"IT was my dream to bring art into the city centre where the people are."

Those are the words of Stephen Foster, who 20 years after first mooting the idea for moving the John Hansard from Highfield to the city centre, will bring together pieces he has commissioned over the years in a new show opening this Saturday. As director of the John Hansard Gallery he has spent his thirty years at the gallery researching the impact of 1960s conceptual art, and its impact on younger generations.

Now he has brought together some of the work he loves for the new exhibition - which he describes as an "exploration of site specificity", all housed in the £32 million arts complex he had a hand in designing. The show at Studio 144 in Guildhall Square includes work which has been reimagined for the new gallery - which Mr Foster is now "pleased" to see open.

Work includes pieces by "genius" Hamad Butt - who died aged 30 from AIDS after graduating with some of the highest marks ever achieved at Goldsmith's College of Art.

Mr Foster said: "He was a genius. He was a contemporary of Damien Hirst. We commissioned a piece when he graduated then the Tate acquired it. 'Familiars' is made up of highly dangerous chemicals, chlorine, bromine and iodine. He was an extraordinary artist."

The halogens of 'Familiars' are presented in "highly precarious situations" in the gallery and are named after mythical shape-shifting spectres said to accompany witches.

Also on show will be work by experimental poet Caroline Bergvall - but you'll have to stand outside the gallery to see it in full. Her work is a comment on lost languages and the gaps created when they go. The piece has been reworked especially for its new home so that viewers get the full effect when they're looking at it from a bench in Guildhall Square. Although the John Hansard has been handed over to new director Woodrow Kernohan, Stephen said he hopes he will still be involved - but doesn't want to get "under people's feet."

He added: "All the pieces have been recreated in different ways. I hope there will be a legacy because the gallery has a reputation for doing that kind of work.

"I designed the space. It is what I wanted. It took 20 years. I could write a book about how long it took.

"Originally I thought I was a pioneer, trying to get the university to have a presence in the city centre. Now they have already got two buildings there. The gallery had a fantastic reputation amongst the art world. I wanted to create a cultural life in Southampton and to have a real cultural part and make a bid for City of Culture 2025. To be a part of that was very important to me.

"I hope there's more fish to fry. I'm not finished yet. And I'm hoping to do something for Mayflower 2020."

Although he has retired from the John Hansard Gallery he is an emeritus professor at Southampton University.

Time After Time opens on September 8 until November 3.