London South Bank University (LSBU) is proud to be opening the doors of the new Borough Road Gallery to the public on Saturday 23 June.
The gallery is an exciting new space at the University's Southwark campus that has been built to house 'A David Bomberg Legacy - The Sarah Rose Collection'.
This collection includes over 100 works by members of The Borough Group including David Bomberg, Dennis Creffield, Cliff Holden, Edna Mann, Dorothy Mead, and Miles Richmond. It also includes works by Thomas Holden.
The collection was donated to the University by Sarah Rose, a private collector whose selection is driven by her interpretation of Bomberg's unique artistic philosophy.
David Bomberg is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most significant British artists and art teachers. He taught at LSBU (then Borough Polytechnic), during the 1940s and 50s, and it was here that he formed The Borough Group with some of his students. The new gallery is housed just three floors below where Bomberg once taught.
The Borough Road Gallery and its exhibition, education and events programmes have been funded by a two-year grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The University has already launched an online Digital Archive which displays all the works in the collection, alongside interviews, interpretation and other contextual information.
Also this summer, the Borough Road Gallery will run an educational programme with local secondary schools, and the University is partnering with local adult educational specialist Morley College to launch 'Designs on Bomberg' - short courses on art history, painting and drawing, and printmaking for the College's Summer School.
Visitors to the Southwark area will also be able to enjoy specially commissioned artists' walks of the local area which have been developed with Southwark playwright and historian John Constable (an honorary graduate of LSBU) and will be available to download from the Borough Road Gallery website.
The Gallery was launched with a private view on Thursday 14 June with guest speaker Alan Yentob.
Speaking at the launch event, Professor Martin Earwicker, Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University, said: 'Behind everything that is really successful and really worthwhile is a very determined person with a very clear vision, and in terms of this Collection that person is Sarah Rose.
"We're also very grateful for the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund who have been most generous in supporting the development of the physical space."
Also speaking at the event Sarah Rose, collector and donor, said: "I grew up with the opportunity to view paintings and enjoy them and feel how important they are to our inner development, but I had no idea that I would ever make a collection until fate stepped in and I then had to follow.
"I've got every confidence in this University to carry out and bring to fulfilment Bomberg's vision which is, of course, that the tradition into which he was born will endure."
Alan Yentob, Creative Director for the BBC, said: "Many great names and great British artists came through these doors when it was of course the Borough Polytechnic and when David Bomberg was a teacher. This is an extraordinary bequest."
The first exhibition will display an introduction to the Collection, curated by Professor Andrew Dewdney, Project Director, and Mary Paterson, Curator of the Borough Road Gallery.
The opening hours for the Borough Road Gallery are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 1pm-5pm, and Saturdays 12pm-5pm.
The Gallery is based at the University's Southwark campus: 103 Borough Road, London SE1 0AA.
For more information visit: www.boroughroadgallery.co.uk
Posted: 21st June 2012
