Turner Contemporary
Opening weekend
14,000 people visited Turner Contemporary over
the opening weekend on 16-17 April 2011. 8,000 people visited
the gallery on the Saturday and 6,000 on the Sunday, which was more
than double the predicted amount of visitors.
Over the weekend:
Turner Contemporary café used 800 pints of milk- Thanet Visitor Information Centre received 3,000 visits
- Manning's Seafood Stall, opposite the gallery, enjoyed its
busiest day of trading in 50 years
The Mad Hatter Tea Rooms in the Old Town sold 100
cakes on the opening day.- 500 free artworks were given out in exchange for Margate
stories and myths, in celebration of 500 days to Paralympic Games
.
- Acrojou Circus Theatre performed three amazing
performances, one outside Turner Contemporary and two on the end of
the Harbour Arm.
- 1,300 participants taking part in activities at the Kent Cultural Baton.
For more interesting facts about the Turner Contemporay visit
our top ten facts page.
Revealed: Turner Contemporary Opens
The opening of the Turner Contempory gallery is the culmination
of 5 years hard work by Kent County Council and its
partners, to provide a first
class gallery and community building as well as being a catalyst
for regenerating Margate.
Kent County Council officially handed over the gallery, which
was designed by world renowned architect David
Chipperfield, to the Turner Contemporary Trust in
December 2010. Since the handover there has been an intensive
programme to improve the surrounding area and the overall look of
Margate, in time for the gallery opening in April 2011.
The first exhibition is entitled "Revealed:
Turner Contemporary Opens" and centres on
Turner’s little-known painting "The Eruption of the Souffrier
Mountains, in the Island of St Vincent, at Midnight, on the 30th of
April, 1812, from a Sketch Taken at the Time by Hugh P. Keane,
Esqre", which portrays the drama of a volcanic eruption.
Admission to the gallery is free. For more information,
please visit: