Exploring surprising corners

HOUSE is a curated contemporary visual arts event, taking place in Brighton each year during the month of May. Brighton is host to three other festivals during this period: Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe and the Artists Open Houses. We present high-quality, newly commissioned work in unusual and domestic locations around the city. We receive an audience of over 20,000 visitors each year, the majority of them coming from the city and nearby, and around 30% from London, Kent, Sussex and the south east of England. A further significant number come from further afield, with visitors from Germany and France being frequent. All of the exhibitions are family-friendly with children welcomed, and all but the programmed events of artist talks and films are free to the public.

As directors of the long-established and successful Artists Open Houses festival, we have experience of exploring unusual spaces in which to show artwork. Both tourists visiting the city and those who live here, have always loved the idea of looking round artists’ homes and seeing work displayed in a domestic setting rather than in a white cube gallery space. The appeal of the Open Houses is massive, with an annual audience of around 200,000, and the format, originating here in Brighton, has now been replicated worldwide.

For audiences there is a freshness and excitement about seeing work displayed in a non-white-cube gallery environment

The concept for HOUSE grew from this experience and its appeal to visiting tourists. But, whereas the Artists Open Houses is an inclusive event, open to all artists in the region to take part, we aimed with HOUSE to emulate this success but with greater control over the artistic quality. We commission and bring significant work to Brighton, for locals and visitors to the city to enjoy. Each year a themed programme is developed with an internationally regarded guest artist and co-commissions are produced with partners across the city.

Although Brighton possesses many smaller galleries and art spaces, a starting point for the event was the lack of a major dedicated contemporary art gallery in the city and, consequently, the limited opportunities for local and visiting audiences to readily see works from major artists. We have made a virtue of this necessity by exploring unexpected and surprising corners of the city. For audiences there is a freshness and excitement about seeing work displayed in a non-white-cube gallery environment. For artists there is the opportunity to make direct response to the particularity of place in which the work is shown.

Our artists have been inspired by the decaying grandeur of the Regency Town House, off Brighton seafront in Brunswick Square. This year’s lead artist, Nathan Coley looks at themes of architecture in a state of renewal and destruction, referencing Brighton’s Royal Pavilion and the Grand Hotel bombing. Just down the road in the Town House Basement, previously the grand house’s servants’ quarters, three further commissions make connection both with the festival thematic and the history of the space.

For us it is important that the programme of commissioned works reflects both on celebrated and lesser-known elements of the city. It provides audiences with a different and unique insight into the city, opening up spaces that are not on the usual visitor trail or that are not open daily to the public, or in the case of this year, creating a cinema in an old disused wood yard only two minutes from Brighton station. In a place with a primary visual focus on the digital, lens-based and moving image, the event provides the opportunity to engage with the tactile and physical alongside other media.

While Brighton often has a reputation as a fun and frivolous seaside destination, it is important to provide a counter-balance of visual thoughtfulness, depth and satisfaction. HOUSE makes a constructive contribution to the visual arts landscape in the UK and a significant extra reason for tourists to visit the city.

Judy Stevens is HOUSE Festival Director.
www.housefestival.org