Nottingham Contemporary opened on 14 November 2009 in a new building designed by Caruso St John in the city centre. It has welcomed 240,000 visitors in its first 10 months. The building was funded by Nottingham City Council, Arts Council England, National Lottery, European Regional Development Fund, East Midlands Development Agency, Greater Nottingham Partnership and a private donor.
The idea for the project was first developed by Nottingham Trent University in the mid 1990s. It was then taken forward by Nottingham City Council. Nottingham Contemporary became an independent trust in 2006 and acquired a Board, whose Chair is Gary Smerdon-White. The founding Director, Alex Farquharson, began in post in April 2007. During 2008 Nottingham Contemporary delivered an ambitious off-site preopening programme in a range of historical sites in and around Nottingham called Histories of the Present.
The building, designed by Caruso St John, is built into the sandstone cliff that runs through the centre of Nottingham. This means that the north entrance is two floors above the south entrance. Four storeys in total, its shape and size is determined by the unusual site. It is faced with distinctive green concrete panels (some featuring a lace motif) and gold panels.
Nottingham Contemporary believes that contemporary artists offer extraordinary perspectives on contemporary society. Accordingly Nottingham Contemporary;
is committed to excellence, experimentation, ambition and innovation in contemporary art and within our own organisation;
promotes the research, exchange and dissemination of ideas inspired by today’s art practices across disciplines and cultures, working with a wide range of partners;
gives the local audience a stimulating cultural and social home, while attracting national and international visitors to the city. The institution works to attract new audiences to contemporary art through innovative educational activities, communications and events;
supports the creative and critical empowerment of artists and audiences. Both play an active role in the organisation. Nottingham Contemporary is a place where the world is imagined differently.
Nottingham Contemporary presents four exhibition ‘seasons’ a year. To date these have consisted of major group exhibitions across all four galleries, or two solo exhibitions at a time. Some exhibitions are accompanied by publications. Smaller programming strands include; micro exhibitions in antique cabinets in the Small Collections Room, an artist logo project as part of our visual identity, an artists’ cinema programme relating to the solo exhibitions and a number of performances. Nottingham Contemoarary is not a collecting institution.
The Small Collections Room: Adjoined to the exhibition spaces is a study: a small space with a library, tables for individual study and discussions, resources relating to the exhibition, video documentation of past events and at one end a tiny Small Collections Room, conceived by Pablo Bronstein in dialogue with Caruso St John as an update on the Renaissance wunderkammer. The centrepiece of the Room is a collection of four antique cabinets, in various styles (English, Italian, Japanese), the oldest dating from the 17th century, within which artists and other creative minds have been invited to devise exhibitions in miniature. So far presentations, or ‘exhibitions’ in the cabinets have been made or curated by Wayne Koestenbaum, Matthew Brannon, Anthea Hamilton, Trevor Paglan and Des Hughes. Items included in such exhibitions include; hundreds of glass eyes used in animal taxidermy, patches belong to various U.S. military psy-ops outfits and 18th century ‘micro mosaics’ of Italian monuments sold as souvenirs to wealthy individuals on Grand Tours.
Most outstanding projects in recent years:
Histories of the Present–Nottingham Contemporary’s pre-opening programme of off-site exhibitions and events:
The Impossible Prison, Vito Acconci, Shaina Anand, Atelier Van Lieshout, Angela Bulloch, Chris Evans, Harun Farocki, Dan Graham, Mona Hatoum, Thomas Hirschhorn, Evan Holloway, Ashley Hunt, Elie Kagan, Multiplicity, Bruce Nauman, Tatiana Trouvw, Artur Zmijewski, The Police Station, The Galleries of Justice, 31 October – 14 December 2008.
Disclosures II: The Middle Ages, Olivia Plender, Nottingham Castle, 5 September–5 October 2008.
Nottingham Contemporary’s Opening Programme:
A Marriage of Styles: David Hockney, 1960–1968, 14 November–24 January 2009.
Star City: The Future Under Communism, Pawel Althamer, Goshka Macuga, Aleksandra Mir, Robert Kusmirowski, Deimantas Narkevisius, Micol Assaël, Otolith Group, Jane and Louise Wilson, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, David Maljkovic, Július Koller, Diango Hernández, Tobias Putrih, Joanna Malinowska & Christian Tomaszewski, Stano Filko, Co-curated by Alex Farquharson and Lukasz Ronduda, 13 February–18 April.
Uneven Geographies: Art and Globalisation, Eduardo Abaroa, Azzellini & Ressler, Yto Barrada, Ursula Biemann, Bureau d’Etudes, Öyvind Fahlström, Goldin+Senneby, Mark Lombardi, Steve McQueen, Cildo Meireles, George Osodi, Bruno Serralongue, Mladen Stilinovi, Yang Zhenzhong. Co-curated by Alex Farquharson and T.J. Demos, 8 May–4 July 2010.
Nottingham Contemporary has a particularly active public programme of cross-disciplinary talks, seminars, conferences, performances and screenings funded through an innovative partnership with Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.
Just some of the many contributors to date include: Kobena Mercer, Saskia Sasson, Eyal Weizman, Wayne Koestenbaum, Sebastian Horsley, Neil Bartlett, Kodwo Eshun, Mark Fisher, Germaine Greer, Michael Bracewell, David Crowley and Mark Leckey.
Nottingham Contemporary has a far-reaching education and outreach programme for schools, families, young people and community groups of various kinds (refugee groups, long term unemployed, recovering drug addicts, etc).
Nottingham Contemporary’s building is over 3000 squares metres. Four galleries (total 775 sq m), large performance space / auditorium (300 sq m), shop, café/bar, study centre, education studio and offices. The galleries, located on the top floor, are naturally lit by 132 skylights.
