CHICHESTER, ENGLAND.- .- The Pallant House Gallery will reopen on July 2 after a new wing was added. The new wing extension is designed by Long & Kentish architects in association with Sir Colin St John Wilson. The plans set out to preserve and emphasise the historic house as an architectural entity, while enabling lift access to the upper floor of the house, which was not previously possible.

The ground floor is designed to keep the domestic scale of the house and provide a free public space for people to meet. There will be a Bookshop, Restaurant-café, Prints and Drawings Room, Art Reference Library and Reading Room, Education Studio, Friends Office and Garden Gallery.

On the upper floor there are seven gallery rooms opening off a long central galleria. These galleries will be top-lit, with an ingenious system of louvres to provide a sensitive balance between natural and artificial light. One of these rooms will serve as a room for concerts and public talks.

The exhibit celebrating this event is Modern British Art: The First !00 Years on view through September 24. The show is a chronological survey looking at the key themes of British art during the 20th century. It examines the influence of the European avant garde on the Vorticist movement, the impact of the two World Wars and the role of the War Artists Advisory Committee, the significance of The Independent Group in the 1950s and the development of British Pop Art during the 1960s and beyond.

Works to look out for include Severini’s ‘Danseuse No.5’, Henry Moore’s ‘Two Sleepers’, Peter Blake’s ‘Girls and their Hero’, Richard Hamilton’s ‘Swingeing London’ Patrick Caulfield’s ‘Portrait of Juan Gris’ and Michael Andrew’s ‘The Colony Room’.