Guild of St George - The Guild Today

The Guild Today

In 2001, the Guild’s collection moved to the Ruskin Gallery in Sheffield’s new Millennium Galleries. In 2011, the gallery was re-named the Ruskin Collection.

The Guild strives to maintain Ruskin’s principles and achieve his aims in the twenty-first century. It is funding a nine-year cycle of Triennial Exhibitions there. The Guild still manages and lets its properties at Westmill in line with Ruskin’s notions of care and justice (charging fair rents and diligently maintaining the properties). One hundred acres of ancient woodland and two smallholdings near Bewdley are sympathetically cultivated. A rebuilt barn, called the “Ruskin Studio”, acts as a base for the Wyre Community Land Trust, which engages with a wide range of local projects, promoting rural crafts and skills, hosting events and receiving educational visits. The Guild funded the national Campaign for Drawing and is still associated with it; arts and crafts and rural economy are fostered; scholarships and awards are sometimes granted; and symposia are held to discuss issues of contemporary concern and debate.

The Guild is run by a Board of Directors, a secretary, and a Master who meet several times a year (since November 2009, the Master is Clive Wilmer ). Every autumn, Companions attend an AGM, which hosts the Ruskin Lecture which is usually published, like its own journal, The Companion, by the Guild itself.