About the show

Our Midcentury.Modern South show at Bexhill on Sea’s internationally-acclaimed De La Warr pavilion is always a great day out.

See furniture and collectables from the middle of the last century next to work from the latest hot young contemporaries set in the finest Modernist surroundings. Invest in design classics from the likes of Eames, Nelson, Jacobsen and Aalto and new modern design from the coolest young designers in Britain. Enjoy a good nose around Britain's first public Modernist building while bagging antiques of the future from the best of British. All this within a stone's throw of the seaside.

40 carefully selected dealers and designers. Here are the kinds of names that show:

Top dealers in midcentury design classics The Modern Warehouse / Take Me Home / Fragile Design / Omnipod / 20th Century Interiors / De Parma / 20th Century Marks / AktaFurniture / Twentieth Century Collectables / Berg Brothers / Deborah Hurst / retrometro / Fandango / Haji & White / Plywood2Plastic / Francesca Martire

Exciting designers and producers Thorsten Van Elten (top producer for many designers including Marcel Wanders, Sam Johnson, Rose Cobb, Yoyo ceramics, Mosley meets Wilcox, Alexander Taylor, Ed Carpenter, Camila Prada, Electriwig – visit www.thorstenvanelten.com) / Susan Bradley Outdoor Wallpaper / Flaunt Creative / Multi design / Christiane Kersten/ Karen Downing / Georgina Griffiths Glass / Anglepoise lights / Claire O Hea textiles / Sixixis / Quiet Design / Alys Walton / Tracy Kendall / Missprint / Jennifer Newman / Alexandra Mitchell

Other events on the day

Other events on the day include free Creative sessions for kids and tours of the pavilion. Check out the De La Warr pavilion's free exhibitions. Those who book tickets for the Midcentury Modern show in advance can also sign up for a free tour of the pavilion at dlwp.co.uk.

The De La Warr Pavilion, a Grade I listed icon of the Modernist movement, celebrated its seventieth anniversary in 2005 following an £8 million refurbishment and redevelopment. Designed by Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff in 1935, it is now celebrated as a national centre for contemporary art and one of the most significant spaces in the emerging network of new arts building in the South East of England. Enjoy sitting on Barber Osgerby's new De La Warr chairs and taking in breathtaking panoramic views of the South Coast from the De La Warr's celebrated restaurant. Don't forget to pop into the exciting shop downstairs selling books, magazines and design objects and souvenirs from some of Britain's top young British designers.

You will leave brimming with excitement at the end of the day, so don't forget to tell your friends about the best day out for design junkies.

More about the building

On laying a plaque in May 1935, the Earl De La Warr declared his vision.

"A Modernist building of world renown which will become the crucible for creating a new model of culture provision in an English Seaside town which is going to lead to the growth, the prosperity and greater culture of our town".

In the 1930s Modernism was introduced to Britain by the arrival of a number of German Jewish architects and designers, who came to Britain following Hitler’s rise to power. They included key figures in the Bauhaus and Modernist movements Walter Gropius, Moholy Nagy, Marcel Breuer, and Eric Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn and his architectural partner Serge Chermayeff beat 229 other competitors to the commission to design the new Pavilion. The original design (the model can be seen in the architecture wing at the V&A) included a swimming pool and a pier. Work started on the welded steel frame, devised by structural engineer Felix Samuely in January 1935. The construction process was a big event in itself, attracting large crowds and national press attention.