Alternative Letchworth: Past and Present

An Exhibition Exploring the Radical Side of the Garden City.

Created in collaboration with the Letchworth Garden City Collection, Alternative Letchworth will explore counter-culture and radicalism in the Garden City, displaying works from the collection to reveal the town’s bohemian and progressive past and its legacy on the town today. It brings together a variety of unique objects including photographs, costumes, texts and other items, alongside new, specially commissioned works by four early career artists with local ties to Letchworth.

Alternative Letchworth shines a spotlight on the early pioneers of the Garden City and their radical beliefs and lifestyles, many of which have become increasingly accepted and mainstream in recent years. It explores how a small group of people would connect Letchworth Garden City with an international sphere of political and philosophical influence.

The four artists, Sean Pearce, Richard Seaholme, Chantelle Stephenson and John Vincent, have each produced individual works of art interpreting the idea of the alternative Garden City, exploring the links between their own experience and the little known past of their hometown. These contemporary works include photography, video and sculpture and explore subjects and sites as diverse as the Cloisters and the Jackman’s Estate, early ‘Simple Life’ residents alongside communities within the town today.