University news

Towner Eastbourne Gallery (photo credit: Manalo & White)

The University of Sussex has today (Wednesday 16 November 2022) been announced as the Education Partner for the Turner Prize 2023, in a major collaboration with Turner Prize 2023 hosts Towner Eastbourne.

The partnership will see the University play a key role in developing and running an arts education programme around the Turner Prize, one of the world’s leading prizes for contemporary art, which is being exhibited for the first time in Sussex next year.

For the partnership, academics from the University of Sussex’s School of Media, Art and Humanities will work alongside the University’s schools outreach team, and in collaboration with Towner Eastbourne, on various local initiatives.

These will include specialised school programmes, community arts education events, public-facing performances and exhibitions focused on enhancing the accessibility of arts education within local schools and the wider community. The partnership will also be targeted to support the region’s education and cultural recovery, following the pandemic.

The programme will run in the lead up to and during the Turner Prize 2023, which takes place at Towner Eastbourne from 28 September next year to 13 January 2024. It will build on a long-standing relationship between Sussex and Towner Eastbourne, and include events at the University’s celebrated Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex, Professor Sasha Roseneil said: "The University of Sussex is honoured and excited to be the official Education Partner for the 2023 Turner Prize. The prize coming to Sussex for the first time is a big cultural moment for the south coast and we take our role in maximising this opportunity to the benefit of our local community seriously.

“Art, like universities, should be for all. With that in mind, we are planning an ambitious arts education programme that will bring the prize to life for the young people of Sussex, both within schools across the region and on our wonderful campus.

"This work with Towner Eastbourne will support the region’s arts and education post pandemic recovery and will provide young people across Sussex with new avenues to explore art and higher education.”

Joe Hill, Director, Towner Eastbourne, said, “We have collaborated with the University of Sussex on a range of endeavors for some time and are thrilled that we can work together to deliver a collaborative programme for the Turner Prize, using the expertise of our colleagues in the University’s Art History department to create additional narratives around the exhibition, and ensure students can engage with this important cultural moment that is set to take place on the doorstep of their campus.”

One of the best-known prizes for the visual arts in the world, the Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. Established in 1984, the Prize is awarded annually to an artist born, living or working in Britain, for an outstanding exhibition or public presentation of their work anywhere in the world in the previous year.

Two University of Sussex alumni have previously won the Turner Prize. Mixed media artist Helen Cammock, a Sussex sociology graduate, was one of the co-winners of the 2019 prize; and conceptual artist, Jeremy Deller, who holds an MA in British Art History and Critical Theory from Sussex, won the Turner Prize in 2004.

The announcement of the education partnership comes as the judges for the 2023 prize are announced by Towner Eastbourne.

The jury for Turner Prize 2023 is:

•           Martin Clark - Director of Camden Art Centre, London

•           Cédric Fauq - Chief curator, Capc musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux

•           Melanie Keen - Director of Wellcome Collection, London

•           Helen Nisbet - Artistic Director for the national contemporary art festival, Art Night

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