The desk is \u201ca tribute in a way to that complicated history,\u201d Garrard continues. He adds: \u201cwe\u2019ve asked a master engraver to come and write some words in memory of the workers of the mine onto it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another example of such a prompt is a room that directly contrasts Morris\u2019s left-wing politics with the high-end products created by Morris & Co. What Jacob describes as a \u201csocialist red\u201d ceiling looms above luxurious, \u201cpicture gallery red\u201d walls. Objects in the room, meanwhile, range from a large-scale hanging textile commissioned for a wealthy patron\u2019s home to a satchel with radical socialist pamphlets, which Morris published and distributed, spilling out of it. \u201cThe idea was you’d have this beautiful interior and this object that sat really at odds with everything,\u201d Garrard says. \u201cI want people to feel a little bit sick when they come in here.\u201d There are plans to add William Morris\u2019s personal copy of Karl Marx\u2019s Capital\u2014which features an elaborate gold design on its front\u2014to the display in the future.<\/p>\n
Garrard is clear that while the gallery is not there to \u201cworship heroes\u201d\u2014a bust of Morris has been moved out of the foyer\u2014he feels Morris is a figure \u201cworth celebrating\u201c. The artist\u2019s contradictions, he says, are often things that \u201cconflict with all of us\u201c. He adds: \u201cI think that’s quite a nice thing with Morris: to look at the complexities of being a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Exterior of William Morris Gallery<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Photo by Chiara Dalla Rosa<\/p>\n
Unseen objects and fresh stories<\/p>\n
The rehang has brought out many objects that have not been seen in public before or for a long time. There is a dress that Morris designed for his wife, Jane, for her to model in the painting La Belle Iseult<\/a> (1858), today housed at Tate Britain. There is Morris\u2019s banner for the Hammersmith Socialist League, which he co-founded, on public display for the first time, on loan from The Working Class Movement Library in Manchester. Other objects will bring visitors almost face-to-face with the man himself\u2014chief among them a lock of Morris\u2019s grey hair, cut from his head after his death by his friend John Carruthers. \u201cI think that’s a very magical object,\u201d Garrard says.<\/p>\n Another priority for those working on the project was to bring underrepresented stories and figures from Morris\u2019s life to the fore. One section of the second room will focus on the influence of art from the Islamic world on his practice\u2014a theme that was the subject of a temporary exhibition<\/a> at the gallery in 2024\/25. The work and worlds of women in Morris\u2019s life will also be highlighted, such as with his daughter May\u2019s design for a Flower Garden embroidery, created while she was the director of embroidery at Morris & Co, and books from the collection of Morris\u2019s other daughter Jenny.<\/p>\n Flower Garden textile by William Morris from 1879<\/p>\n \u00a9 William Morris Gallery<\/p>\n The gallery is also seeking to support and promote contemporary artists with a new project space. Called \u201cMorris Today\u201d, it is expected to open in 2027.<\/p>\n The project has been funded with the help of around \u00a31.5m raised from trusts including the The Garfield Weston Foundation and the Wolfson Foundation, and further contributions from Waltham Forest Council. The gallery reopens with an exhibition Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK, exploring the lives and homes of people who have pushed artistic and other boundaries in Britain.<\/p>\n Garrard sees the completion of the revamp as perhaps the \u201cmost important piece\u201d of the work he\u2019s been doing since arriving as director in 2022. It is, he adds, hopefully just the beginning.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think a museum is ever finished; they should change all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think the nice thing about Morris\u2019s ideas is that they’re becoming more and not less relevant right now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/8a8123df5ff9c145cc8ff24245dd017fafafd372-12000x5574.jpg\"\/)
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