Our history - 1970s
1974
One of the best concert venues in the country
- When it opened in October 1974, the Turner Sims Concert Hall provided the people of Southampton with one of the best concert venues in the country. Gillian Widdicombe, writing in The Financial Times in November 1974, declared: "I cannot think of a single hall in the Southern counties to rival the new Turner Sims".
1975
Pioneering photography
- The Photographic Gallery exhibited work by Julia Margaret Cameron, (1815-1879), one of the great pioneers of photography as an art form. The photographic historian Beaumont Newhall described her portraits as 'among the most noble and impressive yet produced by means of the camera'.
1976
Environmental Science strikes forth...
- The Adult Education Environmental Science course went from strength to strength during this period. Spectacular photographs from an expedition to Greenland in 1976 were published in an expedition report which was deposited with the Central and Geography Department libraries.
1977
Over £14 million raised
- Sir Donald Acheson, one of the founders of the School of Medicine, established the Wessex Medical Trust (Hope). Hope raises money to fund research, conducted in the Faculty of Medicine and Health and Biological Sciences, into a wide range of diseases. Since its foundation Hope has raised over £14million and funded nearly 800 projects.
1979
Contemporary art in focus
- The John Hansard Gallery opened in 1979. Its debut exhibition, The Panoramic Image, reflected the gallery's concern with contemporary work and the University's disciplinary traditions.
In the last 25 years, the John Hansard Gallery has continued this interdisciplinary tradition and gone on to achieve international recognition for its work. It is now one of Britain's best-known contemporary art galleries.