Contemporary Key, London

Contemporary Key is a London-based contemporary art tour company that puts significant and valuable emphasis on the joy of learning about art. At the start of each monthly tour, the group meets for a coffee and chat. This means that there is the opportunity to browse through material on the upcoming galleries and speak to like-minded people before it starts. After this they usually tour around 3 or 4 galleries in the space of a couple of hours, which means there is never too much time spent in one place.

Lucinda Lovell and Alexandra Donaldson, the expressive mouthpieces for this company, deliver eloquent and intuitive speech. They seek out the most intriguing art that London has to offer and tour around not only high profile galleries, but small galleries and artist spaces. They provide delicate insight and articulate the material fluently. Their relationship with gallery owners, curators and artists means that the group can interact with all experts and ask as many questions as they like. This means that, regardless of experience, you are unavoidably going to find out something new. It is far from being in the realms of a humdrum museum tour; no recorded headsets, no monotone speakers. There is a sensitive connection between speaker and audience, and hence ample opportunity to find out more. Lucinda said: “Contemporary Key is aimed at young professionals and through the tours we aim to make contemporary art accessible, fun and interesting. We keep it intimate and engaging.”

The tour ends with a group cocktail, which provides further opportunity to ask questions or interact with fellow tourers, but mostly kick back and relax after a cultural Saturday. This is for art lovers, art beginners, those who want to experience some culture in the capital, and those who once a month, fancy something informative and different. Anyone is welcome.

Contemporary Key has just been the official tour provider for Art13, which is London’s newest international art fair. The show held art works from over 129 galleries and 30 countries. Contemporary Key selected the most interesting and relevant works to provide insight into, distilling the overwhelming information available and making the show much more manageable. Their intention is to provide insight, to expand the artistic responsiveness inside their audience and to perceptively unravel the contemporary art world for anyone who is interested.

Claire Mitchell

The next tour is on March 23rd (3-5pm) and will be touring around Southwark galleries/spaces. www.contemporarykey.co.uk

Image courtesy Contemporary Key