Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich Exhibition, Norfolk Architecture Collection Photos

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich Opening

Architecture Exhibition in England – design by Foster + Partners architects, UK

24 June 2020

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts Reopening

Design: Foster + Partners

Location: Norwich, Norfolk, Southeast England, UK

photograph : Andy Crouch

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts reopens on Tuesday 7 July 2020

24th of June 2020 – The Sainsbury Centre is delighted to announce the reopening of its building in just under two weeks following a period of temporary closure during the Covid-19 pandemic. From Tuesday 7 July visitors are invited to explore astonishing new exhibitions and the inspiring Sainsbury Collection, with refreshments available from the Modern Life Café, whilst stringent safety measures ensure public health guidelines are being followed at all times.

photo : Andy Crouch

This announcement comes after the UK government updated its advice on 23 June for leisure facilities and tourist attractions, confirming that people in England will be permitted to visit museums and galleries that have implemented the necessary social distancing and hygiene practises from Saturday 4 July. The Sainsbury Centre is pleased to be among the first university art gallery and museums in the country able to reopen this summer, enabling members of the public to once again enjoy art and improve their wellbeing during this challenging time.

photograph : Pete Huggins

From Tuesday 7 July visitors to the Sainsbury Centre can expect a welcoming and inspiring experience, facilitated by new safety systems and procedures. These include all exhibition tickets being pre-booked for specific time slots, in order to reduce the number of people in the galleries and ensure social distancing can be adhered to. Signage will guide visitors around the building on new one-way routes, helped by staff and volunteers wearing the appropriate masks/visors. Rigorous cleaning will be undertaken at regular intervals.

photo : Andy Crouch

On offer are two exhibitions looking at hugely popular movements and styles. Art Deco by the Sea opened in February to rave reviews and has been extended until 20 September 2020. It celebrates the glamour and innovation of the British coastline in the 1920s and 30s and is accompanied by a pop-up shop stocked with books, postcards and jewellery.

Coinciding with the Sainsbury Centre reopening is the launch of Art Nouveau: The Nature of Dreams, running until 31 December 2020. This new exhibition charts the lesser-known English origins of the Art Nouveau movement, featuring dazzling ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, paintings, posters and prints, sculptures and textiles.

photo : Pete Huggins

The Sainsbury Collection, on permanent display at the heart of the building, will be free to explore with food and drink available to takeaway from the Modern Life Café. The Sculpture Park, which has remained open throughout lockdown, continues to provide 350 acres of attractive parkland open to everyone to enjoy art, architecture and the natural environment.

Ghislaine Wood, Acting Director, says, “While our Sculpture Park has remained open throughout lockdown, we are pleased to announce the reopening of the Sainsbury Centre from Tuesday 7 July. The remarkable open-plan architecture of the Sainsbury Centre has helped us move towards reopening safely and implementing social distancing. We hope our visitors will now come enjoy the galleries and exciting exhibitions programme planned for the summer.”

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich images / information received 240620

25 Mar 2018

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

Architects: Foster + Partners

Location: Norwich, Norfolk, Southeast England, UK

Superstructures: The New Architecture 1960-1990
24 March – 2 September 2018

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts celebrates its 40th anniversary

Opened in 1978, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts was the practice’s first cultural project, and one that embraced several themes that have remained at the core of our unique design approach – a strong belief in the integration of architecture and engineering, a commitment to low-energy, sustainable design, and a never-ending drive towards innovation.

It was a project that challenged several existing preconceptions about museums, breaking the traditional mould with a ‘museum without walls’. The immense influence of its radical approach –the all-encompassing building envelope, its relationship with the surrounding landscape, and the pioneering principles of social integration – can still be seen in some of the practice’s most recent projects, such as the Mexico City International Airport, Apple Park and the recently opened Bloomberg Headquarters in London.

Norman Foster, Founder and Executive Chairman, Foster + Partners said: “The Sainsbury Centre was a pivotal project not just for what was a fledgling practice at the time, but as a complete reimagination of what a cultural institution could be. Everything was radical about it – from its location in the wilderness of the UEA campus, next to the science buildings to encourage cross-fertilisation, to the creation of a single enclosure that was a technological, ecological and social condenser. It was also a quest for beauty – to sit lightly and elegantly on its site with an interior that captured the landscape of its setting, the poetry of natural light, and above all a fitting setting for the Sainsbury’s magnificent collection.”

To mark the occasion the centre is hosting a major exhibition to shine a light on developments in architecture from the 1960s to the 1990s. Superstructures: The New Architecture 1960-1990 tells the story of architecture’s fascination in the post-World War Two decades with new technology, lightweight structures, pioneering building techniques and innovative engineering solutions.

The exhibition features several Foster + Partners projects including the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters, Hong Kong, Stansted Airport, London, Century Tower, Tokyo, Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, Renault Centre and Reliance Controls in Swindon, Carre d’Art, Nimes and the Tecno table, through a range of fascinating objects from drawings and paintings, models, furniture and product design to photographs and film, from various sources including the Foster + Partners collection, the Norman Foster Foundation, as well as items from the Sainsbury Centre’s own collection.

Photography ® Nigel Young – Foster + Partners

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich images / information received 250318

Foster + Partners

12 Sep 2013
Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia exhibition inaugurates new Sainsbury Centre galleries

photo from Foster + Partners
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich Building

Address: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University Of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
Phone: +44 1603 593199

Architecture in Norfolk Area

Norwich Building

Norfolk Buildings

Cambridge Architecture Design – chronological list

The Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge – 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize Winner
Design: Stanton Williams architects

photograph © Hufton+Crow
Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge Building