Museum Partner – Charleston

For 2024 London Art Fair was delighted to partner with Charleston, the modernist home and studio of Bloomsbury group painters to celebrate their upcoming 50th anniversary. 

First introduced in 2014 to showcase important regional collections; London Art Fair’s annual Museum Partnership has seen collaborations with the Hepworth Wakefield, Pallant House Gallery, Jerwood Gallery, The Lightbox, Towner Art GallerySouthampton City Art Gallery, The Woman’s Art Collection, and Ben Uri Gallery.

Housed in a specially designed pavilion at the front of the Fair, the Museum Partnership provides a prominent London platform and significant opportunity for patrons, collectors and general Fair visitors to engage with an exhibition of exceptional museum quality works – bringing some of our most important regional private collections into the public domain; whilst highlighting the gallery’s broader programme, driving new audiences and supporters.

2024 MUSEUM PARTNER: CHARLESTON

Presented select works by Bloomsbury group artists

Charleston is a place that brings people together to engage with art and ideas. The modernist home and studio of the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Charleston was a gathering point for some of the 20th century’s most radical artists, writers and thinkers known collectively as the Bloomsbury group. It is where they came together to imagine society differently and has always been a place where art and experimental thinking are at the centre of everyday life.

Today, Charleston presents a dynamic year-round programme of exhibitions, events and festivals at its home in Firle, and its new venue in central Lewes.

In 2030 Charleston is set to celebrate 50 years since the charity was set up to safeguard the historic house and its collection. In January 2024 Charleston launches an ambitious search for 50 of the most significant Bloomsbury group artist paintings still held in private collections. The hope is that through generous gifts and legacies these important and unique objects will become part of Charleston’s extensive collection and reunited with what is already the largest collection of Bloomsbury group artworks worldwide.

The launch of ’50 for 50’ took place at the London Art Fair 2024 when, as the fair’s Museum Partner, Charleston unveiled a selection of secured artworks alongside some of the most significant pieces from its collection.

Browse Charleston.org.uk to find out more about the Bloomsbury group artist studios and the Charleston collection.

Photography: Reuben and Jay
Photography: Reuben and Jay

THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP

History, members and facts

The Bloomsbury Group was a group of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, named for living, studying and working together around Bloomsbury in London. The source of classic works of literature and important theories in economics, feminism and more, its members included such luminaries as the novelists Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the biographer Lytton Strachey, and the painter and interior designer Vanessa Bell.

 
In 1916, Vanessa Bell and her friend and lover Duncan Grant moved to Charleston along with Duncan’s partner David Garnett. World War I was taking place in Europe and across the globe and as conscientious objectors, Garnett and Grant intended to find farmwork to avoid conscription. During this time, and on into the next few decades, Charleston become a thriving hub of intellectual endeavour.

The Dining Room at Charleston. Photography: Lee Robbins
The Dining Room at Charleston. Photography: Lee Robbins
The studio at Charleston. Photography: Lee Robbins
The studio at Charleston. Photography: Lee Robbins
Charleston in Firle. Photography Emma Croman
Charleston in Firle. Photography Emma Croman

Museum Partnership Supporters

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2023 Museum Partner

London Art Fair was delighted to welcome The Ben Uri Gallery and Museum as the 2023 Museum Partner.

Ben Uri is a purposeful and scholarly institution that uses art and technology differently to deliver distinctive national programmes.

The Museum was founded in 1915 in Whitechapel by a Russian Jewish émigré artist to provide support for fellow Jewish immigrant artists working outside the mainstream, gaining museum status in 1995.

Click the link below to lookback at the 2023 Museum Partner exhibition.

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GALLERIES

Each year, galleries at London Art Fair showcase the very best Modern and Contemporary Art, from established names to today’s leading artists. 

ENCOUNTERS

Encounters is a curated showcase of the freshest contemporary art from across the globe, featuring large-scale installations, solo shows and thematic group displays.

PLATFORM

Platform is a guest-curated presentation that brings together well-known, overlooked and emerging artists into conversation around a single, unifying theme.

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