Whitechapel on the move

An education and research tower will rise four storeys over the planned and refurbished Whitechapel Art Gallery, as well as three new galleries; one of these will be dedicated to material and works from the Whitechapel's extensive archive and this will permit the main gallery to be open throughout the year, rather than being closed for a period of ten weeks annually. The architects are the Belgians, Robbrecht en Daem. There will also be a children's studio and a capacious sun deck for visitors. Iwona Blazwick, the Director, has embarked on an energetic strategy to help raise the £3 million by a sale auction at Sotheby's, which will occur during the Frieze Art Fair period in October.

Development Director, Louise McKinney, says that it will seem like a miniature retrospective of what the gallery has done over the past 20 years. Artists who have had shows earlier in their careers at the Whitechapel will contribute works to the sale, including Rachel Whiteread, Mark Wallinger and Jeff Wall. Richard Deacon and the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto are also contributing works to the sale. A number of artists will contribute new works to the sale. This projected regeneration plan, which will cost £10 million in all, including the adjacent library space next door (designed earlier by the talented Passmore Edwards), will take the whole Whitechapel complex into the 21st century.