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Charleston

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Charleston

Community | Art | Ideas
Charleston in Firle: BN8 6LL
Charleston in Lewes: BN7 1AB
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The modernist home and studio of the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Charleston was a gathering point for some of the 20th century’s most radical artists, writers and thinkers known collectively as the Bloomsbury group. It is where they came together to imagine society differently, and has always been a place where art and experimental thinking are at the centre of everyday life. Today, we

present a dynamic year-round programme of exhibitions, events and festivals. We believe in the power of art, in all its forms, to provoke new ways of thinking and living.

07/07/2026

Join Afri.Co.Lab for Breathe Play Laugh, a day of restorative play at Charleston in Firle.

An act of community care for Global Majority folks, whose work or life means they are often holding space, taking responsibility for others and struggling to find space for themselves.

Whether in your professional life as an artist, creative, organiser, activist, therapist, carer, facilitator or you have caring responsibilities outside of your work (this list is not exhaustive), this is a day for you to fill your cup.

The team will look after you from start to finish, all you need to do is book and get to their designated meeting point, where travel is provided. There will be drinks and snacks available throughout the day, including a nourishing meal at lunch time, and a printmaking workshop lead by Morokoth

📅 Monday 20 July
🎟 Book free tickets via link in bio Afri.Co.Lab

26/06/2026

💫Your day, your price…

Join us this Sunday for our monthly ‘Pay What You Can Day’ at Charleston in Lewes on Sunday 28 June.

Come along for a free family workshop or see our current exhibitions in Lewes at a price that suits you!

Explore ‘Gladys Hynes: Radical Lives’, an exhibition tracing the life, art and politics of an artist who has been largely forgotten.

Discover ‘Walter Sickert: Working Notes’, a fresh perspective on one of the most provocative British artists in the early twentieth century through his etchings, drawings and preparatory works.

These monthly community days open up our exhibitions to everyone, offering a creative respite and inspiration – either for free or with a donation of your choice.

🎟️ Book your tickets at the link in our bio.
📸Photograph: Lee Robbins

24/06/2026

🎨 Join us at Charleston in Lewes this Sunday for our monthly Pay What You Can day, and get creative at a FREE hands-on family workshop.

🖼 Explore our exhibitions and get inspired, or head to the learning studio and meet our friendly learning team who are leading a collaging activity.

✂️ Experiment with different materials to create your own collage of a dream space. Somewhere small and cosy just for you, or work with others to create a giant landscape – somewhere everyone is welcome!

✨️Suitable for children aged 5+
🕑 Drop in any time between 1-3.30pm

22/06/2026

We’re delighted to announce that Charleston has been shortlisted for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2026 in the Best Museum Careers Initiative category.

The nomination recognises our partnership with East Sussex College, through which Creative Industries students gain hands-on experience working alongside teams across Charleston on exhibitions, learning, marketing and collections.
Together, we've been creating meaningful opportunities for young people to develop skills, build confidence and explore careers in the creative industries through real projects with public impact.

Thanks to this initiative we are welcoming over 600 young people from Lewes, Newhaven, Eastbourne and Hastings per year, equating to 15,000 work experience hours.

Read more about the project via the News link in our bio.

Kids in Museums
East Sussex College
Lewes District Council

21/06/2026

☀️This summer solstice, we’re still looking ahead to long summer days!

📆From 22 July to 6 September, Charleston will be open every day of the week with a packed programme of events, exhibitions and special ticket offers!

🏃Both Charleston in Lewes and Charleston in Firle will be open 7 days a week giving you access to the House, Gardens, exhibitions, Cafés and Shops every day.

🚌We are just one hour by train from London and 30 minutes from Brighton, and you can travel between our sites on our hop-on-hop-off Sussex Art Shuttle bus too!

🎟️ We are also launching new £10 all access tickets for Under 30s which grant you entry to all our exhibitions as well as the House in Firle!

🔗Explore the programme and book your tickets via the link in our bio

18/06/2026

📣Just announced: Tilda Swinton, Susie and Nick Cave, Bob Geldof and more join us for Summer at Charleston

We’re thrilled to reveal an exceptional line-up of speakers for our summer programme. These intimate events form part of Summer at Charleston, which also sees the House, Gardens and Galleries at both sites opening seven days a week, 10am–5pm, from 22 July to 6 September.

⚡️Tilda Swinton in Conversation with Jefferson Hack

⚡️Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art with Daisy Dixon

⚡️Call Me by Your Name with André Aciman and Sarah Maxwell

⚡️Art of Opposition with Courttia Newland

⚡️SUSIE: Susie and Nick Cave in Conversation

⚡️The Uncommon Eye: Sue Timney with Bob Geldof

⚡️Bad Taste with Ione Gamble, Gina Tonic and Yomi Adegoke

⭐️ Don’t want to miss out? Become a Festival Friend and get access to 48 hours of priority booking.

🔗 See the Summer at Charleston link in bio

🎟️Priority booking from 10 am, Tuesday 23 June
🎟️ General sale from 10 am, Thursday 25 June

17/06/2026

☀️This midsummer’s eve, pianist Melvyn Tan is joined by acclaimed actor Greta Scacchi for a magical evening of music and words.

Texts by Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, T. S. Eliot and John Clare weave together with music by Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Schubert, tracing the shifting light and long summer shadows of the year’s longest day.

At the heart of the programme is Schubert’s Piano Sonata in G major, performed in its bicentenary year, one of the composer’s best-loved and most expansive works.

🎟️Book your tickets via the ‘Events’ link in our bio

07/06/2026

🎨This week we celebrated the work of Year 9 learners from Seahaven Academy and Priory School in their exhibition ‘Reimagine’ at Charleston in Firle.

Led by artists India Harvey and Rachel Sale, the young people explored Charleston’s house, garden and exhibitions, taking inspiration from the Bloomsbury group’s belief in living authentically, taking risks and imagining society differently. The project ended with learners burying a time capsule at Charleston containing their visions for the future.

📆Their work is on display and free to visit until 11 October. No need to book.

👉If you work with young people and want to bring the Bloomsbury group’s ideas into your own practice, India Harvey is delivering a CPD session at Charleston on 24 June at 4.30pm. The session is open to teachers, educators, social workers and youth workers. Book your ticket via the link in our bio.

💚With thanks to Emma Taylor, Alice Brookes-Smith and Rosy Lawrence.

05/06/2026

🧑‍🎨 A painter, sculptor, illustrator, book jacket designer, pacifist, feminist, suffragist and Irish Republican, Gladys Hynes lived many lives within one lifetime which the range of her work reflects.

This selection of works from the exhibition demonstrates that breadth.

In 1916, after her brothers were sent to war, Hynes joined the Newlyn School in Cornwall, a community of artists committed to painting life as it was actually lived. She painted ‘Morning’ from Lamorna Cove, depicting a group of women in a moment of calm and solidarity as Britain was consumed by war.

Her politics ran through everything. ‘The Chalk Quarry’ captures the economic strain of wartime Britain, while ‘A Penny for the Guy’ points the finger at the powerful men she believed drove conflict. By 1941, ‘Resurgimus’ painted hope out of the rubble of the Blitz.

Not just a skilled painter, Hynes turned her hand to book jacket design when money got tight, illustrated Ezra Pound’s modernist epic ‘The Cantos’ with such intricacy that she compared the work to that of the monks who made the ‘Book of Kells’. She moved through circles such as the Bloomsbury group’s Omega Workshops, Vorticism and Surrealism, sculpting, designing and drawing.

📍These works and more are brought together for the first time in ‘Gladys Hynes: Radical Lives’, open now at Charleston in Lewes.

🎟️Book your tickets via the link in our bio.
🎟️Want more of Gladys Hynes? Join curator Sacha Llewellyn on 16 July to explore Hynes’ remarkable life and to reconsider her place within the modernist canon.

🔗Philippa Conlon’s review of the exhibition for Apollo Magazine today further explores the breadth of Hynes’s work. Read the article: ‘On The Artist: Gladys Hynes: feminist, pacifist, flake?’ at www.apollo-magazibe.com

04/06/2026

🔦Charleston has many hidden histories...

From 6 June, our new interactive installation, ‘Cracked’, invites you to take a seat at the table and piece together Charleston’s hidden histories of madness.

From Virginia Woolf to Grace Higgins, this installation draws on the lived experiences of 12 historic people connected to Charleston. Featuring sound sculptures, found poems and illustrations alongside a set of plates inspired by the ‘Famous Women Dinner Service’, it celebrates women and homosexual individuals whose experiences of madness resonate through the house.

🎟️ Free to visit, no need to book.
📍 Open from 6 June at Charleston in Firle
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio.

‘Cracked’ is curated by Charleston’s Curating Visibility Fellow, .mcmichael, and co-produced by the Mad Heritage Collective, in partnership with , Accentuate and .south, funded by (Arts Council England).

Please be aware that this installation deals with challenging content including references to su***de, abuse, psychiatric institutionalisation and trauma. Swipe to see a full content list or visit the link in our bio.

Neurodivergent Mad

Address

Off A27
Lewes
BN86LL

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441323811626

Website

http://www.charleston.org.uk/

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