Ironbridge Fine Arts occupies one of four iron foundry buildings put up in the 1890s by the Coalbrookdale Company, the firm Abraham Darby founded in 1709, and later used by the Aga Rayburn factory and the Merrythought teddy bear works. Jenny Mason-Gunning, a printmaker working in etching, aquatint, mezzotint and collagraph, has run the gallery and studio since 1980, when she moved to Ironbridge after a printmaking degree in Cheltenham. The building keeps its 40-foot ceiling and 104 glass roof panels, giving the studio the daylight printmakers need for proofing. Alongside changing exhibitions of local and visiting artists, the studio manufactures Gunning etching presses and runs workshops in intaglio and relief techniques, with one-to-one tuition available on site or off.
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