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The Sainsbury Centre is not a gallery – it’s an art museum. That’s what it bills itself as anyway. Yes, it has an astounding collection featuring the likes of Picasso, Degas, Bacon, Moore and Lalique, but it also displays traditional crafts from Oceania, talismans from ancient Egypt and artefacts from medieval Europe. Such an extraordinarily eclectic collection is just one of the reasons Time Out named the Sainsbury Centre one of the greatest art venues in the country.
The Norwich institution is thought to have been one of the first museums in the world to display art from all around the globe and from all time periods equally and collectively. Altogether, it houses more than 1,400 items from across the world spanning 5,000 years (donated by Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury).
When it opened in 1978, the design of the centre was considered radical. Rather than following the traditional gallery layout of enclosed rooms separated by long corridors, architect Norman Foster designed the Sainsbury Centre as one big open-plan space, doing away with the idea that art had to be presented rigidly and chronologically.
The museum’s pioneering moves didn’t stop there. In 2023, it became the first museum to formally recognise art as ‘alive’ and animate. In practice, that means that visitors are encouraged to experience the works beyond just looking at them. You can hug a Henry Moore sculpture, become an artwork by stepping inside a display box, sit in a reclining chair and confide in the Giacometti painting above you or listen to music composed to pair with a particular piece in the collection.
There’s also the 350-acre sculpture park that surrounds the main building, where visitors can weave through works by Henry Moore, Elisabeth Frink, Lynn Chadwick, Liliane Lijn and Antony Gormley. All of that can be enjoyed on a pay-what-you-can basis.
Earlier this year, the centre received one of the largest donations ever made to a UK museum. It was handed a staggering donation of £91.2 million to go towards a major refurbishment. You can read more about what’s planned here.
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