Gallery 8 opens in Market Place

A man and woman stand side by side in an interior. The floor is cut stones, the wall is a mixture of brick and stone. Some paintings hang on the wall. There are bright spotlights fixed to the ceiling. In the foreground are is modern-looking furniture and white walls and display cases.

As a bonus event for Somerset Art Weeks, a new art gallery opened at 8 Market Place. Work by nearly 50 local artists — ceramics, textiles, jewellery, wood, photography, cards and paintings — are on display on two floors.

Steve Rose and Dawn Sheffield had a partition wall removed to make the late-medieval fireplace part of Gallery 8’s front room. They would like to borrow old photos of the building to display. The couple met in Somerset, then worked in London and Derbyshire, “and we always wanted to move our business here”.

“Art is for everybody, not just snooty people,” she said. “We just do it because we enjoy it.”