With a landscape as beautiful and diverse as ours, and with culture seeping out of every pore, its no surprise that art in Norfolk & Suffolk has emerged out of venues, galleries and museums and into public spaces from town walls and bus stops to parks and beaches.
Lynn Chadwick’s Beasts and Tatlin’s Tower at the Sainsbury Centre Sculpture Park. Photo Andy Crouch
Sainsbury Centre Sculpture Park, Norwich
The Norman Foster designed Sainsbury Centre is situated on the campus of the University of East Anglia – itself an architectural gem that is largely built in a Brutalist style. Inside the museum, a permanent collection ranging from ancient art to modern and contemporary work sits alongside a vibrant programme of temporary exhibitions. But it is outside – stretching across a grassy broad and around the lake – where you will find some of the Sainsbury Centre’s most striking work. Approaching the building, visitors cannot fail to notice Lynn Chadwick’s stainless steel Beasts, or a reconstruction of artist Vladimir Tatlin’s Tower (that he famously never completed) which cuts into the sky like a giant red helter skelter.
There are over 20 sculptures to see, with work by artists including Henry Moore, Elisabeth Frinck and Anthony Gormley. Download a map from the website, or pick one up at Reception, and explore!
sainsburycentre.ac.uk/sculpture-park
Maggi Hambling’s Scallop, Aldeburgh
Installed in 2003, Maggi Hambling’s steel scallop rises from the beach near Aldeburgh. The sculpture is a tribute to composer Benjamin Britten, who lived in Aldeburgh and walked along this stretch of beach every day. Hambling is an ardent fan of Britten’s work and the sculpture bears a quote – ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’ – from her favourite of all his works, opera Peter Grimes.
Challenging to build and largely self-funded, the work was a true labour of love for the artist, to commemorate Britten’s life and work, and as a gift to beach users. The scallop is designed not just as a visual installation, Hambling intended for it to be sat upon, crept under, used as a shelter from the weather and a place to contemplate the sea.
Where to see the Scallop
Banksy’s Great British Spraycation, across the coast from Cromer to Lowestoft
In summer 2021, infamous grafitti artist Banksy decorated seaside towns across Norfolk and Suffolk with art that paid homage to great British holidays, with Banksy’s trademark humour and a distinct political edge.
On Admiralty Road in Great Yarmouth, a couple dance on the roof of a bus stop, accompanied by a weary accordionist, whose feet dangle off the edge of the shelter. Along the coast in Gorleston, a giant arcade machine claw dangles ominously over a seafront bench.
On Lowestoft Beach, a rat kicks back with a cocktail. And the really eagle-eyed might still be able to see the faint outlines of hermit crabs on the sea wall on Cromer – who have been gradually washed away by the incoming tides.
Find out more about the Great British Spraycation
Ipswich Town Centre’s Wild Walls
Ipswich has so many murals and pieces of street art, that in 2024 a Festival – Wild Walls – was created to celebrate. An accompanying trail lists over 20 pieces of street art, along a route that is over 5 miles.
Opposite the Corn Exchange and King Street Cinema, a hedgehog peeps out from the side of a building. At The Hold – home to Suffolk Archives – a giant stag beetles appears to scuttle along the wall, and brightly coloured murals line up along the Waterfront close to DanceEast. Many of these artworks have been developed out of community work – and tell stories personal to those living in the town, or raise talking points about politics, or the climate crisis.
Whether simply aesthetic, or with a deeper meaning, the work lends a unique character to Ipswich, and make a great way to explore the town.
Download the Wild Walls Street Art Trail
Houghton Hall and Estate, Nr King’s Lynn
(Seasonal Opening, Spring – Autumn)
Every year, Houghton hosts an exhibition of work by a single artist. Pieces are installed around the Estate – across manicured lawns and through trees – and into the rooms of the Hall. Contemporary work complements – or is juxtaposed with – the state rooms older and more traditional objects, and brightens up the sweeping skyline. Artists celebrated in this way include Damien Hirst, Anthony Gormley, Richard Long and Anish Kapoor.
Alongside this changing annual programme, Houghton is home to a permanent sculpture that in itself is worth a visit. Skyspace, by the American artist James Turrell, was the first of these to be commissioned in 2000. Climb up to this peaceful space and look up at Norfolk’s famous big skies. As you explore the woods, look for Rachel Whiteread’s concrete Houghton Hut that sits, very naturally, in a small copse. In the deer park, Richard Long’s striking White Deer Circle is formed of tree stumps, with echoes of Seahenge – a mysterious Bronze Age monument discovered on a beach a few miles from Houghton in the late 90s.
