insideKENT Magazine Issue 27 - June 2014 | Page 28

ARTS

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Nucleus Arts – A Legacy

BY DALIA HALPERN-MATTHEWS, DIRECTOR OF NUCLEUS ARTS

It is hard to believe that 12 years have passed since that momentous day when I first saw a very sorry looking
building with rubbish piled up in front, a hundred toilets (actually it only seemed like that many when we were
trying to clean them to make the building presentable), and several deserted vehicles on the tarmac forecourt.
So why was I there that day, waiting to meet
various people from the Council and the Arts
Council? Well, my father, Hilary Halpern, wanted
to return to his first love in his r
etirement: sculpture.
He thought that there would be plenty of arts
facilities that he could use in the Medway area,
but he thought wrong. Despite the number of
creative people living and working in Medway,
there really was nowhere that provided studios,
allowed artists to get together to discuss and
develop their work and offered affordable and
accessible exhibiting space.
So there I was, with an empty building and
very little in the way of funds. Not to be daunted,
we scrubbed, arranged rubbish clearance, and
towed away cars. I left leaflets all over Medway,
in libraries, AECs, colleges, and ended up with
a list of over 100 artists. Three months later,

on June 22nd 2002, the New Art Centre opened
its doors for the first time.
So, do we still look the same after 12 years?
Absolutely not! We’ve completed several
refurbishments of the outside space, café and
gallery, purchased our second building, created
the Rochester and Maidstone retail shops and
now the inclusion of Café Nucleus pods in each
location; plus of course the Creative Riverside
Hub, successfully opened last September. We’ve
even been through a gradual name change, from
the New Art Centre, to the NAC, and Nucleus
Art Centre bringing us to where we are now.
Nucleus Arts. Has a nice ring about it, don’t you
think?
We now have close to 50 artists working
out of studios in three of our locations; 104 artists
exhibiting at any one time in our shops; and

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around 30 exhibitions in our main gallery of work
from local, national and international artists.
Every year we like to celebrate in style, and
this year we are not just doing this once, but four
times! On June 14th we will be having even more
free fun, alongside FUSE. The programme will
feature an eclectic range of music in addition to
other performing acts – keep an eye on our
website for details www.nucleusarts.com. July
12th sees ArtsFest 3, tying in with the River
Festival, and then we’ll have our welcome back
event on September 13th. And of course our
artists will be holding Open Studios on each of
these dates. Can you afford to miss it?
www.nucleusarts.com
@nucleusarts

/nucleusarts