100 artworks from Grayson Perry to Picasso free to see in Lewes this weekend
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Local residents and visitors will be able to visit for free on the first Sunday of the exhibitions during a Pay What You Can day as the charity that runs Charleston in Lewes pledges to make the new cultural centre accessible for everyone. Exhibition tickets normally cost between £5.50 and £8.50 but on the last Sunday of every month entry is free to all exhibitions, with a ‘Pay What You Can’ donation to the charity encouraged. Charleston in Lewes is the first museum or gallery in Sussex to provide regular Pay What You Can access to all its exhibitions giving everyone an opportunity to visit, whatever their budget.
The exhibition programme opening this week will prove popular to locals and visitors alike featuring one of the nation’s best loved artists – Grayson Perry – alongside a rollcall of modern masterpieces by the likes of Pablo Picasso, John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Winifred Nicholson and Amedeo Modigliani.
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Hide Ad‘Grayson Perry: A Temple for Everyone’ is a showcase of ceramics, textiles, paintings, prints and drawings from across 40 years of the celebrated British artist’s career including two monumental tapestries relating to Perry’s 2012 Channel 4 series exploring British culture and taste. Full price tickets are £5.50 for this exhibition.


Alongside this, ‘Collecting Modernism: Pablo Picasso to Winifred Nicholson’ presents the extraordinary story of The Radev Collection. Now one of the most important private collections of British and European modern art, it was started a hundred years ago and is described by Norman Coates, its current custodian, as being passed ‘down in a line of friendship, at one end a British aristocrat, and at the other end a refugee from Communist Bulgaria’. The exhibition includes over 80 paintings and offers a rare chance to get up close with an impressive variety of modernist works before the collection returns to a private home. Full price tickets are £8.50 for this exhibition. A 15% discount is applied for a combined ticket to both exhibitions.
Unlike other museums and galleries in Sussex, Charleston is operated by a charity that does not receive a grant from the Arts Council or local authority. Without public funding, ticket income forms the majority of Charleston’s charitable income. The new cultural centre in Lewes is part of the charity’s work to increase access to arts and culture for those in its community and this new approach to ticketing is part of a commitment to ensuring equal access for everyone in the town.
Director of the charity Nathaniel Hepburn, says, "Over 40% of visitors to Charleston in Lewes came either for free or through concessionary tickets. By committing to a regular Pay What You Can day we want to make it as easy as possible for anyone to wander in and explore over 100 amazing works of art on display in the town in the months ahead.”
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Hide AdIn the first six months of the Pay What You Can days, 49% of visitors donated £5 or more to the charity to cover the costs of mounting the exhibition and delivering its schools programme. Entry to both of Charleston’s sites is always free entry to everyone under 18s, and discount tickets are available as part of a free under 30 membership. Concessions are available for students, disabled and people receiving universal or pension credit.
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