The Towner, Eastbourne's new contemporary art gallery, opened its doors to the public on April 4 2009, and one of the galleries is the result of a public poll which invited residents and visitors to Eastbourne the chance to choose the contents of the People's Choice collection.
The innovative experiment in social interaction resulted in some exciting and surprising choices. Culture24 caught up with People's Choice gallery curator Sara Cooper, who talked us through some of the key pieces chosen by members of the public...
End of Land, inkjet print on paper, Wolfgang Tilmans (2002)
"It ties a lot of the collection together, because it's a contemporary purchase and one of the key themes of this exhibition is landscape.
"It's of Beachy Head, which is very local, and it's the first thing people see as they walk through the door – this massive glimpse of the coastal edge. We weren't sure whether the figure was male or female."
Downs in Winter, watercolour and pencil, Eric Ravilious (1934)
"Eric is one of our key artists – he's very popular with the public, so we've created a wall of six of his works here.
"This was purchased in his lifetime, which sums up how committed the original Towner was to contemporary art and landscape."
September, 8.30pm (Newhaven), watercolour, Edward Bawden (1935)
"This is a new acquisition, bought with funding from the Art Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Friends of the Towner.
"It's of Newhaven Harbour, and because we bought it after the closure of the original gallery this is the first time it's been seen.
"It's a key acquisition because we'll be using it for lots of our work with Pupil Referral Units, as a springboard to look at the environment around us and contrast against other paintings in the collection. The frame is actually glazed."
Somewhere Special, mixed media installation, Zoe Walker (1999)
"This was one of the first works purchased for the new collection with help from the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme. It's a mountain, blown up to look like a tent.
"Zoe is interested in how we look at the landscape and what we create in certain spaces. Again, it relates closely to gallery themes – travel, exploration and landscape.
"It comes with photographs and a film which shows her taking it to Australia and pitching it. It also provides an element of surprise, because although you see End of Land when you first enter the space, as you turn the corner you see this mountain.
"We'll see how it goes when the public come to see it, but we hope no-one comes in and bounces off it. That is quite tempting."
