Play Original Board and Card Games

Original games created by artists 

Elisabetta Balasso and Cally Trench

from Venezuela and England

Saturday 7 September / 3pm - 6pm

Come and play original board and card games by Venezuelan artist Elisabetta Balasso and by English artist Cally Trench, including Elisabetta's Hyperinflation Soup and 

Dinner is Served, and Cally's Trees versus Axemen and Gravestones and Dry Bones.

At Openhand Openspace Gallery 

Free entry, no need to book.

Accessible rules. Suitable for all ages. Tea and cake! 

New Summer Drawing Classes

Wednesdays 7 August - 4 September

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Tutor Ingrid Jensen

No previous experience needed, basic materials provided.

Enjoy drawing while building skills and confidence and exploring a

range of techniques and materials. These will include line, tone,

spatial relationships, pencil, ink and charcoal. Drawing big and small.

Observation and imagination will both be valued, as will realistic and

abstract drawing. Specific activities will help develop drawing capability.

A curious range of natural and human-made objects will be available for study.

£15 per person or £70 for all five sessions.

Advanced booking essential.

info@ohos.org.uk

(0118) 959 7752

Takes place in OpenHand OpenSpace ground floor gallery. 

Heritage Open Days: Brock Keep

Guided tours of three floors of Brock Keep, former armoury and gatehouse to Brock Barracks, now studios and art gallery. Colourful ground floor exhibition of the role of materials in military clothing. Meet current artists in working studios. Join in family activities.

Friday 20 September: 11am - 5pm
Saturday 21 September: 11am - 5pm
Sunday 22 September: 11am - 5pm

Tours of Brock Keep: Max 8 people per tour/session. 30 minutes, no booking required.

No lift to upper floors. Access for wheelchairs and pushchairs to ground floor only

Brock Keep, completed in 1877, is a beautiful example of the Victorian keeps built to aid recruitment and to increase pride in local regiments. They provided a ceremonial gatehouse, guardroom, fire engine house, and secure storage for arms, ammunition and all the kit needed by soldiers. They were designed at the War Office by distinguished architect Major H C Seddon of the Royal Engineers.

Reading’s Keep is one of the surviving few that have not been demolished or converted. It is grade II listed and is particularly special because of its setting next door to the Lutyens War Memorial and its original Army Depot that is still occupied by 7th Battalion the Rifles. Its original features are well preserved. The Keep is now owned by Reading Borough Council and since 1980 has provided artists' studios for OpenHand OpenSpace and Reading Space Studios, and exhibition space for many artists. In the early 1980s it was used as a shelter for homeless people.