FOLLOW Alice down the rabbit hole and emerge into Falmouth Art Gallery’s extraordinary summer exhibition: Stuff and Nonsense, from June 22 to September 7.

Loans from the British Library, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, TATE, Tower Hamlets Local History Archive, the Victoria & Albert Museum and private collections will be brought together into a marvellous mix.

From the bizarre to the everyday, all ages are sure to be delighted by the nonsense rhymes and illustrations, fantastical stories, automata, shrines and assemblages.

The ‘Stuff’ element of the show explores why objects become important to us from obsessive collecting to our affiliation with ‘stuff’ whether it has sentimental value or is a cult item. The gallery has worked with community groups, artists and private lenders to curate shrines and assemblages of objects that form some significance in our day to day lives.

The ‘Nonsense’ includes poetry, illustration and photographs by Edward Lear, Spike Milligan, Quentin Blake, Lewis Carroll and other nationally recognised ‘nonsense’ artists. These will be interwoven with artworks telling fantastical stories including the Cottingly fairies and the exotic animal collections of the Pre-Raphaelite artists.

The exhibition tells stories of how artists are entertained and inspired by random things, collections and stories to create artworks that amuse and delight people of all ages.

The exhibition will be accompanied a series of free talks and workshops for all ages. There is an exciting programme of family art workshops with activities taking place from 11 am – 3 pm on the first Saturday of each month and Tuesday-Thursdays in the school holidays. There will also be a series of workshops available for schools and community groups.

Stuff and Nonsense can be seen at Falmouth Art Gallery from Monday to Saturday (10am-5pm). Admission free.

For information on the exhibition contact Donna Williams on 01326 313863 or info@falmouthartgallery.com