A WORLD OF WATER

The future of our oceans is explored in the Sainsbury Centre’s extensive 2025 exhibition programme, Can the Seas Survive Us? The season charts a course through the story of the oceans, and the dangerous future that they may be heading towards, featuring historical artworks, maps, atlases, archives, and contemporary art from across the globe. Two exhibitions are presented as part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

A World of Water brings together works by British and International artists from the last 250 years who have all offered a unique perspective of evolving marine ecosystems and oceanic habitats. Taking the North Sea and the historical relationship between Norfolk and the Netherlands as its starting point, the exhibition looks at the human impact on the sea.

The exhibition encourages visitors to understand the complexity of sea and marine life, whilst encouraging a collective, global effort to mitigate the impacts of climate change and support action to restore marine ecosystems.
Featuring artworks by Maggi Hambling, Eva Rothschild, John Crome and Hendricus Theodorus Wijdeveld, A World of Water delves into humanity’s profound and intricate connection with the sea, raising pivotal questions about the world’s governments’ responses to climate change, coastal erosion, and environmental degradation.