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Nottingham Contemporary welcomes 200,000th visitor - four months early

The iconic new contemporary art gallery on Weekday Cross has achieved its annual visitor target in just 8 months.

'We're delighted to have achieved our projected annual audience in just eight months,' said Nottingham Contemporary's Director Alex Farquharson. 'We set out to make the link between contemporary art and contemporary society. It seems that our audience strongly supports that link too - they have voted with their feet.'

The 200,000th visitor was Heidi Plant, of Whitstable, Kent, accompanied by her husband Emrys Plant and their children Marmaduke, 11 months and Florence, two and a half years. Heidi graduated in Decorative Arts from Nottingham Trent University in 2003 and has been visiting friends in the city. She has just had an art work accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Show.

'I used to live in Nottingham and studied art here so it's really amazing to be here today,' she said. 'It's a really beautiful building and the exhibitions are inspiring, particularly for aspiring artists.'

The gallery opened with an exhibition of David Hockney's early work - the first time that it had been brought together for 40 years. It was accompanied by collages by Frances Stark, a Californian Artist.

Subsequent exhibitions have been Star City - The Future Under Communism. Artists included The Otolith Group - shortlisted this year for Britain's most prestigious art prize, the Turner Prize, and Pavel Althamer, an artist from Poland who sets off on voyages of discovery in the company of his neighbours from his apartment block in Brodno. The exhibition was part of POLSKA! - the Year of Polish Culture.

Uneven Geographies - Art and Globalisation, featured the work of a previous Turner Prize Winner Steve McQueen, and fourteen other international artists exploring a subject that affects everyone today. The art works included a tank of live frogs representing the take over of indigenous languages by the Mexican artist Eduardo Abaroa.

The current exhibitions are Diane Arbus, the photographer who has made some of the world's most iconic and instantly recognisable images of so-called 'outsiders' and the enormous woodcuts of Romanian twin brother Gert and Uwe Tobias, their first exhibition in this country.

Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, has sent his congratulations: 'An imaginative programme at Nottingham Contemporary, with a range of shows from Hockney to Star City, has quickly established an international reputation that far exceeds even the most optimistic expectations,' he said.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said: 'Nottingham Contemporary has been a real success story for the city, showing the enormous benefits public investment in the arts can bring.

'That the gallery is already welcoming its 200,000th visitor shows both the huge public appetite for the arts in the East Midlands, and the significant number of tourists it is already attracting from outside Nottingham.

'It's a truly world class arts facility and I'm sure the exciting exhibition programme will continue to attract thousands of new visitors every year.'

Peter Knott, Director of Arts Council England, said: 'Many congratulations to Nottingham Contemporary on their 200,000th visitor. Since opening only eight months ago the gallery has been a resounding success. As an award winning building it is amazing, inside and out. Artistically, Alex Farquharson and his team are presenting exhibitions that people are literally willing to queue around the block to see. Nottingham Contemporary has levered significant public and private investment and has been hugely successful in raising the cultural profile of the City.'

Nottingham City Council's Deputy Leader Councillor Graham Chapman said: 'Nottingham Contemporary has clearly been the enormous success we expected it to be and is a popular destination for visitors to the city and local people alike. It is, if anything, doing even better than we had hoped. Hundreds of local children have visited and been involved in events; businesses in the city centre are seeing some real benefits from the additional visitors it is attracting to the city. Finally it is putting Nottingham on the arts scene. I'm sure it will go from strength to strength.'

As well as its international exhibition, Nottingham Contemporary has set up partnerships with City schools, and welcomed many local classes and teachers into its free workshops. Families can drop into free activities too, including the World's Biggest Photo Booth that will be open throughout the summer holidays. A talks and discussion programme around the themes of the exhibitions is supported by both the University of Nottingham and The Nottingham Trent University. Nottingham Contemporary has also set up a partnership with Nottingham Community Housing to ensure that everyone knows about the free exhibitions and family activities that it offers.

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