About Us
We care for, research and public exhibit our collection of more than 2,000 objects of twentieth-century craft, design and fine art. Our collection is home to works by names like Marcel Breuer, Hans Coper, and Lucie Rie, alongside Scandinavian glass and design. We preserve this collection not just for its own sake, but so it can keep teaching, inspiring and connecting people with exceptional design.
What we do
Our Vision
To establish the Stradling Collection as a leading voice in 20th and 21st century design, including furniture, ceramics, glass and decorative objects. We will encourage artistic responses from current and future makers, young people, academics and art and design enthusiasts.
Our Mission
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Ensuring our permanent collection is easily accessible and relevant
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Inspiring an increasingly diverse audience through education and outreach programmes, widening horizons and supporting personal development
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Delivering exhibition programmes that respond to the many themes within the Collection in collaboration with artists and creative industries.
Our Values
Passionate about design and its role in shaping everyday life; we inspire people through relevant and responsive exhibitions, outreach projects and events.
Nurturing the development of designers, curators and makers of the future. We provide opportunity through internships, commissions, loans and programming.
Curious about the stories behind every object in our archive, we open up our collection and connect people with the value of creativity.
Want to support us? You can do so through becoming a friend, volunteering, or donating!
Our Story
Ken Stradling MBE
Ken Stradling, MBE, turned a lifelong love of design into a career. As buyer and managing director of the Bristol Guild, he shaped the city's taste and became a leading advocate, dealer and collector of world-class modern design from Britain, Europe and Scandinavia, championing many twentieth-century artists and designers early in their careers.
The Stradling Collection reflects this passion, with around 2,000 objects spanning post-war design and consumerism, including major works by figures such as Eric Ravilious, Marcel Breuer, Lucie Rie, Bernard Leach and Alvar Aalto.
Born and educated in Bristol, Ken was strongly influenced by his headmaster at Bristol Grammar School, J.E. Barton, an authority on art and design. His mother took him to auctions as a teenager, where he bought his first piece, local Eltonware pottery. After Army service from 1939 to 48, he joined the Bristol Guild of Applied Arts as Assistant Manager. He married painter and teacher Betty Haggar in 1958, and together they travelled Europe buying for the Guild. Following Betty's death in 1964, Ken continued building the Guild into a leading UK destination for modern craft and design.
He later established a The Stradling Collection (charity no. 1117689) to preserve the collection as an educational resource, and since opening in 2014 it has inspired schoolchildren, visitors and designers through its exhibitions and learning programme. In 2020, Ken was awarded an MBE for services to the Arts in Bristol, presented at the Collection by the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol, Peaches Golding. Ken passed away in 2022 leaving behind The Stradling Collection as his legacy.
