1,000 'secret' postcards go on sale at Cupola Gallery this weekend

The Sheffield gallery put out a national call earlier this summer, and professional and amateur artists young and old answered, creating postcard-sized images in a variety of media for the show.

The exhibition, which launches this Saturday, will run for five weeks, with all funds going to support vital structural repairs needed to the gallery premises, on Middlewood Road.

Gallery founder and director, Karen Sherwood, said: “Every postcard-sized work will be shown, and I’m so excited that we’ve reached 1,000 postcard submissions.

"We have had work sent from as far away as America and Europe, and I am genuinely very excited and looking forward to seeing them all on display.”

Each postcard is only signed on the reverse, and will only be revealed following its purchase, with every postcard on sale for £15, no matter who has created it.

Karen and her team launched the ‘CPR, Cupola Preserve & Rescue’ campaign last year, and the gallery director is around half way towards her £40,000 amount.

Funds from this postcard show will help boost the total further.

Karen added: “Appointments are not needed for the exhibition, available during our regular opening hours of Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 6pm.

"The postcards are ‘secret’ as the author of each postcard is only revealed after a work has been purchased, meaning you could be in possession of a piece of work that normally sells for a much higher price – or not!

"However, every piece purchased brings pleasure to the buyer and helps secure the future of Cupola Gallery, which has been an outlet for local, national and international artists to showcase and sell their work for 29 years in this community.

A fine arts graduate, Karen opened the gallery in 1991, aged just 23.

“I famously set it up between a betting shop and a launderette, around the corner from the Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and most people gave me six months,” she added.

“With goodwill and a lot of people’s help, I hope to reach my 30th anniversary.”

Visit cupolagallery.com for details.