East Anglia has an incredibly strong artistic tradition and continues to attract artists to live and work here with regular exhibitions of their work.
Once again, Cromer Artspace is bringing world-class, varied and innovative contemporary art to Norfolk’s seaside town. The initiative, run by a dedicated group of volunteers, organises free exhibitions in the beautiful, restored Art Deco gallery on the West Promenade, and the now annual art trail: The Bigger Picture.
The ethos of displaying art around Cromer’s streets is to present stimulating artworks without the potential barriers of visiting a traditional gallery.
Art trail and more
The 24 works selected this year are in collaboration with Towner Eastbourne, an award-winning contemporary art museum in East Sussex. They reflect a joint coastal heritage and include many 20th century works.
Each picture in the trail includes a short information board alongside the work. Further detail is available by means of the accompanying Bloomberg Connects QR code. This year all the material has been researched, written and edited by the Bigger Picture working group in collaboration with Towner Eastbourne.
A map on each information board shows the location of all 24 works, so a self-guided trail is easy for the curious to construct.
Other materials that the group have developed include colour in-postcards, audio guides and a family walking trail.
Guided walks
On a monthly basis through the summer guided short walks are available. As a leader of these walks which last about two hours, I have found preparing and getting the exhibition up and running has been such fun. It has been a privilege to visit Towner Eastbourne twice and to now see their art around Cromer, transforming the spaces.
Feedback from participants on the Bigger Picture guided walks shows they too enjoy the trails. Comments include:
“Lovely the way connections between the artists and paintings are brought together.”
“Our guide was really enthusiastic and knowledgeable.”
Collaboration
Working with Towner Eastbourne allowed Cromer Artspace to select and reproduce 24 full-size, high-quality colour artworks from their collection. Once copyright was agreed where required, the pictures were printed then mounted on aluminium making them super resilient. This offers the advantage of recycling, and has meant that works from previous exhibitions can move on to other public locations. Several are now in schools, villages halls and day centres, and work continues to explore other locations to provide ongoing benefits.
The logistics of hanging a new exhibition requires good weather and early mornings to avoid the crowds. This is done by a small team, with colleagues from the local printers.
The artists
Many of the artists featured in the Bigger Picture 2026 knew each other and were tutored or supported by the same people. An example of this is the close friendship between Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious featured in two works hung side by side on West Street.
Ravilious is portrayed by Bawden painting the famous Morley College mural which they were jointly commissioned to do, soon after being tutored by Paul Nash at the Royal College of Art. Both went on to be WWII artists with Barnett Freedman another featured artist. Sadly, Ravilious became the first British war artist to die on active service when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland.
Christopher Wood, who painted ‘Girl on a Chair’, died early at the age of 30, having produced a large body of work. His friend Lucy Wertheim bought and exhibited his work in her Burlington Mews gallery. She in turn was a friend and patron to many other young artists including Kathleen Walne and Ilsa Rodmell whose works also hang on the trail.
There are nine female artists in the Bigger Picture exhibition, four of them living. Two particularly striking works are ‘Hope Gap’ by Emma Stibbon and ‘Nowhere Fast’ by Clare Woods. Both pieces are hung in locations that slightly trick the eye. Stibbon is at the bottom of a flight of steps near the sea and the Woods inside an existing window frame at the entrance to Cromer library.
Do come and see them for yourself or go on line and take a virtual tour.
Cromer Artspace on the Prom is open 11am–4pm from March to October. More details on the free exhibitions and location may be found here.
Details of the Bigger Picture monthly guided walks, which start in May, including how to book may be found here.
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