ABOUT US: C&C present contemporary and applied art in 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

C&C have recently opened a viewing room at Woolmarket House in King's Lynn, Norfolk, where we hold small solo or two person exhibitions.

Viewing is by appointment only from Wednesday to Friday 11am – 4pm and Saturday morning from 11am – 2pm. While we welcome bookings, the viewing room is not a gallery, space is at a premium, so we cannot accomodate groups of more than five people.

For 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 our rural surroundings. Through observation and their creative process, they bring about a closer understanding of the countryside that often intrigues and contradicts more traditional ideas of the rural idyll.

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

Creative practitioners have access to more generous workshop and studio space than in the cities. The accumulation of the region's 'homegrown' talent to particular locations has attracted others from metropolitan centres, notably London, that historically have been the wellspring of creative production.

While this upturn in creative activity 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 artists and makers in more marginal 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.

Public sector galleries and museums in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are a rich resource for creatives.

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 from their audiences. And 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 work, not necessarily representative of the majority of creative work made within the area.

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.

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

The shortcomings of public and private sector galleries have had to be navigated for some time, and C&C are not alone in trying out different models to provide a more reliable platform for artists and makers. C&C have encouraged a broader audience interested in creative work, attracting younger collectors to have the courage of their convictions and who want to live with original art and handmade objects rather than buy mass-market furnishings and fashion items that clutter modern homes.

C&C hope to raise audience expectations, moving around the region, showing high quality work produced in the region and displaying it 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 stay 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.