The Grundy Art Gallery has had one of its most successful exhibitions to date with NEON: The Charged Line.



The exhibition, which featured artwork from worldwide acclaimed artists such as Tracey Emin, Joseph Kosuth and Francois Morellet, formed an integral part of last year’s LightPool festival and is estimated to have attracted around 12,000 visitors in to the gallery over the course of its 18 week run.

NEON: The Charged Line ran from 1 September 2016 up until 7 January this year, enticing visitors from across the UK with its celebration of 38 neon artworks from around the world hosted inside the Edwardian gallery.

Artists included Joseph Kosuth, Tracey Emin and Francois Morellet, who was a significant early practitioner from Paris, experimenting with neon since the 1960s but who passed away earlier in 2016. Morellet’s work has not been widely exhibited in the UK and the exhibition in Blackpool afforded a rare opportunity to experience some of his most celebrated works.

The Grundy also commissioned several outdoor works from artists including Tim Etchells and Paulina Olowska which brought the exhibition out onto the streets of Blackpool. Alongside the main exhibition, the gallery also staged an exhibition in its Rotunda of drawings from the Blackpool Illuminations Archive. These beautiful Art Deco designs dated back to the early 1930s and to a time when Blackpool was just starting to establish its pioneering name within the history of light and neon. NEON was a key part of ‘LightPool’, which also included projections on the tower and the ‘LightPool Festival’ in October.

Cllr Luke Taylor, Lead Member for Arts on Blackpool Council, said: “I am absolutely delighted with the success of NEON: The Charged Line. Not only is it one of the Grundy’s most successful exhibitions ever, it has also received excellent feedback from the people who came from across the country into the gallery to take a look at the fantastic exhibits on display from top artists.

“The way that the exhibition tied in with Blackpool’s history of neon light use and the LightPool project as a whole really caught the public’s imagination and introduced them to a new form of light being used as art. As well as our large visitor numbers, we also welcomed schools and youth groups in to the gallery, something I hope will encourage more young people to become engaged in the arts as they grow up.”

The exhibition was funded by money from a Coastal Communities Fund grant awarded to Blackpool towards the Illuminations.

Coastal Communities Minister Andrew Percy said: “Thanks to £2 million from our Coastal Communities Fund, the festival was one of the star attractions of Blackpool’s growing tourism economy. The LightPool Festival was a fantastic way to celebrate our Great British Coast and I’d urge more people to visit Blackpool to see all it has to offer.”

As well as tourists and residents visiting, the gallery also saw visits by upwards of 800 young people from school and youth groups. The exhibition was the second exhibition of light-based art, forming part of the Grundy’s ongoing Light Programme exhibiting international light works and build on Blackpool’s tradition and relationship with light and its world-famous Illuminations.

The Grundy launched its Light programme with 2015’s exhibition Sensory Systems which featured artists such as Angela Bulloch, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Anthony McCall. Sensory Systems attracted 7,000 visitors, with the neon exhibition almost doubling this figure.

The exhibition attracted international press and was featured in the Telegraph, the Guardian and on the BBC website. Curator Richard Parry spoke about the exhibition on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and the exhibition was also featured in popular magazines and online formats including Wallpaper, World of Interiors and After Nyne. Press coverage for the exhibition across local, national and international channels is estimated to have reached more than 10million people. One Blackpool resident described to gallery staff how her cousin in Italy had found out about the exhibition, and audience research shows how people travelled from across the UK to see the exhibition, including as far away as Cornwall, Devon, London and Nottingham.

For over 100 years, the Grundy has played a vital and unique role in Blackpool’s arts, heritage and tourism offer and is the only municipal art gallery until Preston.

Research shows that many visits to the gallery are made by individuals who come specifically to Blackpool to visit or participate in the gallery’s exhibition programme and events. The gallery also encourages visitors to the town outside of the traditional tourist season and, during the season, invites people to venture beyond the usual beach and seaside amusements and explore further into the town.

After a four month run, NEON: The Charged Line is now closed and the galleries will re-open on 28 January with the Blackpool Art Fayre which includes an exhibition of new and recent acquisitions from the Grundy Collection and an open submission for residents of the Blackpool and Fylde coast.