Skipton artist transforms much-loved local shop into retail and gallery space

Peyton, who specialises in limited edition lino reduction prints and monoprints, had been artist in residence at Craven Museum and Gallery and her experience there had inspired her to launch a project in 2016 called the Smart Gallery. “While I was working, I would listen to people going round the museum and they would appreciate the workmanship of items there but then when they came to, say, a 1950s cooker, people became really animated because they had a connection to it ‘my grandma had one of those’ – it was visceral and so that’s when I started to look at the impact of social history and how important it was,” she says. “It became really key for me and I developed the Smart Gallery on the back of that.” The project involved Peyton inviting people to loan her objects that had a special significance to them. “It didn’t have to be old or valuable, just something that was important to them,” she says.

They would share the story behind the object and Peyton would then make an artwork in response. “I started with an empty room at the museum and we got around 1,200 objects from people, including a mile long string of bunting that had been in the Guinness Book of Records – it is amazing what people keep,” she says. “It became about storytelling and it was a really engaging community-based project. The objects that people were bringing to me, they had little monetary value but they meant so much. It was a real privilege to work with those precious memories.”

Among her favourite stories was one from an elderly lady who brought along a girl guide book to one of the ‘show and tell’ sessions that Peyton hosted. “She was in her eighties and had been born in London. When she was about four or five, during the Second World War, she was sent to buy a pint of milk and while she was gone a bomb hit their house and all her family was killed. She had no recollection of her family. Then when she was in her 70s, through Facebook someone contacted her and it turned out he had been her neighbour in London. He had found her mother’s girl guide book in the wreckage. He had kept it all that time and he gave it to her. It was worth doing the project just for that story, I was blown away by it.”

The project was a huge success with Peyton revisiting it several times in different settings and it went on to be longlisted for the Turner Prize. “Having done it in other museum and gallery spaces, I am now exploring whether I can do it in a retail environment,” says Peyton. “In a way, it is a perfect opportunity for me to think about how to bring my art practice into the retail space.” She is currently looking into applying for funding to develop this idea further and in particular to encourage audience engagement and participation.

A significant part of Peyton’s creative practice is inspired by objects – “I have an obsession with them” – and much of her artwork features beautiful linocut representations of familiar household items such as telephones, radios, television sets, cotton reels, some of them with a vintage or retro feel. “I have always been a collector and I admire objects,” she says. “I like the form and the function and I’m particularly drawn to aesthetically pleasing objects that have stories attached to them.”

Peyton has made a few changes to the shop – there are now two rooms, one of which contains bric-a-brac, some antiques and upcycled furniture and other items as well as new gifts. “The other room is the gallery with my artwork and items that inspire me, that is more curated.” All the artwork on display is for sale. There has been a slight amendment to the shop’s name. “It’s now called Magpie2 – two for joy, the sorrow was my friend dying and the joy is the celebration of her legacy.”

Magpie2, Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-3pm. To visit at other times, call 01756 701527. Magpie2.com To see more of Helen’s work visit helenpeyton.com