JMW Turner’s passion for Margate began when, aged 11, he was sent to school in Love Lane. By the 1820s he was a regular visitor, staying at Mrs Booth’s guesthouse.
His relationship with her was so close that, following the death of her husband, Turner called himself “Mr Booth”. With not a super-injunction in sight, they managed to keep their relationship a secret for 17 years.
The new gallery that now bears the artist’s name in the town opened in April. Appropriately enough, it sits on the seafront on the site of the Sophia Booth’s guesthouse and is certainly no secret – more than 80,000 people visited in the first month.
So, 13 years since the idea was first mooted, what will visitors find? David Chipperfield’s building is certainly monumental, dwarfing the clock tower on Cold Harbour. It is clad in opaque white glass designed to reflect the changing light. A cafe spills out onto the entrance terrace where brightly coloured chairs add a much-needed pop of colour. Inside, the entrance hall is spacious, if somewhat confusing.
The shop benefits from an experienced visual merchandiser and there are interesting collaborations with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Whitechapel Gallery, London, in terms of stock.
But hanging one of the two Turners currently on show outside the toilets sends visitors in the wrong direction away from the stairs to the first floor and the gallery spaces – and the soundtrack of hand driers doesn’t help much, either.
When you approach a huge window with its vista – albeit across the car park – to the Channel, it is easy to understand why Turner was so inspired by the views out to sea from the guesthouse. The horizon is currently framed by Daniel Buren’s Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape.
Spirit of discovery
The image appears on posters announcing the gallery’s opening. Those confused by Tate Britain’s marketing campaign prominently featuring Turner’s Blue Rigi and arriving in Margate expecting a Turner extravaganza will have to wait until early 2012.
Turner Contemporary’s aim is to establish a reputation for an artistically challenging exhibitions programme showing contemporary art beside historic work. Upstairs, the inaugural exhibition seeks to link Turner’s spirit of discovery and curiosity about nature with the work of six international artists.
The hook for Revealed: Turner Contemporary Opens is the artist’s own Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains, in the Island of St Vincent, at Midnight, hung against a vivid red wall, as he preferred. Would he have approved of the large black barrier in front of it, however?
Responses to the show were undoubtedly mixed when I visited, but questions and comments were dealt with by lively and well-informed stewards who seemed to relish engaging visitors in conversation.
Local girl Tracey Emin is conspicuous by her absence at Turner Contemporary, thanks to her retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery (until 29 August). Instead, visitors can see Ellen Harvey’s installation, Arcadia, which is perhaps the most personal work on display.
Born in Kent, Harvey moved to the US when she was 14 but her family holidayed at the resort regularly. Arcadia, a 360-degree view of Margate lining the inside of a shed, is her “obsessive, compulsive love letter” to the town. The shed is a replica of Turner’s London gallery created to showcase his work.
Harvey got the exact dimensions of the long-demolished gallery and made everything three quarters of the size. Propped up against the outside is a six-foot Arcadia sign, lit up like an amusement park illumination. Michael Craig Martin’s Turning Pages also uses artificial light.
Craig Martin, who turns 70 this year and celebrates with his own London show, has recreated an endlessly opening book in neon that was first commissioned in 1975 by Kent County Council for Margate Library. Victoria Pomery, the director of Turner Contemporary, found it in the archives and asked Craig Martin to remake it for the gallery.
Culture-led regeneration
The work seems to reflect both the remarkable vision of the council in its original commission and its current drive to regenerate Margate. This approach bears comparison with neighbouring Folkestone, which will host its second triennial this year.
The event is the flagship project of the Creative Foundation, a charity based in Folkestone, which is leading a large-scale renewal of the old town area close to the harbour. The foundation has redeveloped over 60 buildings since it began, providing work and living space for creative tenants.
While Turner Contemporary cannot alone reverse the fortunes of Margate, it is an important part of the wider, culture-led regeneration. The gallery has already delivered an award-winning outreach programme and it has made an impact in the nearby Old Town, where an increasing number of creative businesses are opening. With the iconic sea-front amusement park Dreamland being restored, will Margate’s dreams come true?
Caroline Worthington is the chief executive of Bexley Heritage Trust
His relationship with her was so close that, following the death of her husband, Turner called himself “Mr Booth”. With not a super-injunction in sight, they managed to keep their relationship a secret for 17 years.
The new gallery that now bears the artist’s name in the town opened in April. Appropriately enough, it sits on the seafront on the site of the Sophia Booth’s guesthouse and is certainly no secret – more than 80,000 people visited in the first month.
So, 13 years since the idea was first mooted, what will visitors find? David Chipperfield’s building is certainly monumental, dwarfing the clock tower on Cold Harbour. It is clad in opaque white glass designed to reflect the changing light. A cafe spills out onto the entrance terrace where brightly coloured chairs add a much-needed pop of colour. Inside, the entrance hall is spacious, if somewhat confusing.
The shop benefits from an experienced visual merchandiser and there are interesting collaborations with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Whitechapel Gallery, London, in terms of stock.
But hanging one of the two Turners currently on show outside the toilets sends visitors in the wrong direction away from the stairs to the first floor and the gallery spaces – and the soundtrack of hand driers doesn’t help much, either.
When you approach a huge window with its vista – albeit across the car park – to the Channel, it is easy to understand why Turner was so inspired by the views out to sea from the guesthouse. The horizon is currently framed by Daniel Buren’s Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape.
Spirit of discovery
The image appears on posters announcing the gallery’s opening. Those confused by Tate Britain’s marketing campaign prominently featuring Turner’s Blue Rigi and arriving in Margate expecting a Turner extravaganza will have to wait until early 2012.
Turner Contemporary’s aim is to establish a reputation for an artistically challenging exhibitions programme showing contemporary art beside historic work. Upstairs, the inaugural exhibition seeks to link Turner’s spirit of discovery and curiosity about nature with the work of six international artists.
The hook for Revealed: Turner Contemporary Opens is the artist’s own Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains, in the Island of St Vincent, at Midnight, hung against a vivid red wall, as he preferred. Would he have approved of the large black barrier in front of it, however?
Responses to the show were undoubtedly mixed when I visited, but questions and comments were dealt with by lively and well-informed stewards who seemed to relish engaging visitors in conversation.
Local girl Tracey Emin is conspicuous by her absence at Turner Contemporary, thanks to her retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery (until 29 August). Instead, visitors can see Ellen Harvey’s installation, Arcadia, which is perhaps the most personal work on display.
Born in Kent, Harvey moved to the US when she was 14 but her family holidayed at the resort regularly. Arcadia, a 360-degree view of Margate lining the inside of a shed, is her “obsessive, compulsive love letter” to the town. The shed is a replica of Turner’s London gallery created to showcase his work.
Harvey got the exact dimensions of the long-demolished gallery and made everything three quarters of the size. Propped up against the outside is a six-foot Arcadia sign, lit up like an amusement park illumination. Michael Craig Martin’s Turning Pages also uses artificial light.
Craig Martin, who turns 70 this year and celebrates with his own London show, has recreated an endlessly opening book in neon that was first commissioned in 1975 by Kent County Council for Margate Library. Victoria Pomery, the director of Turner Contemporary, found it in the archives and asked Craig Martin to remake it for the gallery.
Culture-led regeneration
The work seems to reflect both the remarkable vision of the council in its original commission and its current drive to regenerate Margate. This approach bears comparison with neighbouring Folkestone, which will host its second triennial this year.
The event is the flagship project of the Creative Foundation, a charity based in Folkestone, which is leading a large-scale renewal of the old town area close to the harbour. The foundation has redeveloped over 60 buildings since it began, providing work and living space for creative tenants.
While Turner Contemporary cannot alone reverse the fortunes of Margate, it is an important part of the wider, culture-led regeneration. The gallery has already delivered an award-winning outreach programme and it has made an impact in the nearby Old Town, where an increasing number of creative businesses are opening. With the iconic sea-front amusement park Dreamland being restored, will Margate’s dreams come true?
Caroline Worthington is the chief executive of Bexley Heritage Trust
Project data
- Cost £17.6m
- Main funders Kent County Council £6.4m; Arts Council England £4.1m; South East England Development Agency £4m
- Architect David Chipperfield Architects
- Landscape architect Gross Max
- Structural engineer Adams Kara Taylor
- Services engineer Arup
- Facade, acoustic, fire, lighting and access consultant Arup
- Quantity surveyor Gardiner & Theobald
- General contractor R Durtnell & Sons
- Revealed: Turner Contemporary Opens runs until 4 September
