2011, Turner Contemporary has welcomed over 3.6 million visitors and presented over 100 exhibitions involving 2,000 artists. Its exhibition and learning programme stimulate meaningful discussion about culture and society. The gallery supports artists at different stages in their careers. Exhibitions range from first solo shows by artists such as Michael Armitage and Larry Achiampong that develop artistic talent, to survey exhibitions of internationally renowned figures including Tracey Emin, Akram Zaatari and Steve McQueen. History Architectural Design The building was designed by David Chipperfield, whose design for the 3 storey, high gallery opened on 16 April 2011, 14,000 people visited in the first weekend and 500,000 in its first year. In August 2013 the gallery received its millionth visitor. Turner Contemporary is located on a prominent seafront, where a guesthouse frequented by J.M.W. Turner once stood. The two-storey building is designed to maximise both the dramatic setting between sea and land and the extraordinary light conditions unique to the area that inspired Turner. It is composed of six identical crystalline volumes with mono-pitched roofs providing north light to the gallery spaces and revealing daily and seasonal light changes. Direct daylight enters the building from the clerestory windows on the north side and diffused sunlight from the skylights above each of the six volumes. As the seafront is occasionally flooded, the building has been raised on a plinth and its immediate surroundings provided with a hard landscape. The building is constructed with a concrete frame and acid-etched glass skin. The envelope must withstand the corrosive nature of the sea, high humidity levels, strong winds and the occasional wave overtopping the building. The façades are primarily of glass with reinforced windows. Internally, the material palette is reduced to hard-wearing screed floors and dry lining to facilitate the hanging of changing exhibitions. On 20 February 2020, Turner Contemporary became the first contemporary building to feature on a Bank of England note. The £20 note features an image of artist J.M.W. Turner, alongside Turner Contemporary and the Margate lighthouse. Turner Contemporary is the largest dedicated visual arts venue in Kent. It is a registered charity under English law. Links to J.M.W. Turner Built on the site of the former guesthouse where the gallery’s namesake J.M.W. Turner visited, the skies that inspired much of his work are visible from Turner Contemporary’s windows. These views, which featured in many of his paintings, led him to state, to