The historic house opens to the public for the first time in a generation on 11 June with a contemporary art exhibition, new art commission and artist residencies.
11 June – 7 December 2025 | Led by Artistic Director Simon Oldfield the inaugural Arts & Culture Programme launches with ‘Sea State’ an exhibition of new work by Maggi Hambling and Ro Robertson co-curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley.
1 May – 7 December 2025 | Norwich-based Clay Research Group (CRG) will delve into the area’s local resources to explore the estate’s history
May – September 2025 | Sainsbury Centre’s current artists in residence, De Onkruidenier, will be based at Wolterton. The Dutch artist collective will create sculptural pieces and host a performance-based dinner.
For the first time in a generation, Wolterton, the 18th century Palladian Hall and 500-acre estate built in 1741 by Horatio Walpole and located in Norfolk, opens its doors for visitors to immerse themselves in its history.
Gradually restored to its former glory since 2016 and set in parkland, the estate is centred around a 10-acre lake. Wolterton’s new Arts & Culture Programme will juxtapose the historic house with contemporary art, a new art commission, and artist residencies, aiming to create a dialogue between old and new.
Conceived by Artistic Director Simon Oldfield, the programme will balance major presentations by leading artists alongside projects with local artists and creatives working directly from the grounds of the estate and taking inspiration from its locality and history.
 Maggi Hambling, Wall of Water XXVII, oil on canvas, 2025. Copyright Maggi Hambling. |
| Exhibition Programme Sea State: An exhibition by Maggi Hambling and Ro Robertson11 June – 7 December 2025 The inaugural exhibition Sea State features new work by Maggi Hambling and Ro Robertson and is co-curated by Simon Oldfield and Gemma Rolls-Bentley. Responding to humanity’s enduring, complex, and increasingly precarious relationship with the ocean, this is the first time that both artists will exhibit together and will focus on their shared longstanding, deeply personal connection to the coast. Presenting in the unique architectural setting of Wolterton both artists respond to the sea not only as a subject, but as a force – a place of emotional power, personal history, and poetic metaphor. Taking over the Marble Hall and Portrait Room Sea State is entirely site-specific and has involved both artists working closely with Wolterton to reenergise the historic house and grounds with new contemporary art. Hambling, widely regarded as one of Britain’s foremost artists, is celebrated for her continuing series of North Sea paintings which have become iconic within British art history. In Wolterton’s Marble Hall, she presents two new paintings: Summer wave breaking II and Wall of Water XXVII. First shown at the National Gallery in 2015, Hambling’s Wall of Water series captures the sheer force and emotional resonance of the sea. These works don’t seek to replicate the ocean’s surface, but rather to feel it – to render what the artist calls ‘the sound of the sea’ in paint. The crashing turbulence and luminous energy of each composition offers a space for both confrontation and reflection. Ro Robertson will present new site-specific sculptural work The Swell at the centre of Wolterton’s Marble Hall. Created for Wolterton and acquired by the estate owners the Ellis Family, the two-metre-tall painted steel structure is composed of three welded forms. Each element frames a central void-lens-like space between the steel profiles – designed to draw the viewer in and through the sculpture. For Robertson, this movement evokes ‘discovering a new landscape of unfolding coves and caves and the possibility of the ever-changing coastal landscape’. The central gaps act as portals, not just architectural but symbolic – thresholds between worlds, identities and possibilities. |
 Ro Robertson, Porth I, 2023 (detail), Gouache paint, watercolour pencil, graphite, sand and binder on paper © Ro Robertson. Courtesy of the artist and Maximillian William, London. Photography by Deniz Guzel. |
| Artist Residencies The Wolterton Arts & Culture Programme will foster opportunities for local artists, creatives and the public to engage in creative practice. For 2025, the Sainsbury Centre’s artist residency for Dutch artist collective De Onkruidenier will be based at Wolterton. The residency is curated by John Kenneth Paranada, the first Curator of Art and Climate Change at a UK museum and forms part of the art museum’s current investigative programme Can the Seas Survive Us?. The season of exhibitions and interventions, which runs until 26 October, explores our shared and increasingly precarious relationship to the sea in the face of climate change. Featuring contemporary art, historical paintings, ancient atlases and maps from across the globe, exhibitions include A World of Water, Darwin in Paradise Camp: Yuki Kihara and Sea Inside. De Onkruidenier – Sainsbury Centre artist residency – supported by an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant and based at Wolterton. May – September 2025 De Onkruidenier, whose practice often intertwines art, ecology, and activism, will delve into themes of sustainability, regeneration and the interconnectedness of aquatic ecosystems. The artist collective, who will be based at Wolterton, will create new artworks from the silt extracted from the lake on site. This material is sourced as part of a significant environmental initiative to dredge the lake, an essential undertaking aimed at ensuring the long-term vitality of the water body and the biodiversity it sustains, directly echoing the broader environmental concerns of the Sainsbury Centre’s ‘Can the Seas Survive Us?’ programme. Clay Research Group – 1 May – 7 December 2025 Wolterton will also host Norwich-based Clay Research Group (CRG), a collective of artists, lecturers, potters, and researchers dedicated to exploring locally sourced ceramic materials. As part of Wolterton’s public programme of events and workshops CRG’s project, based in part at Helgate Pottery, will delve into the geological landscape of the Wolterton estate, drawing a direct connection to the Hall’s construction in 1741, when clay was extracted from the local area to make bricks for the building. Seeking to re-establish the cyclical relationship of the estate to the local community, CRG will enable artists to work with the very substance of Wolterton and its environs. To further their research and echo the estate’s history, CRG will install a wood kiln at Wolterton. |
