4 May, 2012
Eastbourne’s Towner contemporary art museum announces the theme for the upcoming Museums at Nightclub – Make Mistakes at the University of Misunderstanding! We are also pleased to announce that rock band The Guillotines will be reforming to play on the night, which takes place on Saturday 19 May.
The Guillotines will be joined by The Ken Ardley Playboys – the band of artist Bob & Roberta Smith. Towner won Smith in the nationwide competition to win a leading artist for Museums At Night, and are very excited to be working closely with the artist on this totally unique event. Towner’s team recently met with Smith in his London studio to set the “curriculum”, and preparations are now well underway to turn Towner into a nightclub come university for the night – where you, the audience, are the students!
As darkness falls, the gallery will transform into the UK’s first ever Museums at Night nightclub event – also featuring a set from one of Brighton’s Born Bad DJs, and a live broadcast from Bob & Roberta Smith’s Resonance FM radio show. The curriculum for the night includes a variety of arty and irreverent activities, and club-goers are invited to take part in each activity to earn a stamp on their certificate – collect all the stamps to graduate! Towner also asks that you bring along your best piece of “dodgy art” – and a brass instrument, if you have one – to take part in a special exhibition and art performance.
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism, Cllr Neil Stanley said “What a great idea – the Museums at Nightclub looks set to be an amazing event full of music, art and a chance to go back to your student days. It’s very unusual to hear of an art gallery being turned into a nightclub, and with Towner collaborating with an iconic artist to add a really exciting twist to the night, this event will be like nothing the south coast has seen before!”
Towner won artist Bob & Roberta Smith with their unique proposal for the Museums at Nightclub, which really caught the public’s imagination – Towner topped the public poll with 55% of the vote (more than double that of their competitors).
The dodgy art exhibition was one of Smith’s ideas and Smith himself will be judging the competition. Do you have a piece of art from your GCSE art days still lingering in the back of your cupboard? – bring it along and display it in South East England’s largest art gallery!
Those with brass instruments are invited to bring them along and be part of the Biggest Brass Sound Orchestra – Towner will provide a safe space for storage of instruments throughout the rest of the evening.
Towner continues their successful partnership with Brighton’s Melting Vinyl for this event. Doors open at 8.30pm and tickets (£8 / £6 concession) are available from Towner. The dress code is simply ‘After Dark’.
This is an over 18s event; however people of all ages are invited to join Towner from 12 noon – 4pm the same day to get creative with Bob & Roberta Smith during daylight hours.
For more information or to buy tickets to the Museums at Nightclub call 01323 434670 or visit the Towner webiste.
