FOLK ART
About the
Collection
The largest collection of British Folk Art in the UK. Folk Art refers to objects made within the context of a community’s everyday life.
Made by artists working within a popular rather than ‘fine art’ tradition, many of these objects have grown out of long-established craft practices in local communities.
Folk Art can be objects made for a specific purpose – such as shop signs, agricultural implements and weathervanes – and decorative pieces created primarily to satisfy the maker.
Often, these items provide an insight into what life was like for ordinary people, both rural and urban, during the 19th and early 20th century. Our current display has been curated by artist and designer Mark Hearld, who produced new work in response to the collection, including a wallpaper design.
My father didn’t set out to become a collector, he gathered eight or nine pictures and asked himself ‘Do I want more?’ – suddenly, his dining room was full!
Sally Kalman, daughter of original collector Andras Kalman.
Discover more
Download our gallery guide to find out more the Folk Art collection
and the artworks on display in our galleries
Woolen Draper's or Inn Sign (The Golden Fleece)
West Country Comb-Back Windsor Armchair
Green-Painted Solid Seat Turner’s Chair
Pair of Whistling Partridge Decoys
Sheep-shearer’s Bench and Sheep Shears
A Terrible Shipwreck: 12th February 1870 at Kingsdown near Deal
A Still Life with Cheese, Bread and Beer
Garner’s (the Marine Library), High Street, Margate
