How does new cultural knowledge look? This was the question posed by the Oliver Holt Gallery. Curated by Andrew Stooke the Gallery was not only a place where new art was seen but where the traditions of art could be considered as equal to the aspirations of learning artists. People new to art, both young and not so young, could meet around presentations in the Gallery to talk and work with others. All levels of experience and involvement were valid. It was a contemporary place. The Oliver Holt Gallery was a seven-year engagement experiment enacted as a real exhibition programme in a educational context. The Oliver Holt Gallery was brought about through the inspirational collusion of the family of Oliver Holt and Sherborne Art School. It provided a public engagement opportunity with over fifty very diverse exhibitions. These often also supported new relationships with external agencies and with other places of education. The heritage context of the district and local voices repeatedly resonated with the academic context of the Gallery setting, an active place of learning and interpretation since 300 AD.