Art Galleries and Exhibitions in Sussex: A Look at Charlesto

Here at Shootlab, we’re passionate about arts and culture. As a video production company working across Sussex, we spend a lot of time visiting and filming in galleries, museums, and cultural spaces throughout the county. One venue we’ve spent time exploring is the art gallery at Charleston, located in Firle, East Sussex. The gallery hosts a programme of exhibitions shaped by the legacy and creative spirit of artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, who lived and worked at Charleston for more than 50 years.

Lauren John at Charleston Valentines event

Charleston Sussex is a modernist home and studio of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant that now hosts inspiring exhibitions, talks, and events. A new exhibition space was created at Charleston, designed by Jamie Fobert Architects and opened to the public in 2018. The restored barns and new building now house an auditorium, education spaces, a set of new galleries, and a café. The venue is a popular destination for exciting exhibitions, discussions, and activities that bring people together to discuss art and ideas.

After visiting many Sussex art galleries and museums, our favorite is the Art Gallery at Charleston in Firle, East Sussex. This gallery showcases a wide range of thought-provoking exhibitions inspired by artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, who lived at Charleston for over 50 years.

Their most well-known festival is the Charleston Festival, held every year attracting artists, writers, actors, and actresses. More recently they have started Charleston Festival of the Garden, which has become a staple of the summer festival season. Held across four days during the height of summer, between 14-17 July, in the stunning grounds and garden at Charleston.

Exhibitions at Charleston Art Gallery Sussex

Shootlab has previously worked with the Charleston Trust to produce a series of short exhibition films for the art gallery at Charleston. Charleston is the former modernist home and studio of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and today operates as a museum and gallery with a year-round exhibition programme.

As part of this project, Shootlab produced three short films to support the Langlands & Bell exhibition. The films featured art and design critic Jack Self, who guided viewers through the exhibition and explored the work of the Turner Prize-nominated artists Langlands & Bell.

Video production Sussex at the Art Gallery at Charleston

Behind-the-scenes filming, inside the Charleston gallery with lighting and shooting on our Canon C70 Video cameras.

Langlands & Bell: Absent Artists Film

Curated by Langlands & Bell, ‘Absent Artists’ explores artists’ studios in which the artists themselves are conspicuously absent. The exhibition includes works by Annie Leibovitz, David Hockney, Michael Craig-Martin, William Hogarth and James Ensor in a range of different mediums including paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture and print. The exhibition draws parallels with Charleston, a private space which has been turned public in the absence of the artists who created it. The exhibition also includes an installation in the house's attic space, which was originally Vanessa Bells' studio. This space explores traces of the absent artist and considers the studio, as a place of contemplation, creation, and of retreat.

Langlands & Bell: Ideas of Utopia Film

Watch the exhibition video we produced that looks at Ideas of Utopia these artworks examine architectural spaces and how over time buildings have attempted to create utopias whether domestic, religious, social or commercial. The exhibition also considers Charleston as an important place of early modernist social experimentation and questions a building’s power to unite us, separate us, protect us, and inspire thought and creativity.

Langlands & Bell: On Role of Architecture Film

Watch the 'On Role of Architecture' art gallery video we produced for the exhibition.

‘It is through the [artists] recreation, the intense dedication and monastic focus on these buildings, that so many of their inner secrets are revealed.’

— Jack Self

Art Galleries and Exhibitions in Sussex: A Look at Charleston

Sussex is home to a wide range of art galleries and exhibition spaces, spanning historic houses, contemporary galleries, and independent cultural venues across both East and West Sussex. These spaces support a diverse programme of exhibitions, events, and artist-led projects throughout the year.

Charleston forms part of this wider cultural landscape. As a former modernist home and studio, and now a museum and gallery, it continues to host exhibitions that reflect its artistic heritage while engaging with contemporary practice. Alongside Charleston, Sussex offers many other galleries and museums worth exploring, each contributing in different ways to the region’s arts and culture scene.