Modern Art Oxford announces Art Happens campaign to raise £25,000 for ground floor redevelopment
Modern Art Oxford has today launched an Art Happens campaign to raise the final £25,000 of a £2 million transformational project to redesign the gallery’s ground and lower ground floor spaces.
As one of the UK’s leading contemporary art galleries, Modern Art Oxford has been presenting a bold artistic programme since 1965, featuring critically acclaimed artists alongside emerging
talent, and placing them in conversation with audiences. But the gallery building has been stretched to its limits and the Victorian infrastructure cannot meet demand. The £25,000 raised through the Art Happens campaign will ensure the plans, which have been created with award winning architect David Kohn, are fully realised and that the spaces are accessible, engaging,
and inspiring spaces for visitors of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
Over 12 weeks, during summer 2024, Modern Art Oxford will be closed to build a new fit-for-purpose environment. The new spaces will include:
- A dedicated studio space to host sensory play for infants, provide year-round creative inspiration to families, and help young people to come together, make, explore and
flourish. - A new gallery to host temporary exhibitions celebrating Oxford’s creative community and a refurbished entrance housing screens for innovative, interactive digital commissions
alongside displays of archival material, previously inaccessible to the public. - A new cafe, designed by acclaimed British artist Emma Hart, that will enrich the visitor experience with an immersive venue where we can gather and share ideas.
When it opens in October, Modern Art Oxford will be a more sustainable organisation, a safespace for experimentation, and an inclusive place for everybody to enjoy.
By giving to the campaign, donors are able to choose from a range of rewards, including artist-designed merchandise by Emma Hart and Harold Offeh, an afternoon in Modern Art Oxford’s new café, an invitation-only celebration to mark the opening of the new spaces, a private art-making workshop in the new studio space, or a London contemporary art tour with Modern Art Oxford Director, Paul Hobson.
Of the project, Paul Hobson says: “We are so close to realising our transformational vision for a major redesign of our ground floor public areas, working with RIBA award winning practice, David Kohn Architects. If we raise this money, we will be able to fully equip and furnish our public spaces to enable the best possible welcome and creative offer for our diverse communities.” – Paul Hobson, Director of Modern Art Oxford
ENDS
Notes for Editors
For media enquiries contact Clare Stimpson, Head of Digital and Communications,
media@modernartoxford.org.uk, +44 (0)1865 813 826
About Modern Art Oxford
Located in one of the world’s great cities of learning, Modern Art Oxford is a leading contemporary art space with an international reputation for innovative and ambitious programming. We promote creativity in all its visual forms as an agent of social change. Our programmes, both in person and online, are shaped by a belief in dialogue between contemporary art and ideas and celebrate the relevance of contemporary visual culture to society today.
www.modernartoxford.org.uk | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford, UK, OX1 1BP
info@modernartoxford.org.uk 01865 722 733
The transformational refurbishment of our ground and lower-ground public areas is generously supported by CHK Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, The
Lovington Foundation, Staples Trust, Wolfson Foundation, Jill Hackel and Andrzej Zarzycki, Béatrice and James Lupton, Anna Yang and Joseph Schull, Dasha Shenkman OBE, Heidi and Carlo Baravalle, Domingo and Jenny Garcia and Russell and Jill Platt, and those benefactors who wish to remain anonymous.
