The long search is over. Although Masterworks had known for some time that they would have to move out of their 41 Front Street premises, a suitable alternative home seemed to become ever more elusive.

Now, thanks to the generosity of Ms Nancy Gosling, Masterworks is in process of moving into new quarters in Bermuda House Lane.

Next week, two days of official openings will launch their latest exhibition.

Called Palatable Light, the featured works are by such artists as Prosper Senat, Ogden Pleissner and Ambrose Webster It will focus on the special quality of the Island's light.

"This is an ideal location for us and is very spacious,'' says director Mr.

Butterfield: "It's just a few feet from Front Street and, unlike our first home, is on ground level. This is very important, especially in attracting tourists and people off the street.'' He admits that the search was beginning to become frantic, when Ms Nancy Gosling came up with her generous offer under which Masterworks will pay only a token rent for the more than 700 square feet.

He is anxious to pay tribute to H. A. & E. Smith's who, for the past three years also provided its Front Street premises at "a peppercorn rent''. This allowed the directors and volunteers to get on with the business of both running the gallery and raising funds through the sale of books, prints and postcards.

"We knew that Smith's would be needing the space. So we had appealed to the community for help, and many people responded,'' he says. "We had some very kind offers from several of our leading businesses. We even had offers from the National Trust for possible space in St. George's and Wedco at Dockyard.

Unfortunately, although we would love to be in St. George's and at the West End as well as in Hamilton. We don't have enough volunteers to make that viable at the moment.'' With the Windjammer Gallery's retail outlet on the corner of Bermuda House Lane and a variety of new stores in the immediate area, Mr. Butterfield sees this as a sign of rejuvenation of this end of Front Street.

In the past few weeks, volunteers have been hard at work, converting the former retail store into a gallery capable of staging rotating exhibitions as well as providing an area to sell Masterworks-related items.

"We've had a wonderful response from the community,'' says committee member Mrs. Elise Outerbridge. "Georgia Crowe of Architectural Services has given her services free. S.C.S. have sorted out the security arrangements, and Coley Place has been doing the lighting at weekends and after work.'' Ms Ingrid Lehner, head of the gallery committee organised the electrical work and painting of the interior.

"We've chosen a lovely rich, earthy colour for the walls which gives the gallery a nice, warm feeling and, I think, sets off the paintings very well.

She (Mrs. Lehner) has done a wonderful job in overseeing the conversion of this space into a gallery,'' says Mr. Butterfield.

He admits that a few "teething problems'' remain. Because of the National Gallery's African show taking up the entire space at City Hall, all of Masterworks' paintings have had to be placed in storage. Also, (although he admits this is a welcome problem) the Foundation has just been given or loaned, ten more new works.

With pieces of the collection now on show in eight different locations around the Island (including Camden and Government House), Mr. Butterfield says Masterworks is in process of computerisation: "This is so that we know, at any given time, exactly where each picture is and when we rotate certain works, so that our main gallery, the insurance company and auditors have all the relevant details at their fingertips.'' Once their inaugural exhibition opens at Bermuda House Lane, the next big item on Masterworks' agenda is the staging of a major exhibition at the National Gallery on the life and work of the late Charles Lloyd Tucker.

"This will be in January, and will be the first show after the African exhibition closes in December. I think this will have great appeal for the Bermudian public, as Charles Lloyd Tucker was Bermuda's first black artist to achieve recognition. He taught at Berkeley through the '50s and '60s, and had a tremendous influence on his students,''says Mrs. Outerbridge.

Also slated for the immediate future is a lecture on the work of Ambrose Webster by John Driscoll, of the Babcock Galleries in New York. This will take place at Camden on December 8. Then in January or February, the Demuth Foundation, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, will give a lecture on (Charles) Demuth in Bermuda.

In another new development, Masterworks has started renting various works of art to companies and institutions around the Island.

Says Mr. Butterfield, "We are very grateful to all of the volunteers and donors who have made our new gallery possible, and I hope everyone will come along to see it.'' NEW GALLERY -- Sprucing up the new Masterworks Gallery, from left, are Mrs.

Margit Vilborg, Mrs. Lehner and Mr. Tom Butterfield. The Bermuda House Lane, Hamilton quarters, just off Front Street, opens next week.