Arts Council England
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Arts Council Collection announces National Partners’ Programme of exhibitions for 2017
The Arts Council Collection has announced details of the exhibitions taking place throughout 2017 at its four National Partner galleries, The Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool; Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne; Birmingham Museums Trust and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Highlights from the programme
Coming Out at Walker Art Gallery (28 July - 5 November 2017): an exhibition exploring sexuality and gender identity in Britain since 1967, marking the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexual acts in England and Wales.
Tread Softly at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (27 May – 3 September 2017): A group exhibition exploring childhood experience, memory and familial relationships including powerful works by Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry and many others.
I Want! I Want!: Art & Technology at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (1 April – 1 October 2017): A curated selection of artworks spanning the last 20 years, by contemporary artists working with new technologies, showing how artists have navigated and contributed to a social, cultural and technological revolution.
A Certain Kind of Light at Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne (21 January – 14 May 2017):An exhibition exploring how artists have responded to the materiality and idea of light. Featuring contemporary artists that use artificial and natural light as essential artistic materials, alongside artists from whom the quality of light itself is the subject.
See full details about the exhibitions coming up over the next 12 months
Simon Mellor, Executive Director Arts & Culture, Arts Council England said: “2016 is a very big year for the Arts Council Collection. Not only is it the Collection’s 70th birthday, but we’ve also launched the National Partners programme, appointing four exceptional partner galleries to present a series of exhibitions over the next three years, all drawn from the Arts Council Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary British art in the world. Selection as a National Partner is recognition that each partner shares our ambition to ensure that the work of some of the most exciting names in British contemporary art is enjoyed by as large an audience as possible. Together, The Walker, Liverpool; Towner Gallery, Eastbourne; Birmingham Museums Trust and Yorkshire Sculpture Park will be working with the Southbank Centre, London to ensure that people up and down the country get an opportunity to enjoy some of the very best art created in this country since the second world war.”
Jill Constantine, Head of Arts Council Collection said: “Our 70th Anniversary year has been extraordinarily successful, our eight celebratory commissions have been seen and enjoyed across the country and now the launch of the National Partnership exhibition programme will allow even more people to see great work from the Arts Council Collection. It has been really rewarding to witness the excitement of the teams in each partner gallery whilst researching ideas, discovering new elements of the Collection and sharing their thoughts and curatorial proposals across the other partners. It promises to be really wonderful programme and I look forward to working with the partners to develop the next round of exhibitions.”
About the Arts Council Collection
The Arts Council Collection contains nearly 8,000 works by over 2,000 artists including Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley and Henry Moore to Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley, Grayson Perry and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. It’s the UK’s most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art, making more than 1,000 loans to over 100 venues a year and is seen by millions of people annually in public spaces from galleries and museums to hospitals, libraries and universities.
