Turner Contemporary is one of 130 cultural venues, museums and libraries set to benefit from a £127.8 million funding boost, aimed at ensuring everyone can access arts and culture in the places they call home.
Funding of £865k has been allocated to Kent County Council from the Arts Everywhere Fund and this will be directed to Turner Contemporary in Margate.
The money will be used for essential repairs to the seafront building and for the installation of solar panels, says MP Polly Billington.
The funding was announced today (April 14) with Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy saying: “Across the country, people take real pride in where they come from. Our local arts, museums and libraries are a big part of that, telling our stories, reflecting who we are, and bringing communities together.
“That’s why our Arts Everywhere Fund matters. We’re backing the places people care about most, with support for 130 venues across the country announced today.
“Arts and culture aren’t a luxury for a privileged few. They are for everyone, everywhere. They bring people together, open doors, and support our shared sense of belonging. That’s the role they can play as we build a stronger future for our country.”
Turner Contemporary celebrates its 15th anniversary this Thursday (April 16). 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.
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.
KCC says the funding is specifically allocated for essential maintenance and capital works to safeguard Turner Contemporary’s building and ensure it remains safe, accessible and operational well into the future. These works will help protect the gallery’s infrastructure and support its ability to host exhibitions to international standards.
Planned improvements include:
- addressing statutory and operational risks relating to compliance, sustainability and building performance
- upgrading mechanical and electrical systems
- enhancing gallery environments to meet international exhibition standards
- improving accessibility
- installing solar panels to improve environmental performance and support long‑term operational sustainability.
The award forms part of a wider £12.6 million package for the South East, administered and delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, supporting fourteen cultural venues, museums and libraries through the Arts Everywhere Fund.
Georgia Foster, Cabinet Member for Communities and Regulatory Services, said: “Turner Contemporary plays a vital role in Kent. Through its world‑class exhibitions, it brings people together, inspires creativity and supports wellbeing at every stage of life. It also plays a key role underpinning regeneration of our coastal communities.
‘This funding is about protecting an important public asset and making sure it continues to serve residents long into the future. I welcome this investment, which will help ensure people can continue to access high‑quality arts and cultural experiences, without placing additional pressures on local budgets later on.”
Clarrie Wallis, Director of Turner Contemporary, said: “Turner Contemporary is deeply grateful to receive this support from Arts Council England’s Creative Foundations Fund in the very week we celebrate our 15th anniversary. Since opening, the gallery has welcomed five million visitors and generated over £100 million for the local economy. This grant has been awarded to enable essential maintenance to the building”
East Thanet MP Polly Billington said: ““I’m delighted that Turner Contemporary will receive more than £800,000 in government funding to carry out essential repairs and install solar panels.
“This investment is a testament to the government’s commitment to the arts and to coastal communities like ours, supporting both the fabric of the building and the transition to clean, renewable energy and lower bills.
“Since opening 15 years ago, the Turner has generated at least £100 million for the local economy. It sits at the heart of Margate’s cultural and artistic life, transforming the town’s prospects and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to experience art for free.
“This vital grant will help safeguard the gallery’s future. As Thanet’s MP I will continue pushing to ensure the Turner gets the long-term, sustainable funding it needs to keep its doors open – free of charge – for local residents and visitors alike for many years to come.”
For the year ending March 31, 2025, total income for the gallery amounted to £3,517,740 (2024: £3,843,137). Expenditure amounted to £4,141,257 (2024: £3,611,527). there was a net deficit of £618,844 (2024: Surplus of £439,414).
i cannot believe i am reading this ! throwing that amount of money to what is realy a niche concern , and an ego trip for most of the people involved . if they have money like to throw away there is something seriously wrong here.it is ridiculous- when did you last hear a young child on thier school holidays say – can we go to the turner centre today ? quite – i rest my case.
Her constituents relying on foodbanks & here she is promising to pay for a bunch of rich luvvies solar panels, repairs & to fund the nonsense in there as long as she is MP. Well make the most of your ‘freebie’ booze ups & grub at these ‘art galleries & general grifting for the next two years Polly, because you aren’t getting re-elected thanks to garbage like this. People voted for you & your party purely because we were sick of the Tory incompetence & corruption, you lot just took over & did the same.
Like I said in the prior article the Turner gravy train never ends.
Don’t worry free lunch & champers Polly, you will not be our MP for much longer-boasting falsely about how much money it has generated, when it hasn’t drawn a penny, out here boasting about your rich fellow Islington pals getting subsided for sticking things to walls, piling junk up high & throwing paint at a canvas will get as much money as possible, while the high street remains empty & the seafront looks like a bomb has hit it. All while the residents of your poverty stricken area-one of the most deprived in the UK struggle to eat & heat their homes. This is why people want you & Liebour out.
If people want to see actual art for free, the last place they would go is that joke of a place. The end sums it up-it runs at a loss of well over half a million per annum, like all other so called art & creative projects in Thanet it bleeds money & needs constant taxpayer bailing out. They/you refuse to charge for entry because you know what would happen-the visitor numbers would reduce drastically
“”The money will be used for essential repairs to the seafront building and for the installation of solar panels””, says MP Polly Billington.
I thought the Turner centre has just had millions spent on repairing lights etc. Ten years after it open. Now this building needs more repairs !!
They needs to an inquiry into why this basically just a few box shapes buildings has been built so poorly with our taxes. It needs constant repairs, why ?
Maybe building it in the sea wasn’t a good idea-they had to abandon that stupid idea & instead just built it on the edge. I mean they were told this was daft, but as usual didn’t listen-rather like building a castle on a swamp in The Holy Grail. Weren’t they getting 1.6 million for repairs from KCC (taxpayer) in 2022? It never ends.
The original remit for a Turner Centre in Margate was not only to celebrate the life of JMW Turner but as a driver for economic regeneration and all year round tourism.
Today my Spanish students visited the gallery today and came home with clothes they had bought in local shops. They weren’t that hungry as they had bought fish and chips. Spending money in our town.
That end of the town has been revitalised and the Arts should be available to all.
All money INTO Margate very welcome.
Well then it has failed miserably hasn’t it? The area is still one of the most deprived in the UK-so much for the promised regeneration-just like the promises (lies) made for Wiggins at Manston by the same guy making them now for the current lot that never happened & ended up costing the taxpayer an obscene amount, just like the China Gateway project that was going to enrich the area & never happened-both under your lot, like this I think-no wonder you are still cheerleading for it, you don’t want that egg on your face.
And they wouldn’t have bought clothes if the Turner wasn’t there? Would they just walk around nude? Wouldn’t buy food? Your strawman is ludicrous, as is your assertion they weren’t hungry, the point is local people are relying on foodbanks, while you & Polly cheerlead for your rich pals to get a never ending pit of money.
Oh well that is all right then-as long as the old town has some people who when interviewed are nearly always from London, making a mint off the posh chumps-like the ones who bought Emin’s bacteria ridden bed for several millions. The rest of the area can go to hell-as it has for the last 15 years as they & Dreamland-another bust within a year of reopening as predicted get everything.
I agree the arts should be available to all, how sad that instead it is a vanity project that Brian Sewell rightly lambasted after his visit. Perhaps they should put some actual art in there, rather than the total pile junk up on the floor, awful etchings that look like a child has done them & stick things to wall rubbish that has filled it for 15 years, then they could actually charge people & heaven forbid make a profit!
The reality is this thing is losing over half a million per year-if it was a business it would have gone bust a long time ago-as have most of the local niche vanity ‘art/culture’ project grifts that got their funding stopped recently, but as a vanity project that is ‘too big to fail’ it has to be propped up non-stop by taxpayer money.
There are a few things that puzzle me in this diatribe. But this particularly so: ‘And they wouldn’t have bought clothes if the Turner wasn’t there? Would they just walk around nude?’.
Are you assuming that these Spanish students went into Margate naked and were therefore obliged to buy clothes?
Of course Polly Billington supports it.
She’s the perfect example of the Turner’s target market, a London luvvie swanning around among the plebs.
But never mind the millions thrown a the gallery, lets celebrate Iris Johnston’s chance to save a few bob on food because her Spanish guests bought fish and chips.
It’s okay.
Thank goodness for cheerful young people with healthy appetites.
After a few minutes of singing Margate and Turner’s praises they had their already cooked dinners.
Thank goodness for wealthy overseas students coming to the UK for learning, that you can pretend came purely to see an ‘art gallery’ & wouldn’t have been spending in the local economy if it never existed. No doubt they have been dragged around their awful Guggenheim museum full of this tat at home & this have already had their minds warped by the ‘modern art’ grift.
Thank goodness also they have a wealthy hostess to preach to them & cook them food, while other locals have to go & beg at food banks-the ones your party used to care about, before you became freeloading Tory-lite under Bliar & now have reached fever pitch avarice & autocrats under Stalin-well done, in 124 years you went from the only party representing the poor/working classes to replacing the Tories!
Iris – don’t you think these students would’ve enjoyed it just as much with a £5 admission fee? The fish & chips they never ate would cost far more than that!
Thank you Peter, They bought the fish and chips in town and then had their dinner here. Many of the students I’ve met over the years don’t come from wealthy families but have parents who work hard and save to give them every chance in life. There is an option for donations at Turner .
I’m now going to reflect on how I’m going to explain to my children that rumours of my wealth are greatly exaggerated by Mrs Ben Dover!
Perhaps Thanet can adopt a similar method for other arts? I’d love to go to concerts and just give an optional donation (sod the homeless and those relying on food banks!).
Absolutely disgusting, the Labour party should be ashamed of themselves. But not unexpected as they are working proactively to destroy the country.
I’m a little surprised that Reform (who run KCC) aren’t speaking out against this. It could be a vote winner!
Sickening.
I can think of a lot better use for that amount of money why not build a place or repair a big place to help the homeless and something for my elder generation seeing has your asking for the warm weather payments back I think it was that they being asked to repay back may be wrong can’t quite remember but I know your asking them to repay something back ridiculous an absolute disgrace of a joke what about spend it on repairing homes and sorting them out or putting to a good place where kids can go gets them off the streets so much money wasted when it could be put to better use.
There is consistent evidence from UK government reviews, Arts Council research, and academic studies that investment in arts and cultural venues contributes to local economic regeneration, through employment, tourism, and wider spillover effects—although outcomes depend on how locally embedded and sustained the investment is.
So I suggest we all leave it to the experts. Just like punk rock.
But the ethos of punk rock is ‘don’t leave it to the experts’!
Perhaps now people will stop saying ‘fourteen years’ in that whiny little voice!
Simple, Fact, waste of money with the shortcomings of this country. This is not money well spent in anyway shape or form, when so many other issues remain to be dealt with.
At the very least, questions should be asked on the original construction if it needed rewiring after 10 years and major repairs after 15.
There must be a freebie available via milliband now he owns all the solar farm projects and taking our farm land.
Solar is debilitising. So is stalker PB yep she stalks people.
I wonder how many potholes that money would of fixed in Thanet?
That would make more people happy than spending it on the Turner
well , i think its fair to say , after reading the above comments the wise people on here have not got one good word to say for this bottomless money pit , and i support thier comments 100% ,plus part time polly will soon be packing her box , so in the great scheme of things she is irrelevant.
Yet, we the public have no say where this money is spent (ALL local politians are just as bad, as none of them are speaking out for the majority!).