On Thursday (April 16) Turner Contemporary in Margate marks its 15th anniversary.
The art gallery opened on April 16, 2011, 10 years after the organisation behind it was first formed, on the same site as the boarding house where artist J. M. W. Turner stayed when visiting the town
Designed by Sir David Chipperfield, the building has been visited by prominent guests including Queen Elizabeth II on 11 November 2011, and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge on 11 March 2015.Previous Prime Minister David Cameron also visited the gallery on 4 July 2013 to celebrate Ramsgate’s London Array windfarm.
The official launch was inaugurated by artist Tracey Emin and musician Jools Holland with some 15,000 visitors attending the opening weekend to see the gallery’s first exhibition, Revealed, which featured Turner’s The Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains alongside contemporary works.
Since then, the gallery has welcomed 5 million visitors, contributed some £100 million to the local economy, and presented work by over 350 artists from across the world including Dame Tracey Emin, Simone Leigh, Mark Leckey and Sonia Boyce.
Clarrie Wallis, Director of Turner Contemporary, said: “Fifteen years ago, Turner Contemporary was founded on a bold belief—that world-class art belongs in Margate, and that art has the power to transform lives. This anniversary is as much about our community as it is about our history.”
Current exhibitions include works by Bridget Riley and David Hockney. Celebrations for the anniversary began with the unveiling of the gallery’s Sunley Window on 1 April by David Hockney.
The window depicts a sunrise in Normandy, where the artist once lived. It is adapted from 27th April 2020, No.1, which Hockney created on an iPad—a digital medium he embraced to capture the vitality of the natural world. Measuring seven by ten metres, this site-specific installation transforms the gallery’s floor-to-ceiling window, framing Margate’s celebrated skies and views of the North Sea—the same light that inspired JMW Turner.
The opening of Hockney’s Sunley Window was attended by 30 pupils from Salmestone Primary School, who became the first visitors to see the work, followed by the pupils’ getting involved with a digital drawing workshop in the gallery’s Drawing Studio.
Ms Wallis said: “Placing children at the centre of this moment felt entirely fitting as we celebrate our 15th Anniversary.
“David Hockney’s work is rooted in the joy of looking at the world around us. To see local pupils encounter the Sunley Window before anyone else—and then respond through their own digital drawings—perfectly reflects our belief that great art should be both inspiring and accessible.”
The gallery has run schemes such as Pioneering Places, Young Creatives, Art Inspiring Change and Look Club to support young creatives, local families, environmental groups and vulnerable people across Thanet.
It has also turned the Clore Learning Studio into the Drawing Studio—a space filled with books, objects, curiosities and materials where everyone can get involved and discover the joy of drawing.
Turner Contemporary facts
In 1998, the leader of Kent County Council and representatives of Kent Artists met to discuss the idea.
At the same time, plans were being developed to create a cultural quarter in Margate’s Old Town.
In the late 1990s, Kent County Council offered to fund and support the building of a new landmark gallery (later joined by Arts Council England and the South East England Development Agency).
In 2001, Turner Contemporary was officially established, Victoria Pomery was appointed as director and Droit House on Margate’s stone pier was opened as the exhibition space.
A competition for the gallery design was originally won by architects Snøhetta + Spence but their proposal was abandoned in February 2006 due to technical problems and escalating costs
In July of that year David Chipperfield Architects were appointed to the project.
From 2008 to 2011, the building was constructed on Margate’s seafront
The gallery building designed by David Chipperfield Architects opened on 16 April 2011.
Positioned on a plinth to protect it from the high winds and sea, the building is made up of six identical interlocking north-facing rectangular blocks.
The £17.4m building project was funded by Kent County Council (£6.4m), Arts Council England (£4.1m), the South East England Development Agency (£4m) and Turner Contemporary Art Trust (£2.9m). Thanet District Council provided the land.
Sir Antony Gormley’s cast-iron sculpture Another Time was installed on Fulsam Rock near the gallery in 2017. The solitary figure becomes visible three hours before low tide.
The Islay Trader, a 75-metre cargo ship carrying glass, ran aground in Margate on October 8, 2017, just 30 meters from shore near the Antony Gormley sculpture and Turner Contemporary.
The Turner Prize 2019 was held at Turner Contemporary from September 2019 to January 2020 with the combined win for the four artists announced in December 2019.
The exhibition attracted 141,550 visits. It was the gallery’s most popular Autumn exhibition ever and was the second most visited Turner Prize exhibition of all time since it was established in 1984.
In 2020, the gallery’s silhouette appeared on the new £20 note alongside J.M.W. Turner — a rare honour for a modern building.
Director, Clarrie Wallis took on her role in January 2022 following Victoria Pomery stepping down in 2021 to take a new position as Chief Executive Officer of £47milllion museum, gallery and archive The Box, Plymouth.
This February KCC cabinet member Cllr David Wimble publicly suggested that the council could “pull funding” for Turner Contemporary during a political dispute. However KCC confirmed its financial support is still active with a grant of £510,000 for 2026/27. This is the same amount of grant funding allocated in 2025/26.
Top 15 major exhibitions at Turner Contemporary (2011–2025)
Turner and the Elements (2011)
The inaugural blockbuster linking Turner’s legacy to the new gallery.
Nothing in the World But Youth (2011–2012)
A huge, multi‑media exploration of youth culture with 200+ works.
Turner and Constable: Sketching from Nature (2013)
A rare pairing of Britain’s two landscape giants.
Mondrian and Colour (2014)
A major international exhibition tracing Mondrian’s journey toward abstraction.
Grayson Perry: Provincial Punk (2015)
One of the gallery’s most popular and widely reviewed exhibitions.
Seeing Round Corners: The Art of the Circle (2016)
Show featuring 100+ works, including Hepworth and Kapoor.
Animals & Us (2018)
A powerful exhibition exploring human–animal relationships, featuring Emin, Warhol, and Rego.
Turner Prize 2019 (2019)
A historic moment: all four shortlisted artists jointly accepted the prize.
Tracey Emin: A Journey to Death (2021)
A major, deeply personal exhibition by Margate’s most famous contemporary artist, exploring mortality, trauma, and transformation. A landmark moment for the gallery and the town.
The Offing (2023–2024)
Curated by Mark Leckey — atmospheric, nostalgic, and critically praised.
Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction, 1950–1970 (2024)
A major survey of 50 women abstract artists, including Riley, Bourgeois, and Martin.
Ed Clark (2024)
The first European institutional exhibition dedicated to the American abstract painter.
Anya Gallaccio: preserve (2024–2025)
The largest survey of Gallaccio’s organic, time‑based installations.
Resistance (curated by Steve McQueen) (2025)
A major photography exhibition on protest, curated by the Turner Prize‑winning filmmaker.
Cassi Namoda: Sunley Gallery Commission (2025)
A significant large‑scale commission by the Mozambican‑American painter.
Major Exhibitions (Current & Upcoming)
Bridget Riley: Learning to See (22 Nov 2025 – 4 May 2026)
A major exhibition created in close collaboration with Riley, exploring perception, colour, and optical rhythm.
The Drawing Studio (22 Nov 2025 – Nov 2026)
A transformed Clore Learning Studio filled with curiosities and prompts to make drawing playful and accessible.
Turner 250: Breaking Waves (Apr 2025 – 2027)
A special display marking 250 years since J.M.W. Turner’s birth, featuring his oil sketch Waves Breaking on a Lee Shore at Margate.
David Hockney: Sunley Window (1 Apr – 1 Nov 2026)
A luminous installation celebrating the gallery’s 15th anniversary, exploring the nature of light.
Lily Mixe: Balaenoptera Acutorostrata (7 Feb – 1 Jun 2025)
A giant, immersive commission inspired by marine life, created with Young Creatives X RNLI.
Turner Contemporary is open 11am–5pm, Tue–Sun & Bank Holidays.
15 years of contributing absolutely nothing to the town, apart from somewhere for the Shoreditch-on-Sea hipsters to hang out, so they don’t have to mix with the rest of us. I would also like to know from the Turner Contemporary, if the people who organise children & family activities (not employees), are DBS checked?
Absolute tosh. Went twice recently and busy both times.
No doubt it’s proved to be pivotal in regenerating Margate as somewhere to visit. So what if it is Hoxton on sea! The art/coffee/ bar/food scene is bringing a lot of people to the town even out of season/ and unlike the daytrippers they spend money on food and drink and lodgings whilst here.
If we didn’t have it then the change would have been much slower.
There really is no alternative in small seaside towns such as Hastings, Folkestone etc and here.
Too small to get big employers or major shops, so making the most of the independents, the coast and the creatives.
Any news as to when it will stand on its own two feet and stop using our taxes ?
A public toilet during that same time will have seen a lot more than 5 million visitors & there is probably more art in them. Turner has never charged an entrance fee-because they know numbers would plummet if they did & the gravy train keeps flowing.
The claim is it has boosted the local economy by about 100 million-the questions are what has it taken in taxpayer funding over that period? How much did it cost to build the monstrosity?
Said to have boosted visitor numbers-but where is the evidence that has resulted in them spending vast swathes of cash, or do they just come to see it & then beat a hasty retreat never to return, when they see Arlington House as they get off the train, the dump of a seafront & town & what a joke the Turner is?
It may well have regenerated the old town-lots of DFL luvvies have opened up arty saw you coming shops, but the reality is the main town is still mostly empty shops & anti-social behaviour, Northdown Road is an eyesore & the seafront is a dump. So basically it has made money for the already wealthy in one little area, while the rest has been left to rot & indeed due to the incessant funding for it & Dreamland who tied themselves to it other local concerns have been left to rot like Dreamland, Tudor House, Theatre Royal, Hartsdown Leisure Centre-who had to close for over a year while the powers that be had to decide if they could find money to repair the roof.
This place ruined Margate.
The Turner is a great space and has in particular hosted some great thought provoking installations and modern exhibits through a range of mixed media.The current Director appears to be making “art “ more accessible, but a lot more needs to be done.
It is a great pity that more Turners are not on display. One always has to go to London or elsewhere to see his substantive art.
No doubt the Turner draws into the town, in the main more of the middle classes and tourists who may contribute to the local economy, I am little dubious as to the figure continually trotted out though.
As there is not a working alternative cinema in the town perhaps the Turner with its surfeit of space should use some of its space to run a self funding arts film programme
Throughout the year.
I hope you would be willing to pay say, £5 per person or more to enter this place .Turner and art should pay its own way
I wonder why every building these days is referred to as a space? The new buzzword, I suppose.
A great gallery, and free. What is not to like. And every time I come to the gallery, I spend money in Margate, stick that in your pipe you art haters
Fran
Why should we pay for your interest ?
Pay an entrance fee
As I said, I do not live in Margate. But I contribute to the Margate economy every time I visit the gallery!!
Buying a McDonald’s is only supporting a bunch of billionaires.
excuse me? McDonalds you must be joking!
Do you dont contribute to the Turner center that’s my point.
So going by this the arty farty shops only making a living because our taxes support the Turner center. Are you saying that if people had to pay an entrance fee they would then go into these shops ?
Art lovers, that is why we hate this monstrosity. One asks what economy & why is the Turner losing over half a million every year?
It’s simple why the Turner loses half a million a year.
It doesn’t need to balance the books, our taxes will bale it out because the arty community think we should.
I think it is great. I don’t mind my taxes contributing to it. Available for all to enter and enjoy. Definitely a great asset for Margate. Sure my taxes also contribute to far less noble causes… some of which never see the light of day.
What a tax consuming load of rubbish.
if it had to support itself it would have shut years ago , its only there because of the obscene amount of money thats thrown at it , i realy would like to know why ?