Art Galleries in Brighton
There are plenty of art galleries in Brighton to visit; Brighton is a famously arty city. Here you’ll find the best places to admire art, buy handmade objects and shop for supplies to make your own.
Galleries
Fabrica
40 Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG
fabrica.org.uk
Contemporary art, rotating exhibitions. Housed inside a converted church, Fabrica have hosted some impressive and occasionally profound exhibitions of contemporary art. Pop in on your way along the high street on Queen’s Road and see what you think. They also run a busy workshop and events programme.
University of Brighton Gallery
58-67 Grand Parade BN2 0JY
arts.brighton.ac.uk
Contemporary art, design, illustration and fashion, rotating exhibitions. Home to quality student exhibitions, from BA and MA to PHD, as well as to retrospectives of famous artists with a connection to Brighton such as last summer’s Max Gill exhibition.
Lighthouse Arts
1 Zone B BN1 4AJ
Digital culture: photography film and media, rotating exhibitions. A good place for technology and film buffs, Lighthouse commission and support artists and filmmakers through mentoring and exhibitions.
Phoenix
10-14 Waterloo Place BN2 9NB
phoenixarts.org
Contemporary art, rotating exhibitions and artist studios. An enormous studio building that hosts a varying quality of exhibitions as well as workshops and events.
Pop Up Brighton
Unit 4 Lower Promenade, Madeira Drive BN2 1ET
popupbrighton.com
Contemporary art and design, rotating exhibitions. This exciting new group take over empty spaces in the city for temporary exhibitions and events. Check the website and join their mailing list to find out where they’ll pop up next.
Hove Museum and Art Gallery
19 New Church Road, Brighton and Hove, East Sussex BN3 4AB
brighton-hove-museums.org.uk
Art, history and toys, permanent collection and rotating exhibitions. A child-friendly museum with a great collection of toys that attempts to give an insight into how children lived in the past. The art on show here usually has a contemporary crafts bent. Among the toys and the crafts, there is also an item of great historical interest: The beautiful Hove Amber Cup, one of Britain’s most important Bronze Age finds (recently featured in the BBCs ‘History of the World in 100 Objects’).
Ink_d Gallery and Studio
96 North Road BN1 1YE
ink-d.co.uk
Art and crafts. Trendy gallery with prints for sale.
Art Shops
IO Gallery
39 Sydney Street BN1 4EP
iogallery.co.uk
Art and crafts. Mostly jewellery upstairs, with prints downstairs.
LMNOP
17 Montpelier Place BN1 3BF
lmnopshop.com
Arts and crafts, artists’ books. A good place to come for artists’ books and journals as well as for prints, tucked away but actually very close to Churchill Square.
North Laine Photography
7-8 Kensington Gardens BN1 4AL
brightonphotography.com
Mostly black and white photography, with some slightly cheesy tourist pleasers but the odd quality photograph. Just above the must-see junk shop Snoopers Paradise.
Art Supplies and Resources
Clarke’s Stationers
11 Bond Street BN1 1JL 01273 728811
clarkesonline.co.uk
A decent one stop shop for stationary and art materials.
Lawrence T N & Son Ltd
208 Portland Road (Hove) BN3 5QT
lawrence.co.uk
Expensive but top quality art materials, including printmaking paper, paints and sketchbooks, making it worth getting the bus into Hove and stocking up.
The Brighton Bead Shop
21 Sydney Street BN1 4EN
beadsunlimited.co.uk
Beads, beads, for all your beads needs. I don’t need beads. Not sure why I put this in here.
Ink Spot Press
Melbourne Street BN2 3LH
inkspotpress.co.uk
Facilities including printmaking, etching and letterpress, available through membership or lessons.
Museums
Booth Museum
194 Dyke Road BN1 5AA
brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk
Natural history, permanent collection. A large building full of stuffed animals, with an eccentric Victorian atmosphere and the subtle smell of formaldehyde wafting in the air. Upstairs, animals are still being stuffed or restored, and if you ask nicely you can hire one to study or draw or take out clubbing (don’t do that).
Brighton Fishing Museum
201 Kings Road Arches BN1 1NB
brightonfishingmuseum.org.uk
Fishing and seaside history, permanent collection. Features some fascinating objects including parts of the destroyed West Pier, and stories such as tales of the famous Brighton dipper Martha Gunn. Go here if you don’t know what a dipper is.
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Royal Pavilion Gardens, 4/5 Pavilion Buildings BN1 1EE
brighton-hove-museums.org.uk
Art and design, permanent collection and rotating exhibitions. A great way to experience the story of Brighton’s past through its art and objects, with a permanent collection downstairs and a variety of changing exhibitions upstairs.
Brighton Toy and Model Museum
52-55 Trafalgar Street BN1 4EB
brightontoymuseum.co.uk
Toys and models, permanent collection. Features a large model railway collection, for children and grown-up children.
Updated by Mark Pembrey: 4/4/12