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Dimbola Lodge was the home of the celebrated Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

Saved from the bulldozers literally at the last minute, Dimbola has since been described as an "unexpected delight" and the "best kept secret on the Isle of Wight".

There's lots to see at Dimbola.  We have permanent exhibitions of Julia Margaret Cameron's work, a changing programme of contemporary photography and art exhibitions, a History of IOW Pop Festivals, the Jimi Hendrix Garden, and the Cameron Tea Room which is renowned for high quality locally sourced food and homemade cakes.

We also have a small Gift Shop where you can buy a memento of your visit, and don't leave without a free photograph of yourself taken in our Olympus costume room!

   



11 June 2009
Patti Smith
Patti Smith has personally selected twenty silver gelatin prints from her tender and domestic photographic images, bringing a poet's instinct for editing and a musician's sense of harmony to the art. Many of the images she has chosen date from a recent residency at Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, and thus intimately connect with Julia Margaret Cameron, literally as the images chosen include objects associated with Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell and, most poignantly, Julia's favourite model, her niece and their mother Julia Jackson.

12 June to 26 July 
Noel Chanan
'Panorama of India' 
The Hindu religion speaks of a million deities, and so it is with the subcontinent itself  at every moment it shows a million faces to the traveller, and a million colours, and speaks of as many opinions.




17 April to 14 June
Julia Margaret Cameron Trust
A History of Photography - as defined by Portraiture through the Ages

This exhibition, which forms part of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust's Touring Exhibitions Portfolio, celebrates 150 years of portrait photography.  It takes us from the earliest 19th century prints by Fox Talbot, Oscar Gustave Rejlander and Julia Margaret Cameron through to images from the early part of the 20th century by Cecil Beaton and Angus McBean, to contemporary photographers including Linda McCartney and John Swannell.  Subjects range from John Herschel and Oscar Wilde to Twiggy and Tony Blair.  A catalogue to accompany this exhibition is available to purchase from the gift shop.

Full programme of events - Download our Brochure




Our Isle of Wight Pop Festivals exhibition includes rare posters, programmes, press cuttings, tickets, related memorabilia and photographs more...




Get the most from your trip. Schools and Group information
more... 




How can you help? The work at Dimbola is only posible with your help more...  



Life Drawing
Is now finished for the summer and will start in the autumn.  
Open Mic Evening
8-10.30pm 1st Friday of the month  




The Adventurist June 2009


NorthCourt fund raising event July 2009
A wonderful evening of of Music along with a talk on the Victorian Poet Algernon Swinburne find out further information event


Ellen Terry residential weekend September 2009
Download the brochure


More about the Events at Dimbola


 

 



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