Towner Eastbourne will welcome Martin Clark as CEO and director in January 2027. Clark will leave his role as director of Camden Art Centre (CAC), London, where he has been for 10 years.
The search for a new director began after the departure of Joe Hill from the contemporary art gallery earlier this year.
Clark’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for Towner ahead of the development of Towner Seven Sisters at Black Robin Farm, a new cultural destination for art, nature and heritage near Eastbourne and in the South Downs National Park.
Delivered in partnership with Eastbourne Borough Council with funding from the UK Government and Arts Council England to date, development of the new site will begin in early 2027 and will include a new gallery building and refurbished historic downland farm buildings providing heritage, learning and community engagement spaces set within the natural landscape.
Through artist commissions, outdoor sculpture, exhibitions, workshops, creative learning activities, sustainable food and walking experiences, Towner Seven Sisters aims to celebrate and protect the beauty, heritage and ecological significance of the South Downs.
Towner is also growing its creative programme at Newhaven, which supports artists, communities and creative industries.
Clark brings a wealth of arts administration experience to his new role, as well as previous experience working with Towner as a member of the Turner Prize 2023 jury.
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In 2025, Camden Art Centre’s 60th anniversary year, Clark led a major fundraising campaign to acquire the building from Camden Council and secure the art centre’s future. In 2018 he established the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Award at Frieze London, giving the milestone opportunity of a first London institutional show to young and emerging artists from all over the world.
During his time as director of CAC, he has grown the organisation’s profile as well as programming internationally acclaimed exhibitions of contemporary artists.
Prior to his post at CAC, Clark was director at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2013-17), delivering a programme of exhibitions, public realm commissions, performance, events and research.
As artistic director of Tate St Ives between 2007-13 he worked on the development, fundraising and artistic masterplan for the £9m Tate St Ives Phase Two Capital Project, which delivered expanded galleries, collection displays, heritage programmes, and vital new art handling facilities for the building.
He curated the group exhibition The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art, which toured from Tate St Ives to Towner Eastbourne in 2010.
From 2005-07, Clark was curator of exhibitions at Arnolfini, Bristol. He holds an MA in Curating and Commissioning Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London, and a BA in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University.
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Stephen Welton, chair of Towner’s board of trustees, said: “I am delighted to welcome Martin Clark to Towner as our new CEO and director. With a distinguished career in leading visual arts organisations in the UK and abroad, Martin will bring creativity, expertise and dynamism to the next stage of Towner’s evolution.
“He has a strong feel for our vital regional galleries and communities from his time at Tate St Ives in Cornwall, as well as a keen understanding of what is happening nationally after ten years with Camden Art Centre. He will be a great complement to the wider leadership of Towner, building on the success of recent years, overseeing important new projects such as Towner Seven Sisters at Black Robin Farm, and we all look forward to working with him.”
Martin Clark said: “I’m enormously excited to be joining Towner at this pivotal moment for the organisation. Towner is already the largest and most significant museum and gallery of modern and contemporary art in the southeast, but with the delivery of Towner Seven Sisters at Black Robin Farm, we have the opportunity to create a new kind of arts organisation. One that brings together a world class collection, an ambitious and internationally renowned exhibition and commissioning programme, alongside innovative new models of education, training, skills development and creative opportunities, all set in the unique and breathtaking landscape of the South Downs National Park.”
