Sarah McCrory, the director of the Glasgow International festival, has been appointed director of the new contemporary art gallery at Goldsmiths college in south-east London. The inaugural show in the public space at the heart of the campus is due to open early 2018.
The London-based architects Assemble, who won the Turner Prize in 2015, were selected in 2014 to convert former public baths and Victorian water tanks on site in to the new 1,000 sq. m gallery. “Many of the baths’ cast-iron water tanks will be preserved, whilst new top-lit galleries will be inserted to provide a distinct spatial counterpoint,” say the architects on their website.
McCrory, formerly the director of Frieze Projects, says in a statement: “This new gallery will become a vital research tool, a place for innovative new commissions, presentations of historical positions and reflections on our challenging and rapidly changing times.”
She organised two editions of Glasgow International in 2014 and 2016. Last year’s festival included works by Claire Barclay, Helen Johnson and Sheila Hicks. McCrory also co-founded Open School East, an art school which provides free tuition and workspaces for artists, and was on the selection committee for the British pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
Goldsmiths, part of the University of London, is home to one of the UK’s leading art schools, with Michael Craig-Martin, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Antony Gormley among its alumni.
