Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts Reviews

Superb art collection and museum. One of Norfolk's many gems

Fantastic place! It has a cafe and a restaurant, parking for visitors. Surrounded by nature, a lake and a few nice walks.

Super cafe and great place for taking family out on rainy day!!

Visited for the permanent collection. Not as good as I expected.

Gallery and cafe. Lovely location with walking in the open grounds of the UEA. Free to park & lots of art.

It's a combination of the biggest cabinet of curiosities that you have ever seen, and a close up view of some world class modern art. See it!

A real gem of an exhibition space in the ever popular UEA complex, already renowned for it's architecture. If you like concrete, this place will definitely pull your chain. The permanent collection is excellent and we were able to catch a Russian exhibition that showed off so many of the attributes of what they were trying to achieve back in the 50s and 60s in particular

Parking, a few dedicated spaces and need to get pass from reception.
Free entry to collection and only need pay for special exhibitions.
Mixed, one Monet, two hockney and quite.a few paintings by Bacon. A variety of modern sculptures. All mixed in with a variety of ethnographic pieces. Excellent.
Coffee and snacks.

Great collection with very interesting regular visiting exhibitions.

It often hosts interesting exhibitions which may or may not be everyone's cup of tea. You can have a cup of tea though (and more) at the restaurant.

An interesting collection of visual arts and incredibly friendly staff!

A very nice collection of art. A bit out of the center of town, but worthwhile visiting.

Often has interesting exhibits. Has nice restaurant with pleasant viewsof the countryside around UEA.
Now also famous as the Avengers HQ (Film location for Age of Ultron)

This is one of the UK's most wonderful buildings. Just being inside makes me feel open to new ideas.

Fantastic building and collection. Too much to looks at in one go so will definitely be visiting again. And lived the grounds of the university.

Fantastic permanent collection, with a range of art from around the world. I love that it's not curated for you, rather you are encouraged to wander and make your own connections. There was an Art Nouveau temporary exhibition when we visited, which was small but perfectly formed - very much worth a visit.

Excellent and very wide collection in a beautiful building (Norman Foster?). Even the toilets are a pleasure. Staff is always very friendly, except the somewhat slow service in the restaurant. The exhibition is free and the prices and quality in the restaurant are ok. Be sure to explore the neighborhood, the campus and so on because there are many paths that lead to the countryside, with typical English landscapes.

Great art, that makes you feel good to be a human being. Choice of two cafes; both are good.

Doris Lessing - excellent content - but letters and documents placed so low down that they were very difficult to read : thanks/Anne

A fabulously curated collection, an absolute must if you are experiencing a creative block. There were moments that I actually gasped with delight at the beautiful, considered juxtaposition of disparate and similar artifacts. Truly inspiring, challenging and ultimately rewarding. A must visit for any creative looking to push their practice.

Fantastic selection of art including Monet, Bacon, Degas to name but three.

Fantastic gallery with varied collection in the permanent exhibition and interesting temporary shows. The building is worth seeing alone. Very futuristic design and has been used in films, such as The Avengers Age of Ultron as a space age setting.

Very good indeed apart from disappointing food in the cafe. The Nash Exhibition was brilliant with a superb Guide.

If you only have a few hours, this is a very 'manageable' museum. A large area full of Lord Sainsbury's personal collection along with some newer collections. Ancient tribal and oriental items mixed in with European pieces which were inspired by them. Finding the connections between the pieces is part of the experience. The building itself is also worth looking at.

Unique building, amazing permanent collection of objects, and great temporary shows, like the WG Sebald show.

Such a fantastic art venue, a lovely space with lots of diverse and fascinating exhibitions to suit anyone's interests- plus it's so great for students!

Modern building and location, parking facility and artefacts from few different cultures and periods. A reasonable size area allocated for the artefacts although, as I was informed, if you paid separately you could see photography in the basement & small picture collection at the first floor. I decided not to pay to see those sections as wasn't sure if that would be of interest to me. Overall, good but I personally feel it's for those who have keen interest and deep knowledge in such area of artefacts.

Lovely exhibition! Great for a day on Sundays ! Lovely park with river !

This is a wonderful collection of different types of artefact, beautifully displayed in a very appealing space. You can pop in and see some pieces, or you can spend ages going round and round--I've done both! There's also a couple of cafes, outdoor seating at one, massive amounts of parkland behind and larger sculptures outside. Free parking too, (small space fills up in busy times) ask for a permit at the desk.

A wonderful venue, showing some fantastic works. This is my favorite!

These hidden beauty spots I keep finding
Stunning views

Absolutely amazing building, very cool party venue. We had a brilliant time - I gather that the host brought in the decor and entertainment, which fit the venue perfectly. It's a fairly plain space that seems really flexible. We didn't go into the gallery, as it was closed by the time we got there.

One thing about the Sainsbury Centre vegetarian food - they had masses of margarita pizza. The meat pizzas had more veggies on them than the vegetarian ones! Vegetarians like vegetables on our pizzas too! Also the drinks were Very expensive, and not much selection.

A great art venue to visit and the featured exhibition was amazing.

Great small museum in Norwich with an eclectic collection of ethnic and modern art

A wonderful oasis of inspiration
...and it's free!

Excellent and comes with a great coffee shop too @kofracoffee

The Faberge jewel collection though limited was interesting. A bit overpriced for what was there! Free parking advertised but very limited. Policed by officious retirees who were less than helpful!!

This is one of the most beautiful art galleries I have ever been to. The permanent collection is beautifully curated and presented, with no hierarchy between art works - all periods, geographical origins, types of art... are all presented on an equal level, with no explanatory texts, it leaves the viewer to fully enjoy the artworks through their own knowledge, emotions, perspectives... It is so refreshing, and also stunning, moving, beautiful.

A stunning mix of art from all periods and continents set out without any formality within an open plan 1978 Norman Foster building. Unmissable for anyone interested in World cultures. Good food/coffee options. At the rail station exit, head for the bus stop on the right. The 25 takes around 40 mins plus a 5 min walk. The grounds offer some nice walking/picnicking.

Beautiful lake and river walks with access through the trees to Earlham park. Sainsbury centre interesting to visit.

Really enjoyed my visit to the centre, interesting exhibition and good food in the restaurant

A wonderful place, free of charge to see a range of art works

Such variety art from all eras and all the world in a beautiful building.

Came here to see the Norman Foster building which happened to contain a lovely Art Gallery. There was a very nice spacious airy cafe serving delicious food overlooking a parkland with a number of sculptures which tantalised the taste buds. No we didn't lick the sculptures. Well worth a visit

It's free for the main exhibition, so of course well worth a visit. A bit of a mix of items, but impressive non the less.

Kids enjoyed the walk around, with some very interesting artworks.

A real gem in East Anglia. They have a brilliant collection of items spanning the earliest civilizations (~8000 year old pieces!) to modern times. One feature that I really really loved was the availability of a selection of art pieces by More

Wide range of artworks from Monet to Maori. Great location. Nice cafe and seating. A bit too low light for me in places but I understand why.

Car parking was a bit torturous, but the Giacometti exhibition was superb.

The actual gallery is great, there are always interesting exhibitions on. However the cafe is disappointing. Why so plain and empty? It should be filled with art. It is set up as a cafeteria style foodery. As an art gallery, a local coffee business should be supported. (Yes Kofra is there, however they are just a small area and often not open). The food is under-average & overpriced for what it is, and it's clear the staff do not know how to make coffee properly, which seems very common in this country. As an institution of art, more effort should be made to support local businesses and create somewhere worth spending the day at.

A fun place to take a walk, look at works of art men

Great exhibition. Well presented and in lovely surroundings. Art Nouveau exhibition was really interesting.

Great atmosphere, spacious and plenty of space for pushchairs

Fanatic venue for an event, organisers were very helpful putting on a great evening for my fathers birthday.
Would recommend.

First rate Elizabeth Frink retrospective - plus the usual fascinating mix in the permanent collection

Really enjoyed our visit especially as we saw the stained glass exhibit from Brian Clarke, amazing, stunning colours, would love one of two

Great range of old artefacts and modern art.. Fabulous restaurant with well priced fresh food and a great view!

Well spaced out, easy to wander round at your own pace. Seating to just observe the ambiance.

Nice but quite small, I thought the exhibition a bit over priced.

It was at East Anglia University in Norwich that the location for the Avengers headquarters was chosen. At the end of the Avengers Age of Ultron movie we can catch a glimpse of the new Avengers headquarters at this university. It's the perfect place to work with the Avengers.

Muu interesting pieces that show there, I like that they have a cafeteria and you can buy things. The bathrooms are very cool

Needs more parking! Superb art collection once you've found somewhere to leave your car.

Brilliant gallery with excellent exhibitions on periodically!

The three legged dog is my favourite sculpture. This place is good for a look around.