Between January 17 – May 3 2015, Cheltenham’s art gallery and museum The Wilson will be hosting a high-profile exhibition of major 20th century British artists from an internationally held private collection.

Still Small Voice: British Biblical Art in a Secular Age (1850 -2014) will give visitors the opportunity to view 28 works by 14 of the 20th century’s most prominent artists; and to consider why and in what context the work was produced, how the work communicates in the context of a turbulent period in our history, and how it relates to the human experience.

This is the very first time this exhibition has been displayed in the UK, and it will explore a diverse range of media, including major paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture by important and beloved 20th century British artists, including Stanley Spencer, Eric Gill, Jacob Epstein, Barbara Hepworth, Edward Burra and Graham Sutherland.

In addition, there will be a special series of accompanying lectures at The Wilson, exploring themes relating to the Still Small Voice exhibition. Presented by leading experts in fine art and theology, the lectures will be an opportunity to consider the works included in the exhibition in more detail.

The lecture series is planned as:

· Painting the Bible: European Artists as Biblical Interpreters, January 28 2015, Professor Philip Esler

· Revisiting the Icon: the Theotokos from Duccio to Hepworth, February 25 2015, Dr Jennifer Sliwka

· English Work: a Native Tradition, March 18 2015, Professor Ben Quash

· Speech and Silence, Word and Image, April 22 2015, Dr Chloë Reddaway

The exhibition will be hosted at The Wilson in partnership with the University of Gloucestershire and co-curated by Angus Pryor, Head of Fine Art and Design (from the Faculty of Media, Arts & Technology) and Lyrica Taylor (formally based at the Biola University, California). In a concurrent display, work by Pryor in response to the Stanley Spencer painting in the exhibition, Angels of the Apocalypse, will also be on show at The Wilson.

Still, Small Voice: British Biblical Art in a Secular Century will be located in the second and third exhibition galleries of The Wilson and entrance will be free. Tickets to each lecture are priced at £7 (£5 concession). During the exhibition, The Wilson is open at 9.30am – 5.15pm every day except Easter Sunday.

For more details, visit www.thewilson.org