Bitesize: From Downing Street to Plymouth

The Box is bringing nine paintings back from London for a curator-led session on Wednesday 9 December, from 1.00pm to 1.45pm. The works have spent the last few months on display in Downing Street as part of the Government Art Collection's 'Museum in Residence' scheme, and they're now back home in the museum's North Gallery, where they'll be shown throughout the winter.

It's a varied group of artists. The nine paintings are by Stanley Spencer, Jack Pickup, Robert Borlase Smart, Alfred Wallis, Charles Ginner and Reginald Brill. If you're not familiar with them all, it's a good spread to start with: Spencer's distinctive, slightly surreal figures; Wallis's raw, self-taught style; and the more traditional lines of Ginner and Brill. Seeing them together in one room gives you a decent cross-section of the collection.

The session itself is led by The Box's art curator, who'll take you through the pieces and talk about the artists behind them. It's a chance to hear the stories that don't always make it onto the wall labels—the context of the work and the people who painted it—rather than just walking past and wondering. Since the paintings are staying in the North Gallery for the winter, you can easily go back and look at them again on your own after the talk.

It's a short session, running for 45 minutes, and it costs £3. It's held in the North Gallery at The Box, so you'll be standing right with the work as you go through it.