The Hastings Contemporary is a museum of contemporary British art located on The Stade in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

and is a not-for-profit organisation. The gallery opened in March 2012 as the Jerwood Gallery and cost £4m to build. The gallery contains temporary exhibitions that included work from artists including

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small ...

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, Order of Merit, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract art, abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was ...

Patrick Caulfield Patrick Joseph Caulfield, (29 January 1936 – 29 September 2005), was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of photorealism within a pared-down scene. Examples of his work are ''Po ...

Maggi Hambling Margaret ("Maggi") J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and '' A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, ...

, Craigie Aitchison and

Prunella Clough Prunella Clough (14 November 1919 – 26 December 1999) was a prominent British artist. She is known mostly for her paintings, though she also made prints and created assemblages of collected objects. She was awarded the Jerwood Prize for pain ...

Architecture

The building was designed by Hana Loftus and Tom Grieve (son of Alan Grieve, the chairman of the

Jerwood Foundation The Jerwood Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation in the United Kingdom. In 1999 the Jerwood Foundation established the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, a registered charity under English law. History The Jerwood Foundation was establi ...

) from the architecture firm HAT Projects. The outside of the gallery building is covered with over 8,000 black tiles that were glazed in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', the architecture critic

Rowan Moore Rowan Moore is an architecture critic. Rowan William Gillachrist Moore was born on 22 March 1961. His brother is the journalist, newspaper editor and Margaret Thatcher's official biographer Charles Moore, Baron Moore of Etchingham, and his gr ...

says that the Jerwood building "is not embarrassed by the stuff and clobber around it, and does not embarrass them". Moore concludes that the building is "a simple and straightforward place for viewing art". Front Entrance Jerwood

Wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...

'' described the gallery as "a perfectly formed, modest space, that doesn't try too hard". The building was given a National Award in 2013 by the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

Exhibitions

The following artists have had exhibitions at Jerwood Gallery: *

Rose Wylie Rose Wylie (born 14 October 1934) is a British painter. She is an artist known for creating large paintings on unprimed canvas.Salle, David (12 May 2022). "Going on Her Nerve". ''The New York Review of Books'' 69 (8): 32–34. Life and work She ...

Gary Hume Gary Stewart Hume (born 9 May 1962) is an English artist. Hume's work is strongly identified with the YBA who came to prominence in the early 1990s. Hume lives and works in London and Accord, New York.

Gillian Ayres Gillian Ayres (3 February 1930 – 11 April 2018) was an English painter. She is best known for abstract painting and printmaking using vibrant colours, which earned her a Turner Prize nomination. Early life and education Gillian Ayres was bo ...

* William Scott *

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

Basil Beattie Basil Beattie RA (born 1935) is a British artist, whose work revolves around abstraction and is known for its emotive and gestural forms. Born in West Hartlepool, County Durham, Beattie attended the West Hartlepool College of Art from 1950 until ...

Marlow Moss Marjorie Jewel "Marlow" Moss (29 May 1889 – 23 August 1958) was a British Constructivist artist who worked in painting and sculpture. Biography Moss was born on 29 May 1889 in Kilburn in London. She was the daughter of Lionel and Fannie Moss ...

* Christopher Wood *

Alfred Wallis Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 – 29 August 1942) was a British fisherman and artist known for his port landscapes and shipping scenes painted in a naïve style. Having no artistic training, he began painting at the age of 70, using househol ...

* Ansel Krut *

Quentin Blake Sir Quentin Saxby Blake, (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his ...

Chantal Joffe Chantal Joffe (born 5 October 1969) is an American-born English artist based in London.Royal Academy of ArtsChantal Joffe RA Elect , Artist , Royal Academy of Arts accessdate: 29/08/2014 Her often large-scale paintings generally depict women ...

The gallery has also been a venue for an exhibition of art works from the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2012.

Controversy and opposition

The building of the gallery led to protests from local residents fearing that it would lead to

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

of the surrounding area. In 2008, the Hastings Bonfire Society burned a model of the gallery in effigy. Keith Leech from the bonfire society said that the gallery represented "a long string of things that people are trying to foist upon us". As the gallery replaced a coach park, opponents of the development believed it would reduce the amount of business from coach trip parties, while others believe it should have been located elsewhere in the town. Posters and banners opposing the development have been displayed nearby. Local residents pay a reduced rate to enter the gallery, and on the first Tuesday of every month the gallery is free to all between the hours of 4pm - 8pm.

Renaming

In Summer 2019 the Jerwood Gallery cut ties with the

amid a funding dispute. As part of its separation, the gallery rebranded to be called Hastings Contemporary, though will remain in the building owned by the Jerwood Foundation. The independent charity Hastings Contemporary is an Arts Council NPO receiving £100,000 per year grant 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 ...

References

External links

Hastings Contemporary websiteHastings Contemporary listing on Visit 1066 Country tourism site

Save Our Stade
– website of the anti-Jerwood campaigners {{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings Contemporary Contemporary art galleries in England Buildings and structures in Hastings Art museums and galleries in East Sussex