The keenly anticipated Jerwood Gallery in Hastings will open its doors to visitors in March 2012. Designed by young architectural practice HAT Projects, the Gallery will house the Foundation’s collection of 20th and 21st century paintings, which will be on public display for the first time.
The Gallery is part of a landmark £9million redevelopment of the Stade, a historic area in Hasting’s Old Town, home to Europe’s largest beach-launched fishing fleet. The £4million gallery, for which the capital and running costs will be entirely funded by the Jerwood Foundation, is seen as an important catalyst in the cultural and economic regeneration of the area.
The Jerwood Gallery is part of a masterplan for the landmark location of the Stade in Hastings. The Gallery will provide the permanent home for the Jerwood Collection and a new regional venue for the Jerwood Visual Arts Programme, which comprises of some of the most prominent visual arts awards in the UK. It will establish Hastings in the ‘string of pearls’ of prestigious cultural attractions along the South Coast, which includes the Turner Contemporary at Margate, the Folkestone Triennial, the Towner in Eastbourne, De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill and Pallant House at Chichester.
Alan Grieve, Chairman of the Jerwood Foundation said of the project:
This is the culmination of the initiative to make a new home for Jerwood’s collection of 20th and 21st century art and place it in the public domain for the first time. Hastings is linked with a number of artists featured in the collection. With its rich history and strong, ever-expanding artistic community we felt that Hastings was the perfect location for the Gallery.
The Jerwood Gallery will open with the UK’s first retrospective of the works of Kent-based artist Rose Wylie, who has just been awarded the 2011 Paul Hamlyn Prize for Visual Arts. Rose is no stranger to the Jerwood Foundation, having been shortlisted for the Painting Prize in 1997 and featuring in the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2003.