Towner 100: Unseen

What does a public collection look like in the 21st century? Which artists and artworks get acquired for a gallery collection and which get displayed? How are these decisions made and who is making them? What does a town’s collection say about its communities?

In Towner’s one-hundredth year, these are some of the questions that we hope to engage with by highlighting a selection of new acquisitions that have joined our permanent collection more recently. Towner’s is a Living Collection, one that has developed over time and continues to reflect the ambitions of the organisation to support artists at all stages of their careers – collecting both emerging and contemporary artists as well as works by modern British artists.

Including painting, moving image, prints, drawing and illustration, sculpture, installation, and photography, this exhibition will bring together some key works from the collection, many of which are unseen, having not yet been displayed since being acquired. Artists featured include Michael Rakowitz, Richard Billingham, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Tom Hammick, Jananne Al-Ani, Roland Jarvis, Rachel Jones, David Nash, Elizabeth Price, Jem Southam, Andy Warhol, André Derain and Clare Woods.

Alongside TOWNER 100: The Living Collection in Gallery 1, this exhibition will tell some of the stories about gifts, bequests and purchases that have contributed to making the collection what it is today and looking at how it might develop into the future.

In the text panels and labels for our TOWNER 100 exhibitions you will find a glossary of words that are often associated with a collection of artworks.

The words help describe what a collection is, how artworks come into a collection and some of the actions used when looking after artworks.

Read our TOWNER 100 glossary