TWO new exhibitions will open to the public at Bradford city centre venues today.

A posthumous exhibition of the work and life of peace activist and artist Maggie Glover opens at the Peace Museum, while Bradford Cathedral hosts a display of work by people helped by the city’s Marie Curie Hospice.

Maggie Glover: Painter of Honest Portraits is thought to be the first dedicated exhibition of work by the artist since her death last February.

Her work had been displayed in the museum at an exhibition in 2014, and the University of Bradford has also exhibited her art.

Before Mrs Glover died, she asked her family to send art, sketches, scrapbooks and other mementos of her life to the museum.

In total the museum was given 20 boxes, some including artwork that has never been put on display before.

Born in London in 1935, she moved to Reading, and spent much of her life involved in the peace movement, from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to anti war rallies.

A talented artist, she used her skills to document many of the rallies and marches she attended, as well as painting portraits of other campaigners, including politician Fenner Brockway, author Pat Arrowsmith, whose portrait is part of the exhibition, and anti-nuclear campaigner Lord Hugh Jenkins.

A Quaker, Mrs Glover was involved in the Give Peace a Chance Trust which assisted in setting up the Peace Museum in the early 1990s.

She had forged links with Bradford due to the museum and the University’s Peace Studies department, and moved to New Zealand in 2003.

Along with the portraits, there are newspaper clippings on her subjects, “behind the scenes” photographs of her painting sessions and early sketches.

Personal artifacts include her CND membership card.

Some of the items will be passed on to the University of Bradford’s library archive after the exhibition ends in October.

The exhibition starts today, and there will be an opening evening on Thursday 11, from 5.30pm, including a drinks reception followed by introductions to the exhibition and a viewing. The museum opens from Wednesday to Friday.

Shannen Lang, an officer at the museum, said: “There are some really nice articles and pieces to look at.

“There are some non political pictures as well as the pictures she created documenting the peace movement.”

Also opening today is the poignant exhibition in Bradford Cathedral.

Tutor and artist Steve Davies runs regular art sessions in the Bradford Marie Curie Hospice, and the result of these sessions are on display in exhibition Embracing Life Through Art, which runs until August 25.

The sessions involve people at the hospice, including some with terminal illnesses as well as day visitors. They were introduced to provide a therapeutic medium for people with life-threatening conditions, enabling them to focus on something other than their illness.

What makes the images, watercolours that range from paintings of animals to landscapes, particularly poignant is the fact that some are painted by people who have since died or who are approaching death.

Last year the group displayed their work in Forster’s Bistro.

Steve Harvey, chairman of the Bradford Hospice Fundraising Group, said: “We always try to find new ways we can display the art created at the hospice, we’re very grateful for the cathedral for allowing us to display there.

“The sessions take place three times a week. We find it takes people’s minds away from their illnesses.

“Sometimes these patients sadly die, and we ask their families if we are able to display their work. It acts as a legacy for these people.”

The exhibition opens with a launch event in the cathedral at 6.30pm today, attended by Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Geoff Reid.