7 new art galleries to visit in 2018

By Alice Primrose

Published on 30 April 2018

With the new RA now open, we're also celebrating other exciting art gallery unveilings this year – some brand new, some renovated, some finding new homes in unlikely places from swimming baths to an observatory. Here are a few to visit while you can still smell the fresh paint.

Hayward Gallery, London

Though it might not be obvious from the outside, Southbank’s beloved Brutalist landmark has had its first major refurb since it was built in 1968. The two-year renovation involved replacing all 66 of the gallery’s pyramid rooflights, and was completed earlier this year. In May, you can see Adapt to Survive, an exhibition peering into the future through the work of seven contemporary artists whose work reflects on new forms of architecture, technology, biology and language.

Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London — Photo © Morley von Sternberg

Kettle's Yard, Cambridge

Kettle’s Yard was the home of art teacher Helen Ede and her husband, Tate curator Jim Ede, who filled their living spaces with artists’ works nestled among furniture, glass, ceramics and natural objects. Having been closed for redevelopment for over two years, the intimate building reopened in February with improved exhibition spaces, a four-floor education wing and a research space. An exhibition of work by Antony Gormley RA will fill all those spaces later this month.

Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge — Photo: Paul Allitt

The New RA, London

To celebrate the RA’s 250th birthday this year, we’ve transformed and expanded our 18th-century campus. We have new galleries, new free displays, new spaces for learning, a new lecture theatre, new places to eat and drink and a new link between our two buildings. We hope you'll visit to have a look around soon; in the meantime, watch our behind the scenes tour with Tim Marlow, or read about nine things we think you should know about the new RA.

Behind the scenes at the New RA

Artistic Director Tim Marlow took audiences on a live tour for a "first look" around our new spaces. Watch it back now.

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Collective Gallery, Edinburgh

The contemporary arts organisation Collective has been around since 1984, and Edinburgh’s City Observatory has been around since 1818 (though in disrepair and closed since 2009). This year, Collective will unveil their new home in the redeveloped building complex: a place to observe the city by looking at, thinking about and creating contemporary art. The organisation’s Director Kate Gray says of their new site: “It allows us ways of looking forward through the lenses of the past”.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

In celebration of its 40th birthday this year, Yorkshire Sculpture Park are opening a new gallery, restaurant, public foyer and shop at the south of the park this summer. The 660 square metre environmentally friendly building is tucked into the hillside of a former quarry, and will house temporary exhibitions of 20th- and 21st-century art. It’s designed to sit inconspicuously in the landscape, so you might not even notice it unless you go looking, but it’ll be well worth the search.

Artist's impression of the new visitor centre at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2018 — Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo © Jonty Wilde

V&A Dundee

In September, Scotland’s first dedicated design museum will open with stories of the country’s design heritage, and an exhibition exploring the forms and cultural impact of ocean liners. If you can’t wait until then, it’s well worth taking a trip to Dundee just to look at the brand new building from the outside. Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma (who’s also responsible for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic stadium), and inspired by the cliffs along Scotland’s east coast, the curvy concrete museum has already made its mark on the city’s waterfront.

Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London

The university’s new arts centre will open to the public in September, housed inside former Victorian swimming baths and the water tanks that once supplied the neighbourhood. Designed by the Turner Prize-winning architecture collective Assemble, it’s their first major building commission, housing eight exhibition spaces for artist residencies, exhibitions, talks and performances. And a café too. The centre’s Director Sarah McCrory says: “In a troubling time for cultural institutions, it is really nice to be part of something that is opening rather than a story that is about closure or cuts”.