A new centre for culture and contemporary art launched this weekend in Durham, northeast England, with an exhibition of work by leading contemporary artists including Tracey Emin, Dan Flavin and Chila Burman. The Light opened on 22 August in the repurposed building of the former Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum and Art Gallery, with three galleries for temporary and touring exhibitions and a permanent display on the DLI’s history.
The space’s new name is in part a nod to the county’s light-related history, from the creation of the lunar calendar in the region 1,300 years ago by the scholar Bede and local Joseph Swan’s invention of the electric light bulb in the 19th century, to Durham University’s recent involvement in the creation of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
One gallery is home to the permanent display We Are The Durhams: The Durham Light Infantry Exhibition Courtesy of The Light
The Light’s director Tony Guillan says that the vision for the centre’s future is focused on combining contemporary creativity with local history, science and technology. The medium of light acts as “a vehicle of inquiry, and a way of perceiving and situating ourselves in the world. Especially when issues such as AI, ecology and the environment mean the centre must be outward looking while firmly grounded in its locality,” he adds. The space will also run an “ambitious programme of exhibitions, events, immersive experiences and new commissions,” according to a statement. The museum and the DLI display is free to enter, with ticket fees applying to temporary exhibitions and events.
The inaugural exhibition Victory Over the Sun: Encounters with Light (until 17 January 2027), curated by Natasha Howes, looks at artists who have used light in their work from the 1960s to today, such as Flavin, Emin, McQueen, Olafur Eliasson, Liz West and Chila Burman. The show includes an interactive commission by Tine Bech and a new work by Katrin Hanusch that respond to the architecture of the gallery using broken laptop screens. “Light art is an accessible and immersive medium, affording sensory, colourful and atmospheric experiences which can be enjoyed by everyone,” Howes says.
The Modernist architecture of the former Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum and Art Gallery has been redeveloped and extended by the architects NORR Courtesy of The Light
Redevelopment
The DLI Museum and Art Gallery closed in 2016 after Durham County Council declared it “too expensive to maintain“, leading to petitions from descendants of DLI veterans. Apart the items on display in the permanent interactive gallery at The Light, the DLI collection has been relocated to the nearby museum The Story.
The Light’s original 1960s architecture has been remodelled and extended by the award-winning architects NORR. Standing within in its mature landscape architecture, glass has been utilised to bring the outside in.
Costing £17m, the new museum represents a significant investment in regional arts infrastructure and is part of the wider ‘Durham Innovation District’ long-term strategy, Guillan tells The Art Newspaper. Durham Council is the primary funder, along with the urban regeneration partner MUSE and the Arts Council, he adds. “A cultural centre has to be all things to everyone when operating in today’s challenging financial climate,” Guillan says.
The Light brings back a luminosity to Durham that was, in part, lost due to the 2025 closure of the Lumiere Festival as part of cost-cutting measures announced by the previous Lib Dem-Conservative coalition council; it is now run by Reform.
