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Bonington Gallery and Nottingham Contemporary celebrate creative anniversaries

Nottingham’s contemporary art scene marked two significant anniversaries in 2019, the 10th birthday of the Nottingham Contemporary and the 50th birthday of NTU’s Bonington Gallery.

    Frank Stella exhibition 1999
    Installation view of Frank Stella Recent Paintings, 1999. Image courtesy of Frank Stella and Bonington Gallery

    These two organisations have a long-shared history. NTU was involved in the early development of Nottingham Contemporary as far back as the early 1990s, and they continue to work closely together today.

    Nottingham Contemporary

    Nottingham Contemporary is one of NTU’s strategic partners.  This means that its team works alongside various academics, courses, schools and professional services at NTU creating opportunities for teaching and learning, work experience, research, and extra curricula activity.

    Projects such as the celebrated RESPONSE programme bring students together from art and design, arts and humanities and social sciences, to research, write, illustrate, photograph, edit, design, print, launch and distribute a unique and original publication in response to Nottingham Contemporary's programme. Aftermath supports our Masters in Fine Art (MFA) students as they create and exhibit a new series of artworks. This year, they will be reacting to themes in Still Undead: Popular Culture in Britain Beyond the Bauhaus. Andrew Brown, MFA Course Leader, described the value of the project: “The students engage with an exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary, using their own practices as critical tools. This enables them to engage with a sense of criticality in relation to their own work.”

    NTU and Nottingham Contemporary also collaborate on research, supervising PhD students, and organise symposia and events for students and a wider audience, including walkthroughs of gallery shows with NTU staff. Current activity sees NTU academics working with the Contemporary curating team to contribute ideas for future exhibitions.

    John Newling exhibition 1991
    Opening night of John Newling, Lost, 1991. Image courtesy of John Newling and Bonington Gallery

    In the midst of NTU’s city campus, Bonington Gallery plays a significant role in the cultural landscape of Nottingham. Led by curator Tom Godrey, working with Joshua Lockwood-Moran, its diverse and ambitious artistic programme has consistently been at the forefront of creative practice. The gallery is situated within the Bonington building, first opened on 14 October 1969 by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. This labyrinth of a modernist building is nestled in the heart of our City Campus and is home to a wide range of creative courses, providing a suitable context for an artistic programme that profiles a wide range of creative practice.

    Bonington Gallery and Nottingham Contemporary maintain a close working relationship and where they can, they create opportunities for shared working. Earlier this year, NTU’s MFA Fine Art student, Paul Bryan – who participated in Nottingham Contemporary’s Aftermath project – developed a series of research events and film screenings as part of his end of the year project, The Other Film Club, which was then featured at Bonington Gallery.

    Both galleries are free to visit and both have a programme of activity that extends beyond their exhibitions to include symposia, talks, and workshops.

    Sign up to the Bonington Gallery mailing list to keep up to date with our latest exhibitions and events.

    For more information about events, exhibitions and other activity at Nottingham Contemporary, visit their website.

    NTU works with a number of key strategic partners, visit our website to find out more.

    Published on 20 December 2019
    • Subject area: Art and design
    • Category: Current students; NTU Arts; School of Art & Design