Medway

About Medway

Medway is an urban conurbation in North Kent, UK (population 280 000) of five small towns – Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham – nestled alongside the River Medway in the South East of England within the Thames Estuary Production Corridor.
Since 1984, while the area has struggled socially and economically, it’s artistic community has grown and thrived locally, regionally and internationally with creative practitioners who studied at the art school (variously known as Medway School of Art, Kent Institute of Art and Design and University for the Creative Arts, Rochester) and locally-based musicians going on to build extensive international careers : Billy Childish, Tracy Emin, James Taylor (James Taylor Quartet), Nitin Sawhney and Zandra Rhodes, among them.
With the art college being closed in 2023 and the area predicted to be one of the largest growing urban conurbation outside London in the coming years, this seems an important moment in time to be fore-fronting the voices of the next generation of artists embedded in the area.