Whitechapel Art Gallery
The Whitechapel is entering the most exciting phase of its 100 year history; an ambitious £10 million development project, due for completion in Spring 2009. The project will unify two landmark buildings; the Whitechapel Gallery and the adjoining Passmore Edwards Library enabling the restoration and preservation of a historically and culturally important building, keeping it open to the public. Over the next 18 months the Whitechapel becomes the Whitechapel Laboratory with exhibitions, live music, poetry, talks and film.
Designed by leading Belgian architects Robbrecht en Daem Architecten (with London practice Witherford Watson Mann Architects), the Gallery will provide one of the most exciting new cultural buildings in Europe, increasing gallery space by 78%.
The Whitechapel Gallery was founded in 1901 to bring great art to the people of East London. The gallery’s history is a history of firsts: in 1939 Picasso’s masterpiece, Guernica was displayed at the Whitechapel on its first and only visit to Britain; in 1958 the gallery presented the first major show in Britain of seminal American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock; and in 1970 and 1971 the first shows of David Hockney, Gilbert & George and Richard Long were staged to great acclaim.
The Gallery is internationally renowned for its exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and its pioneering education and public events programmes. The Whitechapel plays a unique role in the capital’s cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of East London as a leading contemporary art quarter.
Address
80-82 Whitechapel High Street, London
London
E1 7QX
Tel: +44 (0)20 7522 7888
Fax: +44 (0)20 7522 7887
© Collins Bartholomew 2008