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The old drama school on Prince of Wales Road |
Saatchi rival collector set to launch her
own gallery
Historic former drama school building all set to house artwork
MOVE over Hoxton, get out of the way South Bank – Kentish Town is the new centre for trendy modern art.
One of the world’s most respected collectors, Anita Zabludowicz, has bankrolled the purchase of a former drama school in Prince of Wales Road and is turning it into the home for many of her striking, strange and wacky pieces by contemporary artists.
A collecting rival to Charles Saatchi, whose patronage helped the likes of Damien Hirst when he bought his pickled shark, Ms Zabludowicz is renowned for championing new artists, and is a major benefactor behind the establishment of Tate Modern on the South Bank and a trustee of the Camden Arts Centre in Hampstead.
Due to open in September, the new gallery is in the middle of an area that has recently hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, with residents complaining of gang violence and deprivation. A bitterly contested by-election takes place today (Thursday) with law and order high on the agenda.
But according to staff working for Ms Zabludowicz, the area represents a golden opportunity, and the new gallery will be the permanent home for some of her 1,200 pieces and have new exhibitions by leading artists. The first, in September, will be an avant-garde film installation.
Curator Elizabeth Neilson said Ms Zabludowicz had been looking for a site for many years before settling on Kentish Town.
Ms Neilson added: “Her collection had got to a scale that she needed a permanent place, and not keep it to herself.”
Ms Zabludowicz had searched all over London looking for a former industrial building, the sort of place that you would expect to house a gallery specialising in modern art, said Ms Neilson.
But then the Victorian chapel was put up for sale by Camden council.
Ms Neilson added: “She walked in and fell in love with it. She felt the building had so much character and so much history.”
The former Methodist Chapel was built in 1867 and was used as a church until the 1960s, when it was taken over by a drama school.
The budding actors moved out in 2002 and for a time it was occupied by squatters, then used as a temporary classroom by near-by Haverstock school. The Zabludowicz Art Trust bought the space last year and set about turning it into a gallery.
Inside, the building is split into three main rooms and then a further eight smaller rooms, all with period features.
Ms Neilson said: “The collection has been put together over the past 12 years, and most of them have been made in the year which Anita bought them.
“It is made up of all mediums, and is basically things that have got her excited.”
Ms Neilson said the Zabludowicz dream is not just to attract hordes of hoi-polloi from the East End to Kentish Town, but to get people who live in the estates around the area coming regularly and even contributing their own modern art through workshops.
Ms Neilson said: “We are inviting everyone who lives in the Prince of Wales Road area to an exclusive private preview of our first exhibition, before anyone else sees it.
“We are also going to give them all free membership so they can come back whenever they want.”
And the Zabludowicz Trust has been welcomed by the street’s long-established independent art gallery, the Beardsmore.
Owner Brian Beardsmore, who set up his own independent gallery in a former shop along the road, said: “I say welcome. I hope Anita Zabludowicz brings the people in.” |
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