Massive year as Towner 100 marks Eastbourne centenary

​A spokesman said: “A series of major exhibitions will take audiences on a journey through the Towner Collection past and present, as well as offer the chance to witness the world’s leading prize for contemporary art in Sussex for the first time, and to experience a large-scale presentation of one of the UK’s best loved sculptors.

"The programme will be a moment to celebrate the past 100 years of Towner but also look at the next 100; what a museum and gallery can be, and who it is for.

“Towner’s Collection will also launch online in 2023, with the first works to be showcased a series of new acquisitions, including a focus on works by female artists in the collection.”

Already running is: TOWNER 100: The Living Collection, December 17 2022 to August 2023, free admission, Gallery 1.

“Towner’s Collection comprises over 5,000 artworks that individually and collectively reflect and reveal the history of Towner as a public art gallery in Eastbourne since 1923. Towner’s Collection features many landscapes and seascapes that draw inspiration from this unique location. From 1923 the collection was housed inside Towner’s first home, an 18th century manor house which shaped the collection for almost 90 years. In 2009 Towner moved into a purpose-built modernist style gallery where we celebrate its centenary.”

TOWNER 100: Unseen runs from February 11-May 14, free admission, Gallery 2 and 3. “100 years on from when the Towner Collection began, there is a moment to reflect on what an art collection is, who it is for, and what it says about a town, a community or a time period.

"Taking inspiration from Towner Eastbourne's unique coastal location where the English Channel meets the South Downs, the exhibition will draw on these themes and include painting, moving images, prints, illustration, sculpture, installation and photography. It will bring together key works from the Collection, many of which are previously unseen, having not yet been displayed since their acquisition. Artists featured include Elizabeth Price, Helen Cammock, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Tom Hammick, Michael Rakowitz, Roland Jarvis, Rachel Jones, David Nash and Clare Woods.”

Barbara Hepworth: Life and Art (ticketed) runs from May 23-September 3, Gallery 2 and 3. “This exhibition will display some of Hepworth’s most celebrated sculptures including the modern abstract carving that launched her career in the 1920s and 1930s, her iconic strung sculptures of the 1940s and 1950s and large-scale bronze and carved sculptures from later in her career.

"Key loans from national public collections will be shown alongside works from private collections that have not been on public display since the 1970s, and rarely seen drawings, paintings and fabric designs. The exhibition will be themed around Hepworth's broader cultural interests in music, dance, theatre, politics and literature, exploring these and encouraging new interpretations and presentations of her work.” https://townereastbourne.org.uk/