Camden Art Centre (formerly known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and S ...

, England that hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects. The changing programme includes

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...

s, learning, residencies, off-site projects, artist-led activities and courses.

Activities

Exhibitions feature emerging artists, international artists showing for the first time in London, historic figures who inspire contemporary practice, and thematic group shows. Camden Art Centre also strives to support artists in making new artworks. Central to its programme is the artist residency programme, which aims to develop artists' practices with practical support, resulting in new work and public participation. Past residency artists include Salvatore Arancio, David Raymond Conroy, Caroline Achaintre, Jesse Wine, Phoebe Cummings, Anne Hardy,

Alexandre da Cunha Alexandre da Cunha (born 1969) is a Brazilian-British artist, who produces sculpture and wall mounted works, often using found objects. His works have been exhibited around the world, and are located in several major public collections. Biogra ...

, Emma Hart,

Veronica Ryan Veronica Maudlyn Ryan (born 1956 in Plymouth, Montserrat) is a Montserrat-born British sculptor. She moved to London with her parents when she was an infant and now lives between New York and Bristol. In December 2022, Ryan won the Turner Prize ...

Sally O'Reilly Sally O'Reilly (born 1971) is a writer, critic, teacher and editor. She publishes and distributes text in conventional and expanded forms, from art magazines to performance lectures to opera. Her divergent subject matter contributes to an ongoing ...

Francis Upritchard Francis Upritchard (born in 1976) is a New Zealand contemporary artist based in London. In 2009, she represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale. Education Upritchard graduated from the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canter ...

, Jonathan Baldock, Mike Nelson, Graham Gussin,

Martin Creed Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, ''Work No. 22 ...

, Vivien Blackett, Simon Starling, Adam Chodzko,

Athanasios Argianas Athanasios Argianas (born 1976) is a Greek and British artist living and working in London, England. Argianas' practice is interdisciplinary; incorporating sculpture, painting, text, performance and often music or sound, and concerns itself with me ...

and Walter Price. More recently, exhibitions including:

Olga Balema Olga Balema (born 1984) is a Ukrainian-born American artist and sculptor. One of the major concerns of her work is form, another material. Another is paying attention to where and how things go into a space. Sometimes the work can be called site ...

and Elizabeth Murray. Learning activity includes talks and discussions, film screenings and live art performances, alongside family activities, schools' projects led by artists, projects for young people and courses in ceramics, drawing, painting, performance and art theory. Off-site artists' projects include new commissions and performance in areas such as King's Cross, London and the Borough of Brent, and in local schools and community centres. Since 2018 there has been a renewed emphasis on public programmes both on and off-site, as well as a developing digital programme that includes a new Camden Art Audio podcast programme. A shop is on site, as well as a Café and Garden.

Management

Martin Clark has been the director of Camden Art Centre since 2017. He was previously Director of Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2013–17), Artistic Director of Tate St Ives, (2007–13) and Exhibitions Curator at Arnolfini, Bristol, (2004–07). Clark succeeded Jenni Lomax OBE, who was the Director of Camden Arts Centre for 27 years, between 1990 and 2017. Under her stewardship, Camden Arts Centre established a programme of exhibitions, including solo shows by

Anya Gallaccio Anya Gallaccio (born 1963) is a British artist, who creates site-specific, minimalist installations and often works with organic matter (including chocolate, sugar, flowers and ice). Her use of organic materials results in natural processes ...

, Tal R,

Victor Grippo The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French sho ...

, Yinka Shonibare, Hanne Darboven, Kara Walker, Eva Hesse, Laura Owens, Kerry James Marshall, and

Angela de la Cruz Angela may refer to: Places * Angela, Montana * Angela Lake, in Volusia County, Florida * Lake Angela, in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan * Lake Angela, the reservoir impounded by the source dam of the South Yuba River Fiction * Ang ...

, whose first solo exhibition in the UK, entitled 'After', was held at Camden Arts Centre in April and May 2010. She was nominated for the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

in 2010. In 2020 Clark oversaw a rebrand of the organisation with Pentagram, dropping the ‘s’ on ‘Camden Arts Centre’ to become ‘Camden Art Centre’. He has continued to programme international artists for the first time in the UK, including exhibitions by Amy Sillman, Sadie Benning, Elizabeth Murray, Christodoulos Panayiotou and Vivian Suter, as well as providing a space for emerging UK and international artists including Beatrice Gibson, Wong Ping, Julien Creuzet and Walter Price, some of whom were supported through the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze, which he established in 2018.

History

Camden Art Centre is situated at the corner of Arkwright Road and Finchley Road, NW3 in a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

listed premises, constructed as Hampstead Central Library and designed by the architect Arnold Taylor. The building was opened in 1897 by its benefactor Sir Henry Harben, then Deputy Chairman of the Prudential Assurance Company. The Victorian structure funded by Harben survived World War II, despite hits by enemy incendiary bombs in 1940 and the blast from a V2 rocket in 1945. The library grew in size and was extended in the 1920s, however by 1964 a new facility opened in Swiss Cottage which was better able to cope with the demands of the modern library service and all stock was transferred to it. The Centre was founded in 1965 in

West Hampstead West Hampstead is an area in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. Mainly defined by the railway stations of the same name, it is situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage ...

. It was originally named Hampstead Arts Centre and renamed "Camden Arts Centre" in 1967. It provided the local community with classes in painting, life drawing, pottery, printing and basic design. The first exhibition was held a year after the Centre was established. Jenni Lomax OBE joined Camden Art Centre in 1990, and established a programme of exhibitions, residencies, artists' projects and public events. She led the organisation through a major building refurbishment scheme which was completed in early 2004 by

Tony Fretton Tony Fretton (born 17 January 1945) is a British architect known for his residential and public gallery buildings, as well as other British and international design work. He graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) and worked for variou ...

Architects. Martin Clark became the Centre's new Director in 2017. It was rebranded "Camden Art Centre" in 2020.

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Arts centres in London Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Camden