Creativity has long been woven into the lush landscape of Somerset, which is home to everything from global brands like Mulberry, to one of the world’s most famous music festivals with Glastonbury, to grassroots initiatives such as The Frome Independent, which sees local designers and makers take over the town once a month. Just down the road from all this, a tiny market town has emerged as an unlikely cultural epicentre over the last decade. Among Bruton’s cottage-lined streets, you’ll find a Grade II-listed chapel turned bakery, restaurant and B&B, a wine bar housed in a half-a-century-old pharmacy, and an array of independent stores showcasing lifestyle brands and makers-in-residence.

“Bruton itself has a rich history of writers, musicians, photographers and artists that have been drawn to the area, and the town continues to attract a unique creative mindset,” says Dea Vanagan, senior director at Hauser & Wirth Somerset. The town’s recent transformation can at least in part be traced back to the opening of the gallery’s outpost in Bruton in 2014, after founders Iwan and Manuela Wirth – who are regularly described as the most powerful couple in the art world – first moved there in 2007.

Set in a former farmstead overlooking the town, the gallery is home to a range of exhibitions, performances, events and learning spaces, as well as  gardens designed by landscape architect Piet Oudolf, two restaurants and its own farmshop. “The ambition from the outset was to increase access to great artists in locations outside of traditional city centres, facilitating a deeper connection to nature, architecture and a slower appreciation of art,” says Vanagan.