ABOUT US: C&C show contemporary and applied art form East Anglia

Contemporary and Country (C&C) present contemporary and applied art by artists and makers from East Anglia.

C&C's pop-up exhibitions frequently forego the art gallery setting, opting for architecturally interesting spaces that encourage visitors to engage with art.

The Viewing Room

To support East Anglian creatives C&C have opened a viewing room where we hold small-scale solo or two person exhibitions.

The viewing room is open from Wednesday to Friday 11am to 4pm and Saturday from 11am to 2pm, at Woolmarket House, 6 St Nicholas Street, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE30 1LY.

Outside these hours entry can be arranged by appointment in advance. If you book ahead we will try to accommodate your preferred time, unfortunately due to the domestic context of the space, we cannot accomodate groups of more than six or seven people.

For many East Anglian artists and makers the landscape is frequently the source of their inspiration.

The artists and makers C&C work with live and work throughout the east of England. Others live elsewhere and spend a significant amount of time here, maintaining a connection with East Anglia working with the landscape, celebrating the coast and their rural surroundings. Through their creative process, artists bring about a closer understanding of the countryside.

C&C display original work in group and solo exhibitions that open up opportunities for artists and makers.

Creatives have access to more generous workshop and studio space here. The region's 'homegrown' talent has gathered in particular locations throughout East Anglia, and they have attracted others from metropolitan centres, like London, usually seen as the wellspring of creative production.

While this upturn in creative activity by artists and makers among rural communities represents a welcome development, there are still relatively few spaces to show the results of their labour.

The dearth of suitable display space is one of several issues that concern creatives in rural locations. C&C address the scarcity of viable display space by finding unusual buildings, both gallery and non-gallery settings to hold pop-up group and solo exhibitions.

These feature original work configured around themes or a shared methodology, that attract local audiences as well as visitors from London, Cambridge, Nottingham and Leicester. C&C's exhibition programme appeals to an informed, art savvy audience, driving attention toward contributing creatives, brokering sales and facilitating a greater understanding of the work on display.

While East Anglia's network of galleries and museums are a resource for creatives, their remit limits the scope of the creative work they show.

The east of England while fragmented by distance, has a handful of publicly funded galleries and museums that have contemporary programmes.

These publicly funded organisations have worked hard to maintain their profiles and encourage engagement with their audiences. Yet, despite their relative success, their funding streams have been dramatically reduced over the last decade and a half. What little funding there is, has been made dependent upon programming exhibitions with an educational remit. This suits certain types of art, but it is not necessarily representative of what artists do.

And the commercial galleries that promote artists and makers within the eastern counties, particularly along the North Norfolk and Suffolk coast, tend to embrace the tourist market. While this makes commercial sense, it means their exhibition season is restricted to the summer, with perhaps a bit of a 'selling show' before Christmas. None of which works for the creatives based here who run their production year round.

C&C operate by moving around the region and encouraging engagement from new audiences.

The shortcomings of public and private sector galleries are nothing new and have had to be navigated by creatives for some time now. C&C are not alone in trying different models to provide a more reliable platform for artists and makers to get their work seen and understood. However, as we have developed we have encouraged a broader audience interested in creative work. We have attracted younger collectors who want to live with original art and handmade objects rather than buy mass-market 'art', aimed at modern homes.

C&C raise audience expectations, by moving around the region, showing high quality work produced here and displaying as best we can to its advantage, by not being teathered to a single location.

To enable better representation C&C's projects are tailored to the way artists and makers operate today, providing a curated context to show their work, connecting with a diverse audience through real life displays or online.

You may have already visited a C&C pop-up exhibition without realising it...

C&C's pop-up exhibitions have been held at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge, The Crypt Gallery, Norwich, The Fermoy Gallery and Shakespeare Barn at St. George's Guildhall, King's Lynn, Houghton Hall Stables, in West Norfolk, at BallroomArts, Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast, The Granary (Jarrolds), in Norwich, and at Creake Abbey near Burnham Market on the North Norfolk coast. For each of these installations the work was chosen to suit the circumstances of the built environment of each venue. Whether that was a purpose built beachside art gallery, the top floor loft-space in a converted warehouse store, or an ancient chalk and flint barn, visitors were attracted by the experience and then stayed for the art.

C&C's exhibitions at the Stables Houghton Hall took place between 2017 and 2023. These were large group exhibitions featuring between 30 to 45 artists and makers with an East Anglian connection that were predicated upon a common theme. They were configured to support the solo exhibitions by acclaimed international artists: Richard Long, Henry Moore, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Tony Cragg, Ernst Gamperl, John Virtue, and Sean Scully.