Our exhibitions and events are completely free to access, and open to all. Inside the Bonington Building, you’ll find our main gallery space, the Bonington Vitrines –
micro-exhibitions in display cases, a cabinet showcasing highlights from our archive, and satellite exhibitions in our atrium space. As well as our exhibitions, we offer an events programme of talks, workshops, film screenings and performances. If you can’t make it to the Gallery then don’t worry, there are plenty of online events for you to join from wherever in the world you are.
Founded in 1969, Bonington Gallery has been at the forefront of Nottingham’s rich and vibrant visual arts community for over fifty years, offering an innovative and dynamic programme of local, national, and international significance.
Situated at the heart of Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) School of Art & Design, the Gallery is surrounded by students and staff making, critiquing, designing and researching across a wide range of creative disciplines. This ‘art school’ context is reflected throughout our
multi-disciplinary programme of exhibitions and events – presenting and exploring practices related to visual art, fashion, film, music and design. Beyond our building, our connections with colleagues in academic subject areas help ground our programme and thinking within past, present and future cultural and societal discourse.
Visit our online archive to discover more. With over fifty years of history to digitise, this is an ongoing project with new content being added all the time.
Bonington Gallery was constructed in 1969 as part of the new purpose-built School of Art & Design Bonington Building at Nottingham Trent University (then Trent Polytechnic).
The design for the building was led by Peter Spring, an architecture student from the old Nottingham College who understood the practical needs of students, as well as the importance of creating a shared space that could encourage both social and collaborative opportunities. This spirit of generosity expanded into the Gallery, with its large 180m2 space with a 6m high ceiling, topped with its distinctive ‘waffle slab’ concrete ceiling – something shared with the Barbican Centre in London.
Discover more about the history of the Bonington Building in this Architects’ Journal article from 1971.
If you’d like to find out more about what’s coming up, sign up to our mailing list to receive regular updates. Or follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Bonington Gallery is part of NTU Arts – NTU’s extra-curricular and public arts programme.
Tom joined the gallery in 2014. Read Tom’s staff profile and biography.
Email: tom.godfrey@ntu.ac.uk
Josh joined the gallery in 2018. Read Josh’s staff profile and biography.
Beyond the core members of our team, the Gallery is supported by a wider committee including Claire Simpson (Gallery Coordinator), Aja Ireland and Laura Millward (Marketing), Duncan Higgins (Academic Chair).
Our website has been designed and developed by Smile.