A decade after it was opened, Jo Phillips examines the impact the Turner gallery has had on Margate’s community, economy and infrastructure.
In the summer of 2020, anti-racism marchers arrived on the steps of the Turner Contemporary in Margate while it was hosting the exhibition We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South. The march’s organisers were the artists and founders of People Dem Collective, Kelly Abbott and Victoria Barrow Williams, who were disappointed at the exhibition’s American focus because, as they put it: “So much was lost. We’re not from Alabama, we’re from Thanet [in Kent] … and our lived experience is about being erased.” They suggested that the gallery could make the show more relevant.
Within weeks, they were given space to mount their own exhibition, including a film of the march and speeches alongside artwork from the protest. For Victoria Pomery, director of Turner Contemporary, that ability to be “fleet of foot and think differently” is one of the most important aspects of the gallery, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year... Keep reading on The Guardian.
In the summer of 2020, anti-racism marchers arrived on the steps of the Turner Contemporary in Margate while it was hosting the exhibition We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South. The march’s organisers were the artists and founders of People Dem Collective, Kelly Abbott and Victoria Barrow Williams, who were disappointed at the exhibition’s American focus because, as they put it: “So much was lost. We’re not from Alabama, we’re from Thanet [in Kent] … and our lived experience is about being erased.” They suggested that the gallery could make the show more relevant.
Within weeks, they were given space to mount their own exhibition, including a film of the march and speeches alongside artwork from the protest. For Victoria Pomery, director of Turner Contemporary, that ability to be “fleet of foot and think differently” is one of the most important aspects of the gallery, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year... Keep reading on The Guardian.