Turner Contemporary and the regeneration debate
Simon Stephens, 01.02.2012
Museums Journal: blog
A visit to Turner Contemporary last week for the opening of its Turner and the Elements exhibition was a great chance to see the impact that the gallery has had on Margate since opening last year.
There have been high hopes that the £17.5m gallery will provide a much-needed boost for this seaside town in Kent, which had seemed locked in a spiral of decline, mirroring the plight of many other coastal areas in the UK.
Initial impressions on leaving the train station are not encouraging. An unsightly tower block looms over you as you pass numerous boarded-up shops along the seafront.
A selection of scary-looking dogs have left various presents to test the fancy footwork of pedestrians, while the amusement park Dreamland looks the stuff of nightmares.
But the outlook changes as you get closer to Turner Contemporary where there are fewer empty shops and a less down-at-heel feel. And once inside the building, the views out to sea are stunning, particularly on a bright winter’s day.
There is no doubt that the Turner Contemporary has been a big hit with visitors, with more than a third of a million coming through its doors since April. The gallery has already exceeded its target of 150,000 visitors in its first year.
Other recently developed art galleries have blown their first-year visitor targets out of the water. The Hepworth Wakefield was also aiming for 150,000 visitors in its opening year, but managed to attract 100,000 in its first five weeks.
These are impressive figures, and are seen as evidence by some of the success of culture-led regeneration, although maybe they also mean that initial visitor targets should be more ambitious.
And as John Kampfner, the chairman of Turner Contemporary, acknowledges: “It is still too early to gauge the full extent of the gallery’s economic and social impact.”
He says that 35 business have opened in Margate’s Old Town, which is next to the gallery. But other areas have not fared so well and there is concern locally that the high street is not benefiting from the council’s wider regeneration plans.
The Coastal Communities Alliance has argued that culture-led regeneration in seaside towns needs strong political leadership, a specific artistic vision for an area connected with its distinctiveness and a genuine and broad level of engagement.
Maybe Margate has all of these. It will be interesting to return in a few years’ time to get a better idea of the long-term impact of the gallery.
For now, things are looking up. The Turner exhibition is being followed by a show featuring the work of Tracey Emin, who was brought up in Margate, and should be a big draw.
And even Dreamland is getting a facelift. Work is now underway on a multi-million pound plan to restore the amusement park and create a heritage visitor attraction.
Will this be the mixture of low and high culture that Margate needs?
Simon Stephens is deputy editor of Museums Journal
Follow Simon on Twitter @SimonAStephens
Previous blog
A cultured view
There have been high hopes that the £17.5m gallery will provide a much-needed boost for this seaside town in Kent, which had seemed locked in a spiral of decline, mirroring the plight of many other coastal areas in the UK.
Initial impressions on leaving the train station are not encouraging. An unsightly tower block looms over you as you pass numerous boarded-up shops along the seafront.
A selection of scary-looking dogs have left various presents to test the fancy footwork of pedestrians, while the amusement park Dreamland looks the stuff of nightmares.
But the outlook changes as you get closer to Turner Contemporary where there are fewer empty shops and a less down-at-heel feel. And once inside the building, the views out to sea are stunning, particularly on a bright winter’s day.
There is no doubt that the Turner Contemporary has been a big hit with visitors, with more than a third of a million coming through its doors since April. The gallery has already exceeded its target of 150,000 visitors in its first year.
Other recently developed art galleries have blown their first-year visitor targets out of the water. The Hepworth Wakefield was also aiming for 150,000 visitors in its opening year, but managed to attract 100,000 in its first five weeks.
These are impressive figures, and are seen as evidence by some of the success of culture-led regeneration, although maybe they also mean that initial visitor targets should be more ambitious.
And as John Kampfner, the chairman of Turner Contemporary, acknowledges: “It is still too early to gauge the full extent of the gallery’s economic and social impact.”
He says that 35 business have opened in Margate’s Old Town, which is next to the gallery. But other areas have not fared so well and there is concern locally that the high street is not benefiting from the council’s wider regeneration plans.
The Coastal Communities Alliance has argued that culture-led regeneration in seaside towns needs strong political leadership, a specific artistic vision for an area connected with its distinctiveness and a genuine and broad level of engagement.
Maybe Margate has all of these. It will be interesting to return in a few years’ time to get a better idea of the long-term impact of the gallery.
For now, things are looking up. The Turner exhibition is being followed by a show featuring the work of Tracey Emin, who was brought up in Margate, and should be a big draw.
And even Dreamland is getting a facelift. Work is now underway on a multi-million pound plan to restore the amusement park and create a heritage visitor attraction.
Will this be the mixture of low and high culture that Margate needs?
Simon Stephens is deputy editor of Museums Journal
Follow Simon on Twitter @SimonAStephens
Previous blog
A cultured view
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