- Bow Arts Trust

Press Release – for immediate release
Boo-Bah
Exhibition of the works of Mary Barnes
16 January 2015 - 29 March 2015
Volcanic Eruption by Mary Barnes. Photo by Ollie Harrop
In January 2015, Nunnery Gallery will open an exhibition featuring paintings and drawings
by the prolific outsider artist Mary Barnes. The works will be predominantly from the
collection of Dr. Joseph Berke, her therapist and friend. Berke was nick-named “Boo-Bah”
in a love letter scaling over a metre high and scrawled in Mary’s inimitable handwriting.
This exhibition brings together works spanning her artistic career which began in the
1960s in Bow, east London.
Mary Barnes moved to Kingsley Hall in 1965 following a breakdown and diagnosis of
schizophrenia. Here, she joined the Philadelphia Association which was an alternative and
experimental treatment community, created by the radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing and his
group of colleagues. It was at the same time that Joseph Berke travelled to East London,
as a recent medical graduate from New York, to work for R. D. Laing and this is where he
met Mary Barnes. They developed a strong bond, famously dramatised in the play Mary
Barnes by David Edgar which was itself based on the book “Mary Barnes: Two Accounts
of a Journey Through Madness” written by Berke and Barnes. Mary Barnes passed away
in 2001, aged 78.
Gallery Director, Rosamond Murdoch says:
“Mary Barnes is a key character in the history of Bow and particularly the radical social
history which is embodied in the remarkable Kingsley Hall, one time of home of Mahatma
Gandhi. Nunnery Gallery is thrilled to have been invited by Dr J Berke to show this
collection of powerful paintings in Bow, where exactly 50 years before he started a
remarkable creative partnership with Mary Barnes.”
Stations on the Way of the Cross by Mary Barnes. Photo by Ollie Harrop
High resolution images of artists’ work and of the gallery (including logos) are available on
request.
The exhibition launches the Nunnery Gallery’s season In Dialogue, a year-long
exploration of partnerships, artistic inspirations and deeply involved relationships between
the artist and the muse.
www.bowarts.org/nunnery/exhibitions
Exhibition Details:
Boo-Bah Mary Barnes
Dates: 16 January – 29 March 2015
Private View: Thursday 15 January 2015 6 - 9pm
Gallery Opening Hours: Tues – Sun 10am – 5pm
Address: Nunnery Gallery, 181 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ
There will be an 'In Conversation' event with acclaimed playwright David Edgar and Dr.
Joseph Berke 24 February 2015. Details here
Contact Details:
Rosamond Murdoch, Gallery Director
[email protected]
Melody Patman, Press & Communications Assistant
[email protected]
Tel: 020 8980 7774 Web: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Bow Arts
Bow Arts was established as an educational arts charity in 1995 based in East London,
where it supports a community of over 400 artists with affordable, secure, creative
workspace in the heart of London's Artist Quarter. Bow Arts also manages one of the
country's most exciting education programmes. The schools programme takes world class
artists into schools to improve the lives and learning of children and young people. Our
projects, workshops and training are proven to raise attainment, deliver on school
improvement priorities and provide top quality learning experiences.
Bow Arts also runs the Nunnery, a contemporary art gallery a stone’s throw from the
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which supports a diverse range of local, national and
international exhibitions and events.
Bow Arts works closely with a number of partners including East Thames, Poplar HARCA,
Crisis, Tower Hamlets Council and Newham Council, and joined the National Portfolio of
Arts Council England in April 2012.
http://www.bowarts.org
Kingsley Hall
Kingsley Hall is a community centre in the East End of London. It dates back to the work
of Doris Lester and Muriel Lester, who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Their
brother, Kingsley Lester, died aged 26 in 1914, leaving money for work in the local area
for "educational, social and recreational" purposes, with which the Lesters bought and
converted a disused chapel. The current Hall was built on Powis Road, with a stone-laying
ceremony taking place on July 14, 1927.
During the General Strike of 1926, Kingsley Hall became a shelter and soup kitchen for
workers. Mahatma Gandhi stayed in Kingsley Hall in 1931 and the building now houses
the Gandhi Foundation. The room where he stayed has been preserved. In 1935, hunger
marchers on the Jarrow March stayed at the Hall.
In 1965 R. D. Laing and his associates asked the Lesters for permission to use the Hall as
a community for themselves. Kingsley Hall became home to one of the most radical
experiments in psychology of the time. The aim of the experiment by the Philadelphia
Association was to create a model for non-restraining, non-drug therapies for those people
seriously affected by schizophrenia.
The hall was designated a Grade II listed building in September 1973.
For more information about Kingsley Hall contact [email protected]