firstsite Reviews

The space does seem largely empty. The events are usually nice.

Its got no Picasso, no Vincent, and no Mona Lisa. Consequently you don't have crowds milling around looking for that Instagramable shot of a weary work of art that familiarity has rendered redundant.

Instead you have exhibitions and works by local artists. If you hold in your mind that almost every artist has had a Van Gogh like struggle to self expression, then almost every piece on display here is worthy of contemplation.

Even if the art auction houses of London and Edinburgh would be dismissive of their monetary worth. The value in art we must remember, is not in money, but in the intelligent conveyance of a vision. Each piece is a skirmish in humanities battle against the fleetness of time.

Colchester is a friendly, working class town. The staff, unusually for a public gallery, have managed to bring a little of that friendliness into the gallery.



All in all a great, hardworking local gallery that even encourages the local youths to use the outside space for skate boarding and socialising. I shall definitely be back!

Good auditorium to watch a movie. Don't get why the walls are slanted as it's an art gallery first and foremost

Grayson Perry, wonderful. The environment, not so sure.

Great building and auditorium. Has some interesting exhibitions and events going on most of the time. And open every day.

Dedicated disabled parking at the entrance. Level entrance. A light modern pleasant building. Cafe and helpful reception staff. Easy access to the display rooms/galleries. Plenty going on all information on the website. Close to the town centre so easy access. What a great Arts venue Colchester and Essex now have.

A huge space with nothing of interest to see. 4/5th time of visiting and each time has been a disappointment.

Always pleasantly surprised by the quality and eclectic mix .

Went there for pride, staff are so friendly, all round nice place

It's a good place to go to see art exertions and have a coffee and cake.

Dont bother. I am a huge art fan how awful is this place kids having play days all over the place no way is this somewhere to contemplate art.
I then went to the Minories it was perfect. With a lovely cafe and enclosed garden very peaceful.

What a find in Colchester! A modern, exciting and vibrant art gallery. Fantastic :)

A brilliant place to visit, with a wide range of artists showing there talents.good for all ages
You can even grab a cuppa while your visiting.
Also a good selection of films showing weekly.

Amazing space with truly talented artists from the area

Free and fun, roman mosaic always on show. Local artist exhibition currently on show very good.

Beautiful building, no doubt a great space for community activities but was somehow expecting to see more art in such a large building

Brilliant Gee Vaucher exhibition in excellent settings
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Been twice recently both to use the cinema..nice clean seating area and a friendly atmosphere

Always support your local Art gallery, this one's great, small but perfectly formed.

Fantastic venue need to advertise this more and use space outside to its full potential

Depressing atmosphere, poor exhibitions, but maybe I was unlucky.

Everything is beautiful and all the staff are wonderful

Great to see different art shows and markets that they have run too

Nice place
Many free events
You can also hire this venue

I'm glad the art gallery is free as I'm not a fan of modern art, I struggled liking the exhibition. Everything was too weird for me like the butter and cigarette being classed as art. That isn't art to me. The building looks like an Australian building called The Sydney Opera House. I should of expected that there would be a lot of boat drawings and paintings since the building looked like a leaning boat. I would not recommend it to anyone that doesn't like modern art.

From a student called Ethan

Such a shame, a building with so much potential of such a great size, yet it holds little. The cinema inside is one of the best things going for it. As for work on display there are very little. For the monumental cost of the structure you would hope it housed a decent display of pictures unfortunately this is not the case. Great cafe, the Roman mosaic is fascinating. There are much better art galleries nearby.

Facilities are good, great opportunities to watch live televised plays, staff are nice etc... but a lack of communication. For example they don't tell you what time doors actually open, or that there was two places to wait. They let the computer choose your tickets but don't show which ones are disabled seats- the computer booked our tickets but in a disabled space. The staff automatically gave a disabled woman our seats - which we didn't mind- but they didn't tell us or even say "Sorry can we swap your seats to these because of..." They told us nothing! They don't tell people when the intervals end and getting refreshments is hard.

I found it totally uninteresting and a great waste of taxpayers money. In and out within 15 minutes, and that included using the loos!

Great chance to introduce my grandson to art. He really enjoyed himself especially singing through the microphone!

Great addition to the public space available to people of Colchester. Modern architecture, great views and of course great collections of art

Love the Grayson Perry Exhibition at Firstsite. Don't miss it.

Went to Firstsite with my family expecting a view into the world of modern art. But no, what I got was pictures of people, bananas, hot dogs and.. at one point, dildos. This was not was I was expecting, the building is nice but the inside is plainly put, awful and boring. We were finished in less than 20 minutes and the only good thing about Firstsite is that it is free. Luckily our trip was saved by another art gallery/ tea room next door, if you want art, go to the tea room just outside Firstsite for some real art.

The more I visit the more I love this place. The building is amazing, plenty to do for the kids, lovely cafe, thought provoking art (some hit and miss for sure, but that's art) and they are starting to show more local art too.

Can't believe that some people would prefer a bus station or a completely ordinary shopping mall. No, give me the extraordinary art gallery any day.

My one gripe is the surrounding area which has not been developed and is in many places still boarded up.

Needed more signage. Seemed to be very little in a great big building. Interesting architecture.

What a wonderful gallery hidden away in a side street near Colchester Castle. They have a first-rate Grayson Perry exhibition there with some of his huge tapestries. Excellent coffee shop too. It's free, so don't miss out!

Went for livestream performance. First visit here, good impressions. We had a quick look around the shop which had a good selection at a reasonable price. The bar was minimalist but was 'good enough' for what we needed.

Great place with great facilities. The only downer is the lack of parking.

Great place! Still exploring ..fun to be continued.

This huge gallery had 1 tiny exhibition on, thank goodness I didn't have to pay to get in, otherwise I'd have demanded my money back !

The toilets were filthy and stunk of sewage and in the ladies the stall doors are frosted glass from top to bottom which leaves nothing to the imagination ! Who honestly thought that was a good design idea ?

While having refreshments I noticed that it seems to be run as some sort of glorified community center, all galleries now have some sort of community involvement but this was ludicrous.

The building is an embrassment and as an MA art graduate I can't believe how appalling the venue is, quite honestly go to Ipswich and visit Christ Church Mansion you'll have a far superior experience !

Good art exhibitions. Cafe reorganised for social distancing with outside area.

Modern and contemporary art is frequently displayed here, nice cafe and interesting architecture.

Not particularly user friendly, quite bleak on the ground floor and not encouraging of further exploration.

A strange place that do interesting things to get kids involved with art or play. Definitely worth a visit

It's a great venue, with excellent facilities and access. The Antony Gormley Exhibition was wonderful! Lovely gift shop too.

Clean friendly place, would like more exhibits and events here though

Outside is nice but I been in 3 times and now it's just boring

Good venue space. Parking is difficult and unclear for disabled parking.
Staff seem friendly and the place us interesting.
Close to town and shops

Poor. Load of rubbish. Know art is a matter of conjecture. Surely an art gallery can do better than this. My 3rd visit and never been impressed yet. Other galleries normally have something to grab your attention

Went to see IT in the Auditorium. Have been to a number of shows here in the past and always enjoyed it although sometimes the sound is a bit muffled.

Always something new and interesting to see! I like to visit every time I stop over in Colchester.

Not what i would call an Arts centre. A decent Bus station in its place would be better. How aboard drive through bus station with art included.

We find there is usually something of interest but it could be so much more. Good gift and book selection, nice on site cafe, lovely building great space, needs additional exhibits.

Always thought First site was rubbish but was surprised how much I enjoyed the exhibitions. Well done. Keep it up.

Really interesting gallery - needs more cafe options

Firstsite is a great, free museum that regularly hosts free activities and events for the community.

Very interesting building but we felt internally it was a little bit lacking in utilisation of space, admission is free a big plus

Really special place for people in the centre, lovely facilities and staff, what ideas or feelings will you find there when you go?

Interesting architectural building. I like how a few of their exhibitions had topics/themes that are current. Would be good to see some more child friendly exhibits.

Great idea but could be and do so much more. Feels deserted most of the time

Nice, easy layout, friendly staff, interesting works