Arnolfini is an international

arts centre An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues fo ...

and gallery in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

, England. It has a programme of

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a specialist art bookshop and a café bar. Educational activities are undertaken and experimental digital media work supported by online resources. Festivals are hosted by the gallery. The gallery was founded in 1961 by

Jeremy Rees Jeremy Rees (8 May 1937 – 12 December 2003) was a British arts administrator. He was the founder of the Arnolfini Centre for the Contemporary Arts in Bristol and its director from its opening in 1961 until 1986. Born in Bridgwater Bridgw ...

, and was located in

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People * Clifton (surname) * Clifton (given name) Places Australia *Clifton, Queensland, a town ** Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong * Clifton, Western Australia Canada * Clifton, Nova Sc ...

. In the 1970s it moved to Queen Square, before moving to its present location, Bush House on Bristol's waterfront, in 1975. The name of the gallery is taken from

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. A ...

's 15th-century painting '' The Arnolfini Portrait''. Arnolfini was refurbished and redeveloped in 1989 and 2005. Artists whose work has been exhibited include

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in Norwood, Londo ...

, Rachel Whiteread, Richard Long and

Jack Yeats Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother. Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pic ...

. Performers have included Goat Island Performance Group, the

Philip Glass Ensemble The Philip Glass Ensemble is an American musical group founded by composer Philip Glass in 1968 to serve as a performance outlet for his experimental minimalist music. The ensemble continues to perform and record to this day, under the musical d ...

, and

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company Shobana Jeyasingh Dance is a British dance company based in London and founded in 1989 by the company's artistic director and choreographer, Shobana Jeyasingh Shobana Jeyasingh (born 26 March 1957 in Chennai) is a British choreographer and fo ...

. The gallery reached a new audience in April 2010, when it was chosen to host one of the three 2010 general election debates.

History

Jeremy Rees started Arnolfini with the assistance of his wife Annabel, and the painter John Orsborn in 1961. The location was above a bookshop in the Triangle in Clifton, Bristol. In 1968, Rees was able to give up his teaching job and with the aid of private funding and Arts Council funding relocated the gallery to Queen Square, then to W Shed, later the home of the

Watershed Media Centre Watershed opened in June 1982 as the United Kingdom's first dedicated media centre. Based in former warehouses on the harbourside at Bristol, it hosts three cinemas, a café/ bar, events/conferencing spaces, the Pervasive Media Studio, and off ...

. In 1975, Arnolfini moved to its present home in Bush House, occupying two floors of a 19th-century Grade II*

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

tea warehouse situated on the side of the Floating Harbour in

Bristol city centre Bristol City Centre is the commercial, cultural and business centre of Bristol, England. It is the area north of the New Cut of the River Avon, bounded by Clifton Wood and Clifton to the north-west, Kingsdown and Cotham to the north, and ...

. The remainder of the building was office space leased out by developers JT Group. The architect of Bush House was

Richard Shackleton Pope Richard Shackleton Pope (c. 1793 – 10 February 1884) was a British architect working mainly in Bristol. His father was a clerk of works for Sir Robert Smirke, and Pope succeeded him, also working for C.R. Cockerell. He moved to Bristol to ...

, who constructed first the south part of the warehouse (1831) then extended it to the north in 1835–1836. Its original use was as a warehouse for local iron foundry D., E. & A. Acraman. The building has a Pennant Sandstone exterior with arched ground level entrances and arched windows above. This style of architecture is the first example of the

Bristol Byzantine Bristol Byzantine is a variety of Byzantine Revival architecture that was popular in the city of Bristol from about 1850 to 1880. Many buildings in the style have been destroyed or demolished, but notable surviving examples include the Colston ...

style which became popular in the 1850s. Later conversion to a tea warehouse added interstitial floors. Originally dedicated to exhibiting the work of artists from the West of England, under the directorship of

Barry Barker Barry Barker is a British Contemporary Art curator and gallerist. He is head of the Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts at the University of Brighton. Previously, Barker worked with Nigel Greenwood and was exhibitions officer at the Institute of ...

(1986–1991) the gallery moved towards a more general spread of

. Barker supervised a refurbishment of the gallery spaces and café bar by

David Chipperfield Sir David Alan Chipperfield, (born 18 December 1953) is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museu ...

. Before development work began, Arnolfini was attracting over 285,000 visitors per year. Subsequent Directors have been Tessa Jackson (1991–1999), Caroline Collier (1999–2005) and Tom Trevor (2005-2013). As part of a two-year development project that finished in September 2005, the old warehouse has been redeveloped, adding another attic storey. Arnolfini now occupies the lower three floors and basement, and the upper floors are leased to help pay for the running costs. One tenant is the School of Creative Arts, part of the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

. Funding for this development was received from the National Lottery and the Barker-Mill Trust, set up by long term Arnolfini patron Peter Barker-Mill. The original committee to support Arnolfini included Peter Barker-Mill, Ann Hewer, and

Lawrence Ogilvie Lawrence Ogilvie (5 July 1898 – 16 April 1980) was a Scottish plant pathologist. From 1923, in his first job and aged only 25, when agriculture was Bermuda's major industry, Ogilvie identified the virus that had devastated the islands' high-v ...

. In July 2015, Bush House was sold to the

, with a lease-back of the artistic space. The profits from the sale replenished Arnolfini's endowment fund.

Name

The Arnolfini is named after

's masterpiece '' The Arnolfini Portrait'' (1434) depicting the merchant and arts patron Giovanni Arnolfini. ''The Arnolfini Portrait'' is one of the earliest paintings to assert the presence of the artist within its depiction (an inscription in the middle of the work and a reflection in a mirror on the back wall) and one of Arnolfini's consistent concerns: to explore the role of artist as a witness and recorder of what is around them – contemporary society. The painting is in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...

and it was one of the founder's favourite paintings.

Today

Arnolfini has three floors of galleries, a specialist arts bookshop, a cinema which can also be used as a performance space for theatre, live art, dance and music, a reading room that provides reference material for all past exhibitions, books and catalogues, and a café bar. Entrance to the galleries is free of charge. Notable exhibitions have included works by

, Richard Long, Rachel Whiteread,

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

Angus Fairhurst Angus Fairhurst (4 October 1966 – 29 March 2008) was an English artist working in installation, photography and video. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). Life and work Angus Fairhurst was born in Pembury, Kent. Having attended ...

and Louise Bourgeois. Events include poetry and film festivals, live art and dance performances, lectures and jazz and experimental music concerts, including Bodies in Flight, Goat Island Performance Group, Akram Khan, the

London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—giv ...

, the

, Random Dance, and

. There is an access and education programme, hosting visits from students, workshops with artists, presenting interpretative information and offering some work experience placements within the gallery. ''project.ARNOLFINI'' is an online experimental web site with dumps of digital media related to Arnolfini exhibitions and events, past and present, which may be reorganised by any online user, utilising resources on the web site to create new works and projects under a

copyleft Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose ...

license. Arnolfini also hosts events from outside organisations, including the ''Encounters Short Film Festival'' (along with the

), Mayfest, the first Festival of British Independent Cinema, the biennial Time Festival of Live Art and Intrigue and the Bristol Artists Book Events. In April 2010,

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

chose Arnolfini to host the second of the three 2010 general election debates. Arnolfini receives funding from

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

, and Bristol City Council. According to returns lodged with the

Charity Commission , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , ...

for the year ending in March 2016, Arnolfini had 500,000 visitors in 2013/2014. Income was £2.1 million and expenditure was £2.7 million and the gallery employed 44 people. In 2017 the Arnolfini, which had asked for increased funding in recent years, will be losing its Arts Council England £750,000 annual grant after an assessment that the Arnolfini was "not viable" in its current model. In 2017 a new director, Claire Doherty, was appointed. She aimed to devise a viable financial model. A show by

Grayson Perry Grayson Perry (born 1960) is an English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "pre ...

drew in more than 300 visitors a day.

References

External links

* *
Bush House

Pevsner Architectural Guides The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published ...

{{authority control Commercial buildings completed in 1836 1836 establishments in England Grade II* listed buildings in Bristol Art museums and galleries in Bristol Museums in Bristol Bristol Harbourside Music venues in Bristol Art museums established in 1961 1961 establishments in England Grade II* listed museum buildings

History

Archives

Name

Today

See also

References

External links