Newhaven Open Call 2026
The Newhaven Open Call exhibition with 200 artists taking part is at BN9 Studio, Marine Workshops, Newhaven, BN9 0ER and runs until Sunday 29 March, open Thursday – Saturday 10am – 4pm and Sunday 10am -3pm.
Marine Workshops is a 4 minute walk from the train station; there is also parking nearby in front of Newhaven Railway Club.
See the most recent Newhaven Open Call 2024 which was a huge celebration of everyone’s creativity through contemporary art and part of Lewes District Council’s Artwave festival.
In 2018 the first Newhaven Open Call took place in the then UTC Riverside, now Marine Workshops, with about 60 people taking part. Organised by artists working in Newhaven, it was a call out to see who else is making art ‘out there’.
Making art can be an isolated experience and it would be interesting to see if we could bring people together. It was also apparent that many people, who haven’t been to Art Schools, do in fact make art work at home too, and just might enjoy being involved.
But it was important that this was going to be free to take part, and with no usual selection process nor picking any ‘winners’. We created a coming together of communities to celebrate and share everyone’s creativity.
With the closure of the Marine Workshops building in 2019 the Open Call was held in rooms above The Ship Hotel in the High Street and also included repurposing empty shops as exhibition spaces with participant numbers growing to over 120 in 2021.
The 2024 event saw over 220 people taking part. Additionally, over the years we have included art made during workshops for communities, led by professional artists. This has included the Newhaven Wellbeing Centre, MENCAP and youth groups at SCDA and much of this work has been supported by Arts Council England, Newhaven Enterprise Zone and Sussex Community Foundation.
Art really does have a power to change places and peoples lives.
