Cruising the Collection

Cruising the Collection has emerged from Towner’s collaboration with the LGBTQIA+ participants who came together to voice the 2021 podcast series Collectively, exploring personal responses to artworks in the Towner Collection through a queer lens.  

Following the success of the podcasts, some of the group together with artist and Collectively producer Renee Vaughan Sutherland now expand their engagement with the Collection to curate this exhibition, bringing stories about forgotten or neglected queer histories to the surface. Themes of the body and the body in landscape arise throughout the exhibition, which includes works by Wilfred Avery, Edward Burra, Kathleen Walne, Cedric Morris, John Minton and Elizabeth Andrews. 

The group have selected works that personally resonate with them and their shared experiences as part of Sussex’s queer community. Welcoming, inclusive and insightful, this exhibition invites visitors into a space where conversations, connections, and fresh perspectives are revealed and where the Collection is opened up to memories, emotions and experiences of queerness.  

Collectively are Andrea Mindel, David Harris, Emily Love, Eva Jonas, Flo Wright, John Manuell and Renee Vaughan Sutherland.

To listen to the Collectively podcast, search for 'Towner Collectively' on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you like to tune in and find a series of essays about the project on ArtUK, written by Renee.