Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich

On Monday, July 12, we visited the Stephen Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich. We took a boat on the Thames to get to Greenwich, as it isn't easily accessible by tube or bus. We were a bit late due to a misunderstanding--apparently the Stephen Lawrence Gallery is not in the Stephen Lawrence building at the University of Greenwich. We were greeted with a brightly colored exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculpture--most of the art showed abstract influences, but I feel that I'll fail in actually doing the pieces justice here, so if anyone reads this and would like to see some of them, I might have a brochure that you can look at.

The gallery was established in 2000 as a place to display art for the University of Greenwich. The way that the gallery was named is a rather sad story. In 1993, Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager from Eltham in southeast London, was murdered at a bus stop. It soon became evident that the teenagers who perpetrated the crime would  not be prosecuted because they were the sons of wealthy families; this led to press outcry about the injustice surrounding this crime. Because of this, the government carried out an investigation of the crime and it found that there was "institutionalized racism" pervading all sectors of English society, including the police, and that all organizations should analyze their structures. At this time, Doreen Lawrence, Stephen's mother was working at the University of Greenwich, and it was proposed that a gallery be founded in order to create a positive area where diversity could be promoted through art created by young people of varying backgrounds. The gallery attempts to reach as wide of an audience as possible, and promotes all types of visual representation, including painting, sculpture, graphic design, and architecture.

Old Royal Naval College, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Royal_Naval_College

The exhibition that was being shown while we were there was called "Uncaught Hares: Painting and Sculpture at Greenwich Studios, 1974-1994." It was all of local artists, many of whom had been a part of the studio movement of the 1970s, during which a large number of artists banded together to create studios in abandoned industrial buildings in the dockyards of Greenwich. After prosperity came back to industry, and the Greenwich Studios were closed in 1994,  an organization called Art in Perpetuity Trust was created and now helps to provide artists with studio space in the London area by buying up old buildings and renting them out to young artists. Previous exhibitions include archival materials relating to artists movements in Greenwich, as well as other exhibitions of art which can be viewed here.

The gallery is open to the public and is free for them to browse. The artworks contained within the gallery are available for sale. The man who manages the gallery brings in other curators to actually hang and arrange the artworks.

Today, we also toured the Old Royal Naval College, in which the Stephen Lawrence Gallery now is housed. The buildings were first royal palaces, built by Henry VII on the Thames because they allowed invasion routes to be monitored easily. Tudor queens Mary I and Elizabeth I were both born here. The buildings that now stand in the area were designed by Christopher Wren in the late 1600s and early 1700s. They then were used as a home for naval pensioners, much like veteran's homes that we have in the States, from about 1705 until 1869. The navy then used the buildings as a place to train naval officers until they gave up the lease to the property in 1998; it now houses the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music. 

Great Painted Hall, from Wikipedia

The most interesting place that we visited, I thought, was the Great Painted Hall, which was painted by James Thornhill in the 18th century. The walls actually look like they are carved rather than painted. The hall was to be a dining hall for the naval pensioners living in the college at that time; however, they felt uncomfortable dining in such a lavish area, and continued to dine in the more modest basement. The hall was used recently for filming and can be seen in the opening scene of the newest Pirates of the Caribbean film. They had Johnny Depp's costume on display while we were there. We also got to see an old bowling alley in the basement of one of the buildings.



Chapel, From Wikipedia



We also got to see the chapel of the Old Royal Naval College, which was quite beautiful. There is a painting by American painter Benjamin West above the altar, who was the second president of the British Royal Academy and was considered the "American Raphael". The ceiling of the chapel was one of the most gorgeous that I've seen anywhere in England, with intricate detailing.