Secret Postcard Show 2025 - Opens 22nd August - 7th September

OPENING NIGHT - ALL WELCOME 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Since the opening of the gallery in 2017 The Old Lock Up Gallery has hosted it’s highly successful Secret Postcard Show. The exhibition is now in it’s 9th year.

The show continues to reveal & teach me so much and many of my preconceptions around art have dissolved - the show allows me to explore my own prejudice and judgements, of art, that I have constructed via the last 2 decades of my life. All of this has had a direct impact on the work that I now exhibit in the gallery. I’m frequently touched and brought to tears - year on year by the artists and postcard buyers that support my beautiful little gallery via The Secret Postcard Show. The gallery wouldn’t be here without this support.

Our call for submissions for the 2025 show will be OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS from 15th July - 15th August. Please do not send any submissions/postcards prior to these dates.

The exhibition is a fundraiser for the gallery - it helps to pay the running costs and make future developments, this year we are also funding a 5 day artists residency at the gallery.

Entry Requirements

  • Size: 12cm x 17.5cm - any postcards below/above this size will not be accepted: 1-3 mm’s out is ok. Entries below this will not be entered into the exhibition.

  • On strong paper or mounted on card etc so that the postcards can be stood up without bending during the exhibition: please see photo above.

  • Do not sign the front of the postcard.

  • On the reverse of the postcard: write: your name, signature, title of work (if applicable), medium, plus if you wish - website and email address. Many of the people who buy postcards like to get in contact with the artist,

  • Maximum number of postcards - 8 per artist.

Other Info

  • There is no fee to exhibit: as postcards are donated to the gallery by the artist/maker. The show is a fundraiser for the gallery.

  • There is no theme.

  • Postcards remain the property of the gallery once received. And will continue to be sold in the gallery after the exhibition has ended.

  • Please send (15th July - 15th August) your postcards to: The Old Lock Up Gallery, Swifts Hollow, 19 The Hill, Cromford, Derbyshire, DE4 3RF: ensuring that you have paid the correct postage, no return envelope needed: see above.

The exhibition works on so many levels and provides an opportunity for all involved.

  • Artists to show their work in a contemporary art gallery, and to know that they are supporting the future of the gallery. It also enables the artist to make a connection with us, several artists who have previously participated in the postcard show have gone on to exhibit at the gallery.

  • Art lovers - a show where the work is affordable and accessible to all - regardless of who the piece of work was created by, one year a young boy had saved his pocket money to purchase a piece of work - much to the bemusement of his parents. A future art lover? Who knows?

  • This year some of the profits from the postcard show will fund a 5 day artists residency here at the gallery.

  • The Old Lock Up Gallery - the support that we receive from the artists and postcard buyers, during the show, enables us to continue to develop the gallery - we’re not an entirely conventional gallery and this fundraiser enables us to continue on the path that we have chosen. We are a small independent contemporary art gallery in a rural setting, developing a successful art gallery, single handedly takes passion, love, energy and time….

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!