Edward Gillman on Strengthening Chisenhale Gallery’s Ties to London

Andrew Durbin Your appointment as director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery comes at a moment of great difficulty for UK institutions.

Edward Gillman Institutions across the England, but particularly in London, are facing challenges in how they retain relevance to audiences and accountability to artists living and working within their immediate locale. Fifteen years of government austerity and the restructuring of statutory funding systems in the UK has meant that many institutions have built business models through new forms of international income, which has recast curatorial strategies and impacted which artists have recourse to opportunities to exhibit in local institutions.

The question for all institutions is: How can we respond to this ongoing financial challenge whilst working together to ensure a greater sense of belonging for local artists? I am particularly interested in tackling this issue as the new director of Chisenhale Gallery, building on its legacy as an essential meeting point where key artistic voices from the city shape its programme and drive participation.

AD What excites you about London right now?

EG The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the city socially and creatively. I am witnessing greater levels of cross-pollination between contemporary art and wider forms of cultural production, from fashion to music and nightlife. London has always been famous for fostering meeting points between disciplines, but it feels as though the heightened precarity of the post-Brexit and post-pandemic moment has demanded new forms of solidarity, resourcefulness and collective experimentation. As director of Chisenhale Gallery, my approach will be to build a strategy that embraces this exciting sense of urgency, deepening relationships with the institution’s supporter community and building partnerships across sectors that centre collective resilience.

AD Are there aspects of Chisenhale Gallery’s legacy that you’re thinking about as you take the helm?

EG The gallery has a distinguished history as one of London’s most innovative forums for contemporary art. I want to build on its track record as a laboratory for talent development rooted in diverse critical thinking and experimental practice. I will be continuing to focus on the production of major new solo commissions by early-career artists who are at pivotal moments in their practice and who are seen as key drivers of discourse. My attention will be on carrying this legacy forward while ensuring that the institution rises to external challenges and is able to continue providing the structure and facilities artists need to produce bold, ambitious projects.

AD Are there other ways you’re hoping to expand the gallery’s reach to bring people together?

EG I am interested in testing methods of public programming that can help forge a sense of community for artists and arts audiences within the institution’s immediate locality. I would like to see Chisenhale Gallery used more regularly as a social environment in which people come together to experience contemporary art within expanded formats, going further than traditional academically driven talks and events.

This work will really be about questioning how the institution reflects and interacts with diverse types of audience and examining ways of building programmes that enable those audiences to view the gallery as a social meeting place. Museums have been exploring these questions around purpose and audience for some time, and I think the question now is: How can mid-scale institutions facilitate these forms of engagement whilst also retaining focus on producing experimental, discourse-driven practice?

AD Do you see your directorship as a kind of advocacy for London and for younger artists?

EG As director of Chisenhale Gallery, I will be seeking to build on a project that has been in development over the past five years to explore new methods of partnership between institutions as a means of securing the resources that younger artists need to create work.

Traditionally, institutions of comparative economic scale have worked together through co-production or touring agreements. I am interested in taking this further and have been exploring methods of collaboration that are ideas-driven and recognize wider forms of resource and expertise – from the specialist knowledge held within community-led spaces to the structural and financial resources available to national-scale institutions. My aim is to deepen and amplify this work, contributing to conversations about institutional practice that enhance the relevance and impact of institutions for younger artists.

_{Main image: Portrait of Edward Gillman, 2025. Photograph: Ottilie Landmark}