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 non-gallery spaces that encourage visitors to engage with art. The artists and makers C&C work with live and work in the towns and villages scattered throughout the east of England. Through their work, creative people celebrate their rural surroundings, bring about a closer understanding of the countryside, and encourage a greater consideration for nature, as its appreciation and preservation becomes ever more prescient to our time.

C&C display original work in group and solo exhibitions in architecturally stimulating settings

East Anglia has several locations where creative practitioners have access to more generous workshop and studio space than in the cities. The accumulation of talent has attracted others from the metropolitan centres that traditionally have been the wellspring of creative production. While there has been an upturn in creative activity among rural communities, there are relatively few viable spaces in the region to show the results of their labour.

Many of the issues that concern artists and makers, like getting their work seen and generating an income from it, while working creatively in a rural economy are not restricted to the East Anglian region. The problems are shared by artists and makers based in isolated communities located in other regions of the UK.

C&C have tried to address the scarcity of display space by finding unusual buildings, both gallery and non-gallery settings to hold pop-up exhibitions. They show original work in exhibitions configured around themes that have attracted audiences from rural communities, as well as drawing in visitors from cities like London, Cambridge, Norwich, Nottingham and Leicester. C&C's exhibition programme has pulled in an informed audience, drawn attention to the creative people they have worked with, brokered sales and facilitated greater understanding of their work and production process.

Why is the east of England such a good seedbed for contempory and applied art?

The east of England is one of several regional locations that have benefitted from incoming creative producers. And while fragmented by distance, the east of England does have a handful of public sector museums and galleries of quality. Firstsite and the Minories in the centre of Colchester, and The Sainsbury Centre on the UEA campus, in the Norwich suburbs, put on international exhibitions and occasionally display work by artists with a connection to the region. These publicly funded organisations have worked hard to maintain a national profile. But they are few and far between. And they cannot present a more representative survey of the types of creative work made within the region. Their funding streams are dependent upon issue based outcomes and artistic practice with an educational remit, which disproportionately suits a certain type of work.

Most of the commercial galleries that promote artists and makers within the eastern counties cater to the tourist market. They are restricted by the artistic conventions expected by their clientele. And rather than celebrating the diversity and quality of the creative work produced within the region, these galleries tend to play it safe. The more innovative creatives C&C work with tend to organise their own exhibitions outside the region, in London or overseas.

Which is why C&C have taken a different approach working across disciplines, displaying original work in unusual exhibition spaces not always associated with art. C&C have been encouraging a dedicated audience for art and craft, raising expectations of a larger audience by moving around the region, without being teathered to a single location. C&C's projects are tailored to the way artists and craftspeople operate today, providing a curated context to show their work to its best advantage connecting with a broad and diverse audience.

You may have already visited a C&C Pop-Up without knowing it!

C&C's exhibitions have been held at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge, The Crypt Gallery, Norwich, The Fermoy Gallery and Shakespeare Barn at The Guildhall, King's Lynn, Houghton Hall Stables, in West Norfolk, at BallroomArts, Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast, The Granary (Jarrolds), 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 art gallery, the top floor loft-space in a converted warehouse store, or an ancient chalk and flint barn.

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.