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Towner 100: a year of new exhibitions launches today to celebrate the centenary year of the South Coast’s biggest gallery 

Opening on Saturday 11 February  is a programme celebrating our centenary year; TOWNER 100. A series of major exhibitions will take you 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 kicks off with 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 with two exhibitions of works from the Collection. 

Director and CEO of Towner Eastbourne, Joe Hill, said, “We are delighted to unveil our Towner 100 exhibitions today, kicking off a year of cultural activity across the town and across Sussex, as we celebrate our centenary year. The Collection is Towner's greatest asset and we are committed to developing its breadth and diversity by ensuring that ambitious and artistically significant work continues to be acquired.  We are thrilled to welcome audiences to see both of these new exhibitions, which tell the story of our Collection past and present through painting, sculpture, moving image and photography to name just a few, and artists from Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Price, David Nash and Rachel Jones, to Eric Ravilious and William Gear. I look forward to welcoming everyone to Towner later in the year for our Barbara Hepworth exhibition - the biggest ever to take place in Sussex and to celebrate with us as we host the Turner Prize in Autumn.”

TOWNER 100: The Living Collection runs until 28 August 2023. Towner’s Collection comprises over 5000 artworks that individually and collectively reflect and reveal the history of Towner as a public art gallery in Eastbourne since 1923. Sited in Sussex, 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. The Living Collection considers Towner’s broad and varied history of collecting and exhibiting over the past 100 years through a selection of paintings, prints and artefacts. This celebratory display offers Towner and its communities the occasion to look back to appreciate the past and the opportunity to look forward, engaging with the present as we envision its future. Expect to see artists such as Eric Ravilious, Edward Wadsworth, Vanessa Bell, Gertrude Hermes, William Gear and Greta Delleany.

TOWNER 100: Unseen meanwhile looks ahead, from Saturday (11 February) to 14 May. 

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’s unique coastal location in Eastbourne, the exhibition draws on these themes and includes painting, moving image, 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, Andy Warhol, Jem Southern, Jananne Al-Ani, Helen Cammock, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Tom Hammick, Michael Rakowitz, Roland Jarvis, Rachel Jones, David Nash and Clare Woods. 

Play Interact Explore also opens this week and is an exhibition of interactive artworks and resources  developed in collaboration with community groups in Eastbourne and Brighton. This lively, exciting and curiosity-filled space is designed to support and encourage visitors of all types to take part in playful exploration and critical thought through making.  Leap Then Look create artworks, participatory projects and events which explore the possibilities of play, collaboration and material exploration in cross-disciplinary art practice.  Four community groups - West Rise Junior School, Arts in Mind, Downs View Special School and the Brighton and Hove Foster Service - will work directly with the artists through a series of interactive workshops used to design and test artworks in a collaborative process leading to the creation of the exhibition. 

All three of these new exhibitions are free!

You can find more information about how to get here and what to expect when you arrive on our Your Visit page. Accessibility information for each show can be found on the indvidual exhibition pages.