LONDON — All art is part of an ecosystem. At a glance, it might seem that the United Kingdom’s artists and art spaces are concentrated in London, with its many museums, commercial galleries, fairs, and studios. But the capital is only one hub in a wider landscape of art-making and exhibiting across the nation. A wide range of institutions and galleries can be found in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas — often in unexpected places.
Bristol, in southwest England, is home to a robust contemporary art scene. Spike Island, for instance, is an international contemporary art center that tucks cavernous exhibition spaces, as well as more than 70 subsidized artists studios, behind an unassuming facade. Its current exhibition, Grey Unpleasant Land, is a collaborative effort by artists Sophia Al-Maria and Lydia Ourahmane. Drawing upon their experiences as immigrants to the UK, they examine the myriad mythologies of England as a nation — and the darker side of how these mythologies are constructed and maintained. An hour’s drive south takes you to the town of Bruton, home to Hauser & Wirth Somerset and galleries such as Bo Lee and Workman, established by Jemma Hickman and former Senior Director of H&W Somerset Alice Workman.
Towns and cities on England’s south coast have a disproportionate concentration of high-quality contemporary art settings, perhaps because they are within striking distance of the capital and much cheaper. Artists and curators have moved out to places like Hastings, home to Hastings Contemporary; Folkestone, which boasts an ambitious triennial program; and Eastbourne, where Towner combines varied exhibitions with a public art program. Many are complemented by nearby independent artist-centered spaces, such as Devonshire Collective in Eastbourne. Currently, a solo show by Harun Morrison explores language and miscommunication, taking cues from the local beachside setting while also pushing for complex environmental, social, and creative sensibilities.
Since 2011, Tracey Emin’s hometown of Margate, Kent, has been home to Turner Contemporary, which is housed in a David Chipperfield Architects-designed building on the seafront. They are currently showing preserve, the largest survey exhibition to date of British artist Anya Gallaccio, whose installations include a hanging curtain of Kentish apples which slowly wither and rot over the course of the show. The exhibition emphasizes its surrounding community: Gallaccio worked with the curatorial and education teams to produce An Apple a Day, a school program designed to help local children explore Kent’s heritage and culture through its orchards.
The historically artistic village of St Ives in Cornwall, where the Tate has an outpost, has long been known for its artistic residents, which have previously included Barbara Hepworth (whose studio and garden are open for visitation), Ben Nicholson, and Naum Gabo. Many other towns and cities, however, are now making a name for themselves as cultural locales, particularly in former industrial centers. Middlesbrough, for example, is home to the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where a group exhibition, Towards New Worlds, takes a refreshing and radical approach to perception through work by disabled, Deaf, and neurodiverse artists. Curated by artist and activist Aidan Moesby, the exhibition includes a new commission by Małgorzata Dawidek investigating the links between local histories of potash mining with her experiences of managing her medical condition with potassium, a mineral derived from potash, forging links between the body and the landscape. The city also hosts an Art Week, which makes strides towards building artist communities from the ground up through initiatives like open calls.
University cities are also important loci for boundary-pushing contemporary art, such as Modern Art Oxford, which has just reopened after a major refurbishment, and Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, where the art collection of Jim and Helen Ede sits among inspiring preserved interiors alongside a temporary exhibition space currently showing dreamlike paintings by Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera.
Talbot Rice Gallery, the University of Edinburgh’s public art gallery, attempts to link the wider ecosystem of art galleries and museums in the UK with the specificities of its location within Scotland. “We position our large group exhibitions as part of the national conversation,” director Tessa Gilbin told Hyperallergic, “and make exhibitions that seek to depolarise the debate by exploring (and celebrating) the complexity within each issue.” In 2025, which marks the gallery’s 50th anniversary, Talbot Rice will present a solo exhibition by Wael Shawky, as well as a group exhibition exploring the relationship of children to the key challenges we face today.
As well as large-scale, publicly funded institutions in major cities, there are also a plethora of smaller-scale projects in small towns and rural areas, which are less easy to categorize. Taking art out of urban white cube environments has its challenges in terms of audience development and funding, but also offers the opportunity to rethink the expected parameters within which art is made and shown.
Haarlem Artspace is a mercurial organization located in the pretty market town of Wirksworth in Derbyshire. Committed to championing rural contemporary art, this collaborative endeavor is located across spaces in a pub and a hotel, setting itself up as an integral part of the town’s community spaces. Curator Kristian Day explains that Haarlem Artspace seeks to enable “the research, development, and presentation of art inspired by our unique rural location” with work that “examines themes of ritual, magic, and folklore, the incredible local history (and pre-history), the distinctive geography of the region, and both environmental awareness and connectivity.” The organization, which recently transitioned leadership, inaugurates its new program with a solo exhibition by Tom Sewell. Archipelago is an exercise in world-building and speculative fiction across assemblage and sculpture, drawing on wayfinding, ritual, and rural identity in a place where folk traditions such as Morris Dancing, Maypoling, and Well Dressing continue to this day.
London may be the UK art scene’s beating heart, but it would be sadly diminished without the arterial network of galleries, museums, and project spaces in often unexpected corners that speak to audiences on both a local and national level, from the tip of Cornwall to the capital of Scotland.
