About The Alexander Collection

The Alexander Centre, Faversham, is a Community Interest Company and was established in 2010 with the aim of maintaining and developing the building as a cultural and community centre for all the people of Faversham, and the surrounding area.

Since 2010 The Alexander Centre CIC has made significant progress increasing income and carefully investing in, and restoring, this historic and prestigious building in the heart of Faversham. It was apparent when the public rooms were restored that the walls could also become an asset to the community if we could use them to display and showcase modern British art; and the idea of The Alexander Collection was conceived.

The Alexander Collection is an opportunity for professional artists to show their work, by offering them a year-long showcase at no cost to themselves and for The Alexander Centre to benefit from works of art on our walls that we could otherwise not afford in order to enhance our visitor experience. The 2020 Collection was launched in February but unfortunately closed temporarily due to coronavirus in March.

The organising team, in consultation with the alumni artist from the previous 5 years of The Collection, decided that in the absence of our works on display, we could organise an on-line Collection using art done by our alumni during lockdown. 15 of our alumni have provided images of their art which are on display on this web site. We are very grateful to each and every one of them, and would encourage you to enjoy the art, much of which is local to Faversham.

Once the lockdown is over, and The Alexander Centre has re-opened we would love to see you and show you the terrific art on display in “The Collection 2020”.

You can still view this years catalogue and previous back to 2017 using the links below:

2017 Catalogue
2018 Catalogue
2019 Catalogue
2020 Catalogue

A message from our Patron

The idea of the Virtual Collection came out of a virtual moment – the first of a number of Zoom calls (familiar to so many of us during lockdown) between Graham, Ken, Ali and me over the past few months.

We were disappointed for this year’s artists that they had not been on display for long before The Alexander Centre had to close. Our conversation roamed around displays and exhibitions we had all seen on-line and we thought “why don’t we try and create our own Virtual Collection with work from the previous years’ alumni”?  We were delighted with the response from the artists and even more delighted to see what wonderful work they have been doing during lockdown and to be able to bring this together for you to enjoy.

We have an extra bonus with two works by Rose Wylie, an acclaimed local artist known for creating large scale works and who paints colourful and exuberant compositions that are uniquely recognisable. Rose has exhibited nationally, and internationally, including at the Serpentine Gallery, Tate Britain, the Royal Academy and Turner Contemporary. Rose was a guest at this year’s opening night of the Collection. She very kindly agreed to send us two of her amazing works and some words about working during lockdown.

Huge thanks to Rose, to all the alumni who sent us their work, to Neil whose support and creativity helped us to make it happen and of course to Ali and The Alexander Centre and to Graham and Ken. I hope you enjoy seeing the work as much as we have enjoyed seeing the result of our virtual conversation come to fruition.

Organising team

Ken Brigden, Member, The Alexander Centre CIC
Pim Baxter OBE, Patron of The Alexander Collection
Graham Setterfield, Chairman, The Alexander Centre CIC
Ali Fellows, General Manager, The Alexander Centre
Neil Brown, Web site and Graphics, www.beamtwenty3.co.uk