Collection offers a rare chance to see paintings by the artists who transformed Newlyn and West Cornwall into one of Britain’s most celebrated artistic colonies. It was amongst these artists that Alfred Munnings lived and painted in the idyllic years just before the outbreak of the First World War.
The exhibition includes much-loved paintings by Walter Langley and rare gems by Elizabeth Forbes and Dod Procter which reveal the extraordinary range of artists who came to Cornwall from the 1880s onwards. Pictures by Stanhope Forbes, the “father of the Newlyn School”, will hang alongside those by Harold Harvey and Dame Laura Knight who, as the second generation of Newlyn artists, brought fresh colour and energy to the colony.
Munnings Art Museum is delighted to be the only East of England venue on this major national tour by The Bowerman Collection, one of the most important private holdings of Newlyn School paintings. Founded from the private collection of David Bowerman MBE, the Bowerman Charitable Trust in Sussex was established with the aim of making great art accessible to the public.
Paid admission to the museum in 2027 includes entry to all exhibitions
The Art of the Newlyn School: Paintings from The Bowerman Collection offers a rare chance to see paintings by the artists who transformed Newlyn and West Cornwall into one of Britain’s most celebrated artistic colonies. It was amongst these artists that Alfred Munnings lived and painted in the idyllic years just before the outbreak of the First World War.
The exhibition includes much-loved paintings by Walter Langley and rare gems by Elizabeth Forbes and Dod Procter which reveal the extraordinary range of artists who came to Cornwall from the 1880s onwards. Pictures by Stanhope Forbes, the “father of the Newlyn School”, will hang alongside those by Harold Harvey and Dame Laura Knight who, as the second generation of Newlyn artists, brought fresh colour and energy to the colony.
Munnings Art Museum is delighted to be the only East of England venue on this major national tour by The Bowerman Collection, one of the most important private holdings of Newlyn School paintings. Founded from the private collection of David Bowerman MBE, the Bowerman Charitable Trust in Sussex was established with the aim of making great art accessible to the public.
Paid admission to the museum in 2027 includes entry to all exhibitions
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