Biography
UH Arts + Culture brings high quality arts to students, staff and local communities. Working with emerging and established artists across all media, UH Arts + Culture delivers a programme of exhibitions, projects and residencies in the Art + Design Gallery and collaborates with cultural institutions in the UK and Europe.
Based in Hatfield, UH Arts + Culture (previously known as UH Galleries) is among the most innovative contemporary art spaces in the UK, presenting contemporary art to the community and wider audiences, in traditional and sometimes challenging ways.
The Art + Design Gallery was constructed in 1998, as part of the University’s School of Creative Arts. It is a large atrium space and also functions as the School’s entrance. With its vast glass-fronted wall and six-metre-high ceilings, the light-diffused gallery offers 250 square metres of floor space. It works particularly well for site-specific and site-sensitive installations.
Since June 2018, UH Arts + Culture has been working in partnership with the St Albans Museum + Gallery to contribute a vibrant visual arts programme across varied spaces within the old St Albans Town Hall building – engaging broadly with artists, audiences and the site.
The Art Collection comprises 500 artworks displayed across its campuses. A wonderfully eclectic collection, it features 13 impressive external sculptures and a portfolio of paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, ceramics and mixed-media works.
The Collection has 3 key strands: the historical strand, including works by artists such as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Reg Butler; the contemporary artists strand - this group has been developed through UHArts’ exhibition programme and membership of the Contemporary Art Society and includes works by Andy Goldsworthy and Alan Davie and the student / alumni and staff strand, including works by Caroline Achaintre, Noémie Goudal, Sam Jury, Diane MacLean and Rana Begum which the Contemporary Art Society has helped to acquire.
