IT MIGHT not be hidden exactly, but it's certainly been Kendal's best kept artistic secret for a few months now.

Nestled into the town's cultural quarter, Cross Lane Projects is a gallery space situated in the former Kendal Mint Cake factory, on Cross Lane, off Kirkland, a stone's throw from Abbot Hall. Opened by artists Rebecca Scott and Mark Woods in June, the aim of CLP is to bring new contemporary art and debate to Cumbria. Their exhibition programme opened with Female Trouble with top flight artist Paula Rego and paintings by Rebecca, who has work in private and public collections nationally and internationally and has exhibited far and wide. Rebecca works from photographs, taking images from sources such as calendars, catalogues and magazines, and drawn to aspects of private manifestations and public representations of female desire.

Her creative partner Mark has a background in contemporary jewellery production and in, apparently, boat building. He produces highly elaborate artefacts that blur the boundaries between jewellery, fine art, fetish objects and items from a cabinet of curiosities.

On show at the moment is Francis Richardson's Not Even Nothing Can Be Free Of Ghosts. Francis was the recipient of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2017/18. Coordinated by London's Standpoint Gallery, the sculpture award is one of the most significant awards for emerging artists working in the genre in the UK.

The gallery is well worth a visit and open Thursday to Sunday, noon-6pm.