Ludlow art gallery owner Jill dies after illness
The owner of an Shropshire art gallery has died unexpectedly after a short illness.
Jill Howorth, the owner of Ludlow's Silk Top Hat Gallery, has been a much-loved trader in the town for more than 35 years. She died at Severn Hospice in Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury, on Monday.
Staff from the gallery said she was respected for her interest in the community and for her constant support of Ludlow Assembly Rooms, which she was involved in from its inception, and will be greatly missed by countless friends, artists and collectors.
Jill was born in Bridgnorth in 1949. Both her parents were artists and her brother David is a sculptor.
After gaining a degree at Sussex University she worked in the library at Wolverhampton Art College, followed by a postgraduate course in librarianship at University College London.
She then became curator of the newly-formed Institute of Contemporary Prints and went with this collection when it was transferred to the then Modern Collection of the Tate Gallery in London, which later became the Tate Modern.
Jill returned to Shropshire and opened her first exhibition space in Ludlow's Dinham House in 1980 and moved to Quality Square a year later.
Over the years she championed the work of innumerable artists, developed an artists' materials and gift shop and, more recently, opened a second exhibition space in Quality Square, Isaac Smart's, which showed contemporary craft work. Every year she organised a wide-ranging Christmas exhibition and was planning this year's show when she was taken ill.
This exhibition will still take place at the Silk Top Hat Gallery and at Isaac Smart's as a memorial to Jill.
Gallery staff said donations in memory of Jill will be welcomed to support Ludlow Assembly Rooms or Severn Hospice.
