Art awaydays out of London

Milton Keynes Gallery 38 mins from London
The current show (ends June 21) pays homage to quixotic American conceptualist James Lee Byars (1932-1997), famed for such fleeting performances as wafting a vial of perfume or writing a letter. As well as a penchant for masks and capes, Byars loved gold lamé and red roses - installations of both feature here - but most of all he adored Venice, where the MKG is holding a concurrent programme of his crowning performances 'Five Points Make a Man'. The last of these saw him stage his own death in a gold room, where he lay, also top-to-toe in gold.
Milton Keynes Gallery, 900 Midsummer Boulevard 01908 676 900, www.mk-g.org

Kettle's Yard, Cambridge 50 mins
Founded in the 50s by Tate's first modern art curator Jim Ede, Kettle's Yard is an early example of an art collector opening up his home and collection to the public. Alongside the permanent displays of wonderful art and furniture in Ede's former home, the adjacent gallery, added in 1970, is currently showing 'Material Intelligence' (ends July 12) featuring new sculpture and video made from a variety of different 'stuff' by eight artists including Tony Feher (plastic bottles), Matt Calderwood (lemons) and Karla Black (fake tan). Back in London, it's possible to enjoy a Kettle's Yard taster in Tate Britain's display (until June 14) of objects from the collection to help fundraise for future development.
Kettle's Yard, Castle Street 01223 748100, www.kettlesyard.co.uk

Modern Art Oxford 57 mins
Political art with a small 'p' makes the current group exhibition, 'Transmission Interrupted' (ends June 21), a more thought-provoking affair than most tub-thumping, sloganeering shows. Michael Rakowitz has remade objects looted from the Baghdad Museum in a cheap and cheerful fashion but employed a professional curator to present them thematically - a heartbreaking statement on cultural loss. Adel Abdessemed's terracotta car shell also speaks of craftsmanship's increasingly futile legacy, while Kosovan Sislej Xhafa subverts the environmental impact of the tourist trade in Oxford by pushing his 'Elegant Sick Bus' around town, by hand. Moving and elegant
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street 01865 722733, www.modernartoxford.org.uk

Towner Gallery, Eastbourne 1 hr 27 mins
Ditching its previously modest home, the Towner now occupies a slick new Rick Mather structure in this seaside's town's burgeoning cultural quarter. From its glass frontage and sedate café to the giant lift and lightbox gallery spaces, the industrial feel brings the collection kicking and screaming into modern times. Don't let the concrete and zinc put you off its finer qualities, however: wonderful watercolours by Eric Ravilious sit nicely alongside contemporary landscapes by Marine Hugonnier. Also avoid contemplating a rest on Iván Navarro's electric deckchair, entitled, 'You Sit, You Die' (until June 20).
Towner, Devonshire Park 01323 434 660, www.townereastbourne.org.uk

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester 1 hour 32 mins
Another former domestic residence (a Queen Anne town house dating from 1712) with a contemporary gallery attached, Pallant House is home to bequests from a collection of art collectors whose donations range from international old masters to British pop. The first in a series of Artwise curated commissions 'Contemporary Eye: Material Matters' (ends July 26) places contemporary works among the existing displays in the gallery, including artist collective Wokmedia's installation 'A New Breed', consisting of 24 suspended and shattered porcelain eggs, whose interiors have been painted with traditional Chinese erotic art.
Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant 01243 774557, www.pallant.org.uk

Turner Contemporary, Margate 1 hour 41 mins
Having survived the dubious honour of a marketing makeover by contestants from TV's 'The Apprentice', Margate is promoting its cultural credentials in the lead-up to the opening of a flagship art centre, Turner Contemporary, in 2011. In the interim, a former M&S store plays host to cross-cultural art by 30 artists in 'The Sound of Music', with David Blandy's new video-in-a-hut 'Crossroads' (both end June 14) delving into the mythology of legendary Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson. While banking on the fact that JMW Turner spent his schooldays in Margate, it's the misspent youth of YBA artist Tracey Emin that the seaside resort is most infamous for
Turner Contemporary Project Space, 53-57 The High Street 01843 280261, www.turnercontemporary.org