Art comes to the county with the Folkestone Triennial, including Antony Gormley’s Another Time

We’ve waited three years...now the creative carnival of Folkestone Triennial is here, bringing world-class art to our shores. Angela Cole profiles the event which puts a small, coastal Kent town firmly into the world art spotlight.

From metal men staring out to sea to floating houses and hermit crabs hiding in their colourful shells, Folkestone has art to get everyone thinking. The nine-week creative feast the Folkestone Triennial launches this weekend for its fourth edition with a myriad of mesmerising artworks. Artists from all over the world, and others closer to home, have been working for months, and in some cases, years, on their contributions to the nine-week artistic celebration, which runs from Saturday, September 2, to Sunday, November 5 and takes over the public and open spaces of the town – as well as some more hidden corners.

The most high profile visitors to the town for the event are two cast iron figures by Antony Gormley – best known for his statue, the Angel of the North.

The two are part of a series of figures, Another Time, sited around the country. One is in the Half Tide Loading Bay on the leeward side of the Harbour Arm, where the artist once considered locating his studio.

The other is facing, on the other side of Sunny Sands beach. A third has appeared off the short in Margate, in partnership with Turner Contemporary.

The event will be officially opened to the public at 10am on Saturday, September 2, at the bottom of the Old High Street, with the first day of an exhibition, On the Edge, at Folkestone Quarterhouse, from 11am.

There will also be a series of walks, talks, workshops and study days throughout the nine weeks.

Folkestone’s Triennial will run for nine weeks

Above and below: Lubaina Himid created a Jelly Mould Pavilion on Folkestone’s seafront

Antony Gormley’s statue in Folkestone’s Harbour Arm