Nottingham Contemporary — Attraction in Nottingham

Poor for business meetings. Mediocre venue made worse by appalling attitude to service. Have run many events and trained event organisers globally (and written a book on the subject!) and this is the advice I normally give when evaluating venues: a venue without the service is merely a 'space'. This is merely a ‘space’ (with steam).

The zero communication before my meeting meant that 1/3 was added to my bill due to lack of clarification on the booking form. I explained the misunderstanding and was simply ignored. The attitude seemed to be – ‘pay up or lose the booking’. As an event organiser of many years’ standing, I have never been treated with such off-handed arrogance from a venue contact before an event.

I requested a U-shaped layout but this was ignored. There were no health and safety instructions nor notice of test fire alarms or evacuation routes and procedure (illegal?).

The room itself was okay, but close to tramway, so very noisy. The floor of the room was badly stained with black marks – no, it wasn’t ‘art’. My delegates had to trudge through an open-plan office to get to the meeting room: a bit embarrassing with low threshold appeal. No cellphone reception.

The TV monitor buzzed as if there was something loose inside. As a presenter / trainer, I need water while presenting and, because I had been left to my devices, I had to hunt around for a glass of water. In the end, I wandered into an office where a kind man called Andrew showed me the employee kitchen, where I finally found a clean glass. The fresh-water dispenser had empty bottles strewn around so I had to get water from the tap (tasted a little tinny – stomach okay though, hopefully). No water made available for the delegates.

Overall - I wondered if the non-existent attitude to service was a poor attempt at ‘performance art’, and was left angry and powerless at what felt like a ‘pay-up and shut-up’ attitude.

I amused myself by feeling that the place should’ve been called: “Nottingham Contemptuously - The venue that puts the ‘con’ into conferences”.

Maybe okay for ‘art’ … but for business? Don’t go.

(1 Star awarded, simply because ‘minus stars’ would...

Update October 2022: Given that Nottingham offers surprisingly few attractions to visitors interested in fine arts (see original review below), Nottingham Contemporary is a fixture during my occasional visits. This time, the temporary exhibition ("Hollow Earth") was rather interesting. Many arresting exhibits, mostly by African artists of the late 20th and early 21st century - a surprising number of them are dead already. Very diverse objects and installations. Well done, so I'm adding a star to my original rating.

Nottingham Contemporary is a fairly modest art museum dedicated to modern art - and it always features two parallel temporary exhibitions, there are no permanent displays. Sometimes they're preparing the two exhibitions at the same time, so you might not be able to see anything here - so, check in advance what's on. Even under the best of circumstances, Nottingham Contemporary is of limited interest in a city that doesn't even have a permanent gallery for "traditional" art - in a a city of 400,00+ people that's quite embarrassing. During none of my three visits I found anything to occupy my mind for more than 30-40 minutes, and that's both displays, combined. At least the last time (October 2019) I was allowed to take photos, which was prohibited on previous occasions. And the entry is free, so I guess beggars can't be choosers. The shop is more entertaining than the rest of the gallery. Only if you're already in...

Having a free afternoon to myself, alone in Nottingham, i thought i might visit one of Nottingham's best galleries. Parking is always an inner city problem, but I finally arrived and was so looking forward to being inspired and awed by the installations and art I expected to see, but sadly, that was NOT the case. I don't know if I'm just a complete art imbecile, or don't understand it, but I've been to some of the best galleries all over the world, including the Uffizi, The Louvre, The Guggenheim and many others - but honestly, NONE of what was inside this gallery could really be classified as "art" in my mind! It was a mishmash of weird audiovisual displays, badly presented, in stark unwelcoming, blacked out rooms, and unless I read each card description of the installations on the walls - I was at a complete loss as to the relevance of any of it! What a crock of.... !! That's my review and there is nothing that anyone could tell me or explain to me that would make me change my mind on that! Luckily, it's free to get in, cos if I'd had to pay, I'd definitely have wanted a refund! So, if you have a free afternoon in Nottingham, go someplace else! Maybe Tesco's...