About
Towner Eastbourne is one of England's most exciting contemporary art galleries, a flagship cultural institution housed in a landmark building that has transformed Eastbourne's cultural landscape since opening in 2009. Designed by Rick Mather Architects and winner of multiple architectural awards, the striking new gallery at Devonshire Park provides world-class facilities for a collection of outstanding quality, demonstrating that exceptional contemporary art is not the exclusive preserve of London or major metropolitan centres.
The gallery traces its origins to 1923 when Eastbourne's first public art gallery opened in a Victorian manor house in the Old Town, funded by a bequest from local magistrate John Chisholm Towner. For eight decades the original Towner Gallery built a distinguished collection of British art, but cramped Victorian premises limited both the ambitions of the collection and the quality of visitor experience. The transformation came with the purpose-built gallery at Devonshire Park, which opened in 2009 to immediate critical acclaim, offering 1,800 square metres of gallery space, a dedicated performance space, café, and education facilities that established Towner as a major player in the British gallery landscape.
Towner's collection of over 5,000 works centres on British art of the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular strength in the interwar period and contemporary practice. The gallery holds one of the most significant collections of works by Eric Ravilious, the Sussex-born artist whose wood engravings, watercolours, and ceramics designs capture English landscape and domestic life with extraordinary sensitivity and nostalgic resonance. Ravilious died in 1942 on an RAF reconnaissance mission, but his work has experienced a major critical revival and Towner's collection — including his iconic Downs and seascapes — anchors this reappraisal.
Beyond Ravilious, Towner's collection encompasses Christopher Wood, Vanessa Bell, Edward Burra, and other figures associated with the Sussex artists' community, alongside strong holdings in contemporary British art. The gallery's exhibition programme commissions new work, presents major retrospectives, and maintains an active residency programme bringing artists into sustained engagement with the collection and the Eastbourne community. Free admission makes Towner genuinely accessible, fulfilling the public purpose for which John Chisholm Towner originally established his bequest a century ago.
Categories:
Annual Visitors (2019)
150,000
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday mornings for relaxed gallery experience with good natural light in the galleries
💡 Visitor Tips
- Free admission makes Towner one of the best-value cultural visits in South East England. Check the website for current exhibitions before visiting — the programme changes regularly and exhibitions vary considerably in type and scale.
- The Eric Ravilious holdings are the star attraction for many visitors. If Ravilious works aren't on current display in the main galleries, ask at reception — some works may be shown on request or in the study collection.
- Combine Towner with a walk along Eastbourne seafront or up to Beachy Head — the gallery's position near Devonshire Park makes it the perfect starting or finishing point for a full day exploring Eastbourne's landscape that inspired Ravilious.
- The café is popular with local residents as well as gallery visitors and serves good coffee and cakes. Arrive before 12:30 if you want a table for lunch on busy summer weekends.
- The gallery's performance and events space hosts talks, film screenings, and live events — check the What's On section of the website as these often accompany major exhibitions and provide additional context.
- The building itself is worth exploring for its architecture — the relationship between the copper exterior and the Victorian Devonshire Park context, and the natural light management in the main galleries, represent excellent contemporary gallery design.
- School holiday activities and family events are well programmed — the gallery is very family-friendly with handling activities, drawing materials, and child-focused exhibition guides available on request.
- Visit in the morning on a weekday for the quietest experience — Saturday afternoons during popular exhibitions can be busy and the main galleries feel crowded.
Highlights
Eric Ravilious Collection — One of the Finest in Britain
Towner holds one of the largest and most significant collections of works by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), the Sussex-born artist whose wood engravings, watercolours, and ceramic designs have experienced a major critical revival in recent decades. Ravilious was born in Acton but grew up in Eastbourne, attended Eastbourne School of Art, and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art where he studied under Paul Nash.
His distinctive style — geometric precision combined with atmospheric softness, strong English landscape sensibility, and nostalgic domestic subjects — captured something essential about interwar England that continues to resonate powerfully with contemporary audiences.
Towner's collection includes major watercolours of the Sussex Downs and coastal landscapes, wood engravings demonstrating his extraordinary technical mastery, and examples of his celebrated designs for Wedgwood pottery that brought modernist aesthetics to everyday domestic objects. Ravilious died in 1942 on an Arctic RAF reconnaissance mission, and his early death at 39 has lent his work an elegiac quality — the last record of a way of life destroyed by war.
The gallery contextualises Ravilious within Sussex art history and the broader story of British modernism, making this collection essential for understanding 20th-century British culture.
Rick Mather's Award-Winning Architecture
Towner's 2009 building by Rick Mather Architects was immediately celebrated as one of the finest new gallery buildings in England — a sophisticated architectural response to Devonshire Park's Victorian context that provides world-class spaces for contemporary art. The building's copper-clad exterior acknowledges Eastbourne's seafront and Victorian heritage while asserting a contemporary identity.
Inside, the 1,800 square metres of gallery space are organised around flexible, naturally lit rooms of varying proportions, allowing the programming team to configure the galleries for works of any scale.
The dramatic double-height main gallery accommodates major installations and large-scale works, while smaller rooms provide intimate settings for drawing and print collections. Natural light is carefully managed through roof lights and north-facing windows, providing consistent illumination without ultraviolet damage.
The building also includes a dedicated performance and events space, education studios, and a rooftop terrace with views over Devonshire Park.
Winning RIBA and civic trust awards on opening, the building transformed Eastbourne's cultural geography and demonstrated that regeneration architecture could be genuinely excellent rather than merely functional.
Sussex Artists Collection — Vanessa Bell and Beyond
Towner's collection beyond Ravilious encompasses many of the major figures associated with Sussex's rich artistic heritage, from the Bloomsbury Group's presence at Charleston to the interwar coastal communities that attracted artists seeking light and landscape. Works by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Christopher Wood, and Edward Burra represent the intersection of modernist innovation with specifically English subjects — Sussex landscapes, domestic interiors, working-class coastal life.
The collection also reflects Eastbourne's own artistic history, including works by artists associated with the Eastbourne School of Art and the gallery's own founding collection built over decades in the original Towner Gallery.
This regional focus is far from parochial — many of these artists were working at the forefront of international modernism while maintaining deep connections with specific English places. The collection reveals how provincial settings often provided the freedom and inspiration that metropolitan environments couldn't offer, making Sussex not an artistic backwater but a creative centre of genuine significance.
Contemporary Exhibition Programme
Towner's exhibitions programme has established the gallery as a significant platform for contemporary British artists, commissioning new works, presenting major retrospectives, and hosting national touring exhibitions. The programme balances historical surveys of the collection's strengths with ambitious presentations of living artists, often creating dialogue between contemporary practice and historical works.
Residency artists work in dedicated studios and present outcomes through exhibitions and events, embedding contemporary art-making within the gallery's everyday life.
The programme reflects Arts Council England's commitment to ensuring world-class contemporary art reaches audiences outside London — Towner's programming ambition matches that of the best London galleries while serving a distinct regional audience. Recent exhibitions have featured major British artists alongside emerging international figures, maintaining Towner's reputation as a gallery that takes risks and makes meaningful contributions to contemporary art discourse.
The free admission model ensures the programme reaches the broadest possible audience.
Collections
Towner's collection of over 5,000 works centres on British art of the 20th and 21st centuries with exceptional strength in interwar British modernism. The Eric Ravilious collection is nationally significant, comprising major watercolours, wood engravings, and Wedgwood ceramic designs. Works by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Edward Burra, Christopher Wood, and other Sussex-associated artists represent the intersection of Bloomsbury modernism and regional practice.
Strong print collections span wood engraving, lithography, screen printing, and etching. Contemporary collection grows through commissions, acquisition, and the residency programme. The founding Towner bequest of Victorian and Edwardian works provides historical context.
Total collection encompasses painting, drawing, print, photography, and artist books.
Towner Collection
Rotating displays from the permanent collection of 5,000+ works, with dedicated space for the Eric Ravilious holdings and Sussex art heritage alongside contemporary acquisitions.
📍 Main Collection Galleries
Changing Exhibitions
Year-round programme of temporary exhibitions presenting commissioned works, national touring exhibitions, and retrospectives. Typically 4-6 major exhibitions annually.
📍 Main and Project Galleries
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.