TESTIMONIALS

"Showing at the Star Brewery Gallery was a really great experience. Neeta's excellent curatorial eye and help with setting up was invaluable. If any help or support was needed Neeta was aways on hand, nothing was too much trouble. It was such an easy and enjoyable experience exhibiting and everything went perfectly. I’m looking forward to showing here again."

Jenny Arran 07/11/2022

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“Neeta’s wonderful blend of empathy and acumen made the experience of exhibiting in the gallery a pleasure. Enough support & structure that the whole process worked smoothly, enough freedom to allow for individuality & creativity. And her inherent warmth to add to the atmosphere…great cocktail! Thank you Neeta for creating the space for this to happen and for this beautiful building to thrive. Respect and appreciation!”

Rachael Plummer 09/06/2022

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"THANK YOU Neeta Pedersen at The Star Brewery Gallery for delivering such a well organised and successful exhibition. Your expertise and support were outstanding throughout."

Andrew Fitchett  10/05/2022

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"Neeta Pedersen could not have taken on the running of the Star Brewery Gallery at a less opportune time. The fact that she has managed to stage so many excellent exhibitions by well respected artists in the last two years is a tribute to her organisational skills and the esteem in which she is held by the arts community.

Many of us have exhibiting links with the gallery which go back to the pioneering days under Mike and Pat Cooper in the late eighties and it's encouraging that, among the new artists Neeta promotes, she is still very much supported by those with a history at the Star.

My exhibition last December, 'You Drink a Bit and Watch the Ghosts' was, after a difficult year for us all, marvellously supported and turned out to be my most successful show at the Star to date.

Working with Neeta is a pleasure and I'm really looking forward to my next collaboration with her in April 2022."

Peter Messer, 06/12/2021

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‘It was a pleasure to show again with the Star Brewery Gallery. I first exhibited with the gallery (then called the Star Gallery) in the early 90s when it was run by Pat and Mike Cooper. They gave me my first shows including a joint exhibition of mine and my late father's paintings. It's so wonderful to see the gallery thriving again. Neeta is great to work with and the last show was one of the most successful I’ve had."

Tom Benjamin, 06/12/2021

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"Thank you, Neeta. Working together with my gallerist Sarah O'Kane, we both came away with a warm positive buzz from the experience of putting on a show of my paintings at the Star Gallery this October.  Partly, of course, because all the practicalities - of installation, lighting,  security, money, etc - proved straightforward and efficient, when working with you. Partly also because the footfall was so healthy! But mostly because of the whole attitude you bring to the gallery.  You make it feel a welcoming place and one that's going to lift up the eyes and emotions of anyone who steps in - you make it feel like art ought to feel like. Once again - as in the old days of Pat and Mike Cooper that some of us remember - you are making the Star Gallery the heart of the town."

Julian Bell, 21 November 2021

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"Many visitors and friends who came to my exhibition, said how glad they were that the gallery had been re-born since Neeta Pedersen took over as owner/manager. Following a period in which it had become a less-accessible space, it is now available to artists again as a proper gallery! My personal thanks go to Neeta for her guidance, communication skills during a difficult time for all, and her friendship. It has been the greatest pleasure to work with her. She is truly the star of the Star Brewery Gallery and long may she remain so."

Tom Walker, Artist, 03/08/2021​​

"The Star Brewery Gallery has been at the centre of the art life of Lewes since its inception as the Star Gallery in the late 1980s.  Over the ensuing years, under changing management and name, it has shown a huge range of artists and craftspeople including Paula Rego, Sir Hugh Casson, Christopher Le Brun and John Skelton to name just a few. I have consistently exhibited at the Star since its earliest days and have never found it to be less than an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

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Neeta Pedersen worked there for five years as assistant to Gallery Owner, Curator and Director Angie Osborne under its spell as the Hop Gallery. I feel she really understood the Gallery’s ambitious attitude to the arts without losing sight of its place at the heart of the extensive local arts community. I, and many others, were very heartened to hear that she was taking over after a short period when, under other management, it had diverged from this and had become lost to view for many of us. I feel she has all the right capacities to make the gallery a great success. In addition to her five years practical experience in the space, she is a respected and successful artist in her own right and a well known and popular member of the community.

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Due to the current unprecedented health emergency, the timing of Neeta’s takeover could not have been worse but she is attracting enormous goodwill from artists and supporters.  The general feeling is that if anyone has the character, resilience and will to bring the Gallery successfully back to the centre of Lewes cultural life, it is Neeta."

Peter Messer 09/04/20

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"We were very disappointed when only a week away from the opening night, we realised the coronavirus crisis meant we would have to postpone the launch exhibition of The Star Brewery Gallery. To our amazement, Neeta refused to give in and within days, pulled together a very presentable online Star Brewery Gallery, worked out a social media campaign and launched the whole thing online and on time. The online Star Brewery Gallery has given me great publicity and healthy sales beyond my expectations. Neeta really has taken very good care of us and I feel very lucky to be represented by such a dynamic gallery."

Andrew Fitchett 09/04/2020

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"I was approached by Neeta last year to see if I would be interested in exhibiting in the opening exhibition of the Star Brewery Gallery along with Andrew Fitchett and Peter Messer. It wasn’t a difficult decision. Although we haven't exhibited together for some time we have had a series of shows together in the past and I admire their work and I thought it would interesting to do it again. I also have a long history with the gallery and had some of my first solo shows when Pat and Mike Cooper ran it. I have always liked the character of the space, its beautifully lit and you can get surprisingly large amount of work on the walls. I also had a joint show of mine and my late father's paintings, which was a special occasion for me as we never had the chance to exhibit together in his lifetime and it attracted a lot of interest. 

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It’s been a pleasure working with Neeta, we have had to be light on our feet as we've tried to keep pace with the rapidly changing restrictions imposed by the crisis. Neeta quickly thought of making the show an online event and we've combined in depth interviews, short films and images of the work to give people as rich an experience as possible. The response to the show has been tremendous and we are all committed to putting on a physical show in the gallery when we are on the other side of this challenging time."

Tom Benjamin 09/04/2020