Open for Exhibitions......

Ushaw is trying to bring alive its unique history through a range of one-off and permanent exhibitions which reflect both life at Ushaw and the lives of some former Ushavians. Our new exhibition rooms currently accommodate "Savage Arena - the Joe Tasker story" and "The Shield of Faith - Ushaw College at War"

Our exhibitions are open every Saturday between 1pm and 5pm and entry is free. Group tours are also available during other times subject to a minimum number of 10 visitors. Please contact us for more details.

Shield of Faith - Ushaw College at War

Ushaw's own World War One Exhibition focusses on the stories of men from Ushaw who served at the Front Line, including both students, teachers and domestic staff. It will also consider the role of a Catholic Chaplain in the conflict and how individual soldiers' faith was influenced by welfare. Click here for more details.

Fenwick Lawson
Ushaw benefits from a close relationship with Durham sculptor Fenwick Lawson and houses a number of significant pieces both wooden carvings and subsequent bronze castings.

Sentence: A Work in Progress - 22nd June to August 31st

The paintings displayed here are from an ongoing collaboration between artist Alan O'Cain and a British former banker who pleaded guilty to securities fraud (in 2008) and is now serving a sixteen-year prison sentence in a notorious US jail. Because the prisoner lacks US citizenship, he is forbidden from serving the sentence in a low-security institution.

The subject, in his sixties, a university graduate, family man, former art collector and high-flyer of the corporate banking world, now shares a cell with a convicted murderer and has no opportunity for parole before serving a minimum of fourteen years (2022). Alan has vowed to create a painting for every year his subject remains incarcerated. Each four-foot square work is inspired by the emotional and intellectual content of letters Alan has received and is based on a single photograph of the subject with an arm around his wife taken by a mutual friend whilst the subject was under house arrest pending trial.

Chuck Close Tapestries - 30 June to 30 September 2017

Dramatic black and white portrait tapestries by American photorealist artist Chuck Close will be exhibited in a religious setting for the first time this summer when they will be hung from the historic walls of St Cuthbert’s Chapel at Ushaw in Durham.

Marking the artist’s first solo show in the North of England, Chuck Close Tapestries will be the first contemporary art installation to be displayed in the ornately designed chapel. Six 2-metre tall tapestries from Chuck Close, who is renowned for his highly inventive techniques of painting the human face, will become a part of the congregation, including a portrait of former US President Barack Obama that has never before been exhibited in the UK.