The Minister Art Gallery 1973

The Minster Art Gallery - Hobo Issue One

This article, called The Pulse of Art, was first published in Hobo Issue 1 June 1973 - it's in the pdf of the magazine on here but reproduced as an article here.

‘Minster’, ‘Minster who?’ ‘ Minster gallery’ ‘ who’s he?’ ‘It’s not a he, it’s a thing’ ‘oh a thing, I know, like a pogo stick?’ ‘well not so much a thing but a way of life, a happening, something that’s taking place amidst the debris of smoggy Coventry’ ‘Oh I see, Minster Gallery, is that where they hang people den?’ ‘ no stupid crud, that’s the gallows where they hang people, the only thing they hang at the Minster gallery are paintings and socks on washing days.‘ ‘Oh I dig!’

The Minster gallery is not just another art gallery, another plastic rose in another airless shop window, but a wild rose, wild and exciting, the real thing, like coca cola. It is where art is created and exposed, where its inmates till a common plot which flourishes from the variety of the individual talents that work it.

In an old Victorian watchmaker’s workshop, converted, a group of artists / sculptors / potters (some of whom live on the premises) work and exhibit art, their own local work. Where artists can meet and contribute to the common bond which has become a way of life to those involved. Unlike the common art

gallery, where peak capped attendants cast a dark shadow and tense, silent atmosphere over the exhibits, the Minster gallery has warmth, like your favourite club.

The Minster is happening, is growing, is blooming. The artists have strived, fought and struggled to build what they now have ( and we all know how hard it is to start something like this, in anything, especially in Coventry - at least without financial backing).

But the struggling isn't over and there are ambitions still to be reached. More support is needed, from artists,

people in art and from people interested in purchasing works of art. Real, non- manufactured, non-mass produced articles of art that has come from the heart and is part of the artist that created it.

If you want to know what art is all about, go and have a look. The Minster invites you to peek a boo, suss them out or just plain walk right in and wander around. You never know, it may just be your cup of PJ tips. You may dig the scene or you may even just like what’s going on.

Art is not just a thing that bores the draws off you, art is something that happens under certain conditions. That happening can be exciting. Art is the child of human temperaments in conflict with the forces of life. The Minster is the nursery of these children.

Trev Teasdel - Hobo Magazine 1973

Minster Gallery was 8, Hearsall Lane, Coventry 1973