The UK’s most stirring art scenes are by no means confined to the Big Smoke. Over the past decade, evocative pockets of the countryside and burgeoning market towns seem to have clawed in more artworks and artists than central London. There’s less noise, less competition and achingly beautiful landscape and architecture to draw inspiration from, hang prints and erect installations against, not to mention the cheaper studio rents.
There’s also the British knack for easing old Georgian or Victorian bones into the 21st century with cutting-edge contemporary art — like an old dame donning a jarring pair of specs. These galleries-with-rooms are luring a cultured bunch into the sticks for arty weekend jaunts, the sort that go hand in hand with farm-to-fork grub.
