The keenly anticipated Jerwood Gallery in Hastings will open its doors to visitors in March 2012. Designed by young architectural practice HAT Projects, the Gallery will house the Foundation’s collection of 20th and 21st century paintings, which will be on public display for the first time.

The Gallery is part of a landmark £9million redevelopment of the Stade, a historic area in Hasting’s Old Town, home to Europe’s largest beach-launched fishing fleet. The £4million gallery, for which the capital and running costs will be entirely funded by the Jerwood Foundation, is seen as an important catalyst in the cultural and economic regeneration of the area.

The Jerwood Gallery is part of a masterplan for the landmark location of the Stade in Hastings. The Gallery will provide the permanent home for the Jerwood Collection and a new regional venue for the Jerwood Visual Arts Programme, which comprises some of the most prominent visual arts awards in the UK. It will establish Hastings in the ‘string of pearls’ of prestigious cultural attractions along the South Coast, which includes the Turner Contemporary at Margate, the Folkestone Triennial, the Towner in Eastbourne, De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill and Pallant House at Chichester.

Alan Grieve, Chairman of the Jerwood Foundation said of the project:This is the culmination of the initiative to make a new home for Jerwood’s collection of 20th and 21st century art and place it in the public domain for the first time. Hastings is linked with a number of artists featured in the collection. With its rich history and strong, ever-expanding artistic community we felt that Hastings was the perfect location for the Gallery.

The Jerwood Gallery will open with the UK’s first retrospective of the works of Kent-based artist Rose Wylie, in partnership with the Union Gallery, London. Rose has just been awarded the 2011 Paul Hamlyn Prize for Visual Arts. Rose is no stranger to the Jerwood Foundation, having been shortlisted for its Painting Prize in 1997 and featuring in the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2003.

Liz Gilmore, Director of Jerwood Gallery said: We are delighted to celebrate Rose Wylie’s contribution to painting through our inaugural show. Rose sets the direction for all our future exhibitions: to recognise creative talent and nurture what is most significant and important to both artists and visitors. The contemporary programme will complement Jerwood’s Collection of Modern British Art, which itself is live and growing and a source of inspiration for artists today.

As the new home of the Jerwood Collection, the Gallery will feature work by British artists from the 20th and 21st century. These include works by well known artists such as Sir Stanley Spencer RA, Lawrence Stephen Lowry RA, and Augustus John OM, RA, alongside works from winners ofthe Jerwood Painting Prize, Craigie Aitchison, RA, Maggi Hambling OBE, Patrick Caulfield and Prunella Clough. The Gallery will take on both regional and national significance as the venue for many of the exhibitions that run through the Jerwood Visual Arts Programme. This currently includes the Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Contemporary Makers, Jerwood Contemporary Painters and the Encounters Series, a sequence of smaller, cross-disciplinary shows. These exhibitions show the best emerging artists from around Britain, and are widely recognised as a place to discover ‘rising stars’ in contemporary arts.

HAT Projects’ design for the Gallery has grown out of a response to the particular requirements of the Jerwood Collection and the character of the site. The building sits among the unique Hastings net shops, on the edge of the working fishing beach, and the exterior is clad in over 8000 black ceramic tiles, hand-glazed a few miles away in Kent, which reflect the changing seaside light. The emphasis on sustainability is exemplary, with the building creating 60% less CO2 per m2 than an average museum of a comparable size. It houses a range of gallery spaces from intimate rooms through to a dramatic 180m2 gallery for the temporary exhibition programme.

In line with Jerwood Foundation’s firm belief that arts and education are intrinsically linked, the Gallery will benefit local communities through outreach activities and by enabling its use as a resource for local schools, colleges and community groups. The Jerwood Foundation has been involved in a number of projects in Hastings leading up to the Gallery development. The Foundation sponsored both the Hastings’ Sea Angling Festival in 2010 and 2011 and the new Sussex Arts Prize at the Sussex Coast College in July 2010. Plans are now underway for an ambassador programme involving a young representative from every school in Hastings and film collaboration with Project Artworks, which will capture the uninhabited Jerwood Gallery in a way that provides poetic and intimate insight into its spaces.