Sir Antony Gormley unveils plans for new £1.8m art gallery at ‘the cradle of Britart’

The gallery will showcase the work of students at Goldsmiths, which has produced seven Turner Prize winners and 24 nominees

Antony Gormley said the gallery at Goldsmiths would be a space to ‘test-drive new forms of art’ (Getty)

The British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley and architect Sir David Chipperfield have unveiled plans for a new £1.8m art gallery to be located at Goldsmiths College University of London.

Scheduled to open in the autumn of 2016, the gallery will showcase the work of students at the 110-year-old university, once dubbed “the cradle of Britart”.

Goldsmiths graduates have been instrumental in turning contemporary art into one of the most dynamic art forms in British culture, with seven Turner Prize winners and 24 Turner Prize nominees. As well as Sir Antony, alumni of the university include Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, Gary Hume and Sarah Lucas.

Funding for the gallery will be met entirely through external donations and plans are underway for an auction of some of its alumni’s work to be held next February at Christie’s, where it is hoped the bulk of £1.8m assigned to the project will be raised.

Sir Antony said: “The arrival of a gallery is an important moment in the development of Goldsmiths. This will become a resource for the university and for London: a place where students and the wider public can experience and test-drive new forms of art as well as see relevant examples of art from the past, ancient and modern.”

He added: “It will be a place where curators can exercise their skills, artists both international and from the College can make, exhibit and discuss their work and where all the ways in which Goldsmiths extends our understanding of the culture of our time can be shared with a curious public.”

The design for the gallery was chosen after a tender from architectural firms that drew more than 80 submissions from all around the world.

The London-based collective, Assemble, was chosen by a panel with a design that will incorporate the black steel water tanks that came from the Laurie Grove baths in New Cross, south London – originally the home to Victorian swimming baths and laundries.