Producing a public for art: gallery space in the twenty-first century

Abstract

There is no question that during the past ten years the landscape of museums and art galleries across Britain has dramatically expanded and diversified.1Many new, expanded and refurbished projects were the direct result of the intense period of Lottery-funded architectural patronage that marked the start of the millennium.2 In effect, the nation’s cultural map has been redrawn as landmark contemporary art galleries have opened in towns and cities such as Walsall, Milton Keynes, Gateshead and Dundee, which were not previously members of the gallery ‘club’.3 At the same time, the creation of new institutions in hitherto derelict sites, such as Salford Quays and Bankside, has disrupted the urban syntax in which the art gallery was traditionally located. As part of an explicit strategy that allied the development of cultural facilities with programmes of economic regeneration and social inclusion, cultural capital has been displaced from the monumental city centre and resited in disused power stations, warehouses and mills.