Goldsmiths, University of London, has announced ambitious plans for a new art gallery at its campus in south London. The purpose-designed space will run a programme of exhibitions, projects and residencies by leading artists and curators from the UK and abroad, alongside exhibitions and research projects by staff and students of the University. It is set to open in autumn 2016.
The new gallery will be designed by London-based architecture collective Assemble, selected from a shortlist of six architectural and design practices by a panel including Goldsmiths’ alumnus Sir Antony Gormley and architect Sir David Chipperfield. The design will incorporate the Laurie Grove Baths site, a listed building that currently houses the college’s postgraduate art studios, and include black water tanks that originally fed the baths.
The £1.8m project will be entirely funded by external donations, with a significant part of the funding to be raised through an auction of artwork donated by former Goldsmiths’ students – the college has produced seven Turner Prize winning artists (including Gormley), as well as 24 shortlisted artists. The auction will be held at Christie’s in February 2015.
Speaking about the project, Paloma Strelitz and Adam Willis of Assemble, said: “The Victorian bathhouse at Laurie Grove offers a series of extraordinary found spaces. The cast iron water tanks have a powerful materiality which will be preserved and amplified, whilst new top-lit galleries will provide a rich spatial counter-point in an ensemble offering unique opportunities for the display of art. We envisage the gallery becoming a new centre for the arts in south London.”
Richard Noble, head of the Department of Art at Goldsmiths, added: “We hope the gallery will bring the London and international art public to Goldsmiths, while at the same time providing an important impetus to Lewisham’s burgeoning community of galleries, artist-run spaces, architecture practices and design.”
