Site Gallery Cafe

General information

Exhibition programme

Site Gallery’s exhibition programme is led by Artistic Director Laura Sillars. We work with emergent and established artists to realise their ideas and produce new work for solo and group exhibitions. We specialise in artistic development, investing in artists at critical stages of their careers. In 2012-13, three of Site’s recent alumni won the most prestigious awards in the art-world; The Turner Prize, the Venice Silver Lion and the Frieze Emdash Award. Through diverse programming, we reveal the process of making art to invite our audience to engage, explore and connect.

Artists in residence

Site’s Platform residency programme forms a core part of our artistic offer. Three times a year, the galleries turn into an artist’s studio, opening up the creative process of making new work to visitors. It enables audiences to interact with artists at the work-in-progress stage, and for those who can’t make it to the gallery, you can join the conversation on the Platform blog and explore the concepts of the artists who are developing work in the gallery during 2014-15: Helen Benigson, Florian Roithmayr, Simon and Tom Bloor, Rory Pilgrim and Mel Brimfield and Gwyneth Herbert. This programme of work is supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Young people

Site Gallery’s education programme provides new opportunities for young people in the region to engage with contemporary art through regular groups, one-off events, outreach activity and the creation of interpretation resources made by young people for young people. With support from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, we launched a regular group for 14-19 year olds in 2014 - A Society of Explorers. The group works closely with Platform artists to create their own artwork, to produce writing, film and photography about the residencies and to run public events.

Gallery expansion

In July 2014 we secured major investment to realise ambitious plans which will see Site Gallery treble in scale, greatly enhancing the contemporary visual art experience in the region. The development will bring key changes to the current building, including much larger galleries (increasing by over 200%), allowing larger-scale exhibitions and providing visitors with space to reflect and respond to works, and a new education and events space will be housed on the ground floor. It is anticipated that the expanded gallery will be unveiled in the summer of 2017.