Membership steadily increased and accommodation became a problem. Premises in full Street, a studio above Adssott’s taxidermist’s on London Road, the Castle Inn (all now demolished), and 31 Market Place have all provided home for the Sketching Club.
In 1949 a film was made about the Art which reveals how many members worked and included sequences taken on location around Derby.
The Countrywide celebrations for the festival of Britain in 1951 saw the occasion being marked by the Derby Sketching Club joining with the Derby Woman's Art Club to present an exhibition of paintings in the Riverside Gardens Work was arranged on the grassy bank around the pond, which was removed from the gardens in 1970.
t was not long before other talented artists, Ernest Townsend, R W Bardill, Harold Gresley and J P Wale joined this Derbyshire Art Club club. Their work is much sought after by collector today. The Art Club thrived and work continued through both wars. In 1943 a magazine, The Palette was published. This was particularly appreciated by men who were serving in His Majesty’s Force, as it kept them in touch with events.
It was during the 1940’s that Alfred Goody gave his most valuable support to the art club. He amassed a fine collection of work by Derbyshire Artists which record the life and landscape of the area throughout those years. The collection is now kept in Derby City Art
The Clubs first Art Exhibition was held in January 1889, at the Athenaeum Rooms and was followed by a Smoking Concert at the Royal Hotel. Most of the town’s
Dignitaries were invited and, according to the press reports of the day, a good time was had by all.
In Queen Victoria’s Golden jubilee 1887, a group of enthusiastic and talented young men held a meeting at the County hotel in Derby.
F Booty, A J Keene, William Swindell, George Thompson, Charles Terry And Frank Timms, aimed to provide a place where they and others could work and share their interest in painting and sketching, a place to share their art.
An annual subscription of two shillings and sixpence was set and with an entrance fee of five shillings for new members the Derby Sketching Club was founded.
Times were changing and in 1966 the art club finally opened its doors to women members and moved into rooms in the Green Lane annexe of the University. In recent years a unit in Markeaton Craft Village provided space for artists to work and exhibit.
Derby Women's Art group was founded in 1922 a the two clubs ran quite separately
un till the mid-
The Derby Sketching Club met each Friday at 6.45 at the University Of Derby’s Mickleover Campus until December 1997 when all meetings moved to Littleover. Grange Hall Community Centre, Park Lane, Littleover.Her the members (approximately 100 in 1999) can work in a much larger space
Derby Sketching Club founded 1887