Since 2000 more than 13,000 pubs have closed their doors across streets and towns of the United Kingdom. The pub, like the library, has long been a space for communities to meet and can often be a location of escapism. This link has become stronger in times of high gas and energy prices, food shortages and the underfunding of community spaces, and pubs and libraries are being utilised as spaces of warmth in which people can gather.
The Next Round explores the social context of the pub and ideas surrounding British working-class culture delving into themes of masculinity, the cost-of-living crisis and social rituals in relation to the pub.
This exhibition is curated by the Central Saint Martin’s Culture, Criticism and Curation undergraduate students in partnership with Camden Council, and their collection of historic works of art, collected from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. A small group of artworks from the council’s collection were chosen in relation to Kitchen Sink Realism, a cultural movement which began in the 1950s and reflected working-class realities. The exhibition unties these ideas of the pub and Kitchen Sink Realism to form The Next Round, and invited young contemporary artists to reflect on the chosen themes.