Author: Caspar Jayasekera

18 March 2020

A letter from Stewart Drew, Director & CEO

 

Hello

It is with real sadness that we are writing to advise you that the De La Warr Pavilion will be closed to the public from now until further notice, due to the coronavirus situation.

We are devastated at having to make this decision but the safety of our visitors and staff are, and always have been, our priority. This is, of course, in line with the government announcements this week.

We have spent the last few weeks putting everything in place so that we can best protect the organisation and ensure that we can re-open at the right time.

As a building established in 1935 on the principle of “healthy mind and healthy body” (indeed we were funded by the Ministry of Health at that time), we feel a keen responsibility to our community and audiences to support you in these challenging times.

But we need your support too. As a charity (no.1065586), our business model is a mix of public funding, fundraising and a commercial income which depends on footfall. We are not for profit, with all income re-invested in programmes for the benefit of the public, our community.

If you have ever browsed our exhibitions, seen a gig, created your own artwork, participated in a workshop, danced on the terrace, performed on our stage, got married at the Pavilion, watched our outdoor screenings, had a cup of coffee or brought your family to visit, we ask you to continue to support this unique building and help protect its future.

You can do this by:

• Making a donation
• Not asking for a refund
• Becoming a Member or Patron

The Pavilion importantly supports many artists, musicians, creatives, local businesses (bars, restaurants and B&Bs), regional tourism and importantly, employs many local people.

Many of us will be working online and we will keep in touch through social media, emails and through our website www.dlwp.com. All our contact details can be found here.

Thank you so much for your support, and please keep yourself safe in these extraordinary times.

Stewart Drew
Director & CEO

 

Things you need to know:

Read our statement on the coronavirus situation here.

Live events

We are trying to reschedule our live shows and our Box Office is open online and on the phone. These will be announced one by one as they come through. We will be contacting you directly if you have bought tickets for a rescheduled or cancelled event, and we would appreciate your help by avoiding contacting us so we can get through this as quickly as possible. We will aim to respond where possible within 14 days.

Exhibitions

Films about our exhibitions Zadie Xa: Child of Magohalmi and the Echoes of Creation and Marc Bauer: Mal Ȇtre/Performance can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Community events

Our community events, talks and tours and South East Creative events are no longer going ahead. We will update each event page when we have news of re-scheduling or how we might take a digital approach.

We are seeking an inspiring artist with experience in developing participatory and socially engaged art projects, working collaboratively and enabling the ideas and learning of others.

The artist will work as part of a design group consisting of UCL researchers, a speech and language therapist, DLWP Head of Learning & Participation and four people with aphasia, to

• Attend 7 planning and review meetings
• Co-design the creative aspect of the 6 week course
• Facilitate the creative aspect of the 6 week course (the speech and language therapist will deliver the communication training aspects of the course)
• Contribute to conversations about how best to capture benefits to participants and evaluate the project.

The 6 week course will be delivered at DLWP, in dialogue with the exhibitions programme, with approximately 10 participants in August-September 2020 and repeat in November-December 2020 with a new cohort.

Project dates: April 2020 – February 2021

Artist Fee and materials: £2,500

Additional budget: £200 for travel expenses (the opportunity is open to artists living in East Sussex and Brighton)

Application deadline: Monday 6 April, 12 noon

Click here to download the full information on PDF

Application Procedure

This opportunity is open to artists living in East Sussex and Brighton. It is funded through University College London’s Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund.
Your application should include two elements:

1. A single PDF containing:
   – 400 word statement outlining why you are applying for this role and your approach to the project
   – One page CV, including two referees
   – 6 images and concise descriptions of two recent and relevant projects
2. A 2 minute talking head film (.mov or .mp4 file) outlining your approach to the project – this will be viewed by people with aphasia as part of the shortlisting process

Please submit your pdf file (title: your name) and 2 min film (title: your name) via WeTransfer to Ashley.Mccormick@dlwp.com, with the subject line: Art & Aphasia Artist Opportunity.

Deadline: Monday 6 April, 12 noon.

Informal interviews will be held on Thursday 21 April, at the DLWP, with the project commencing soon after. The interview panel will include people with aphasia

About Aphasia

Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand speech, speak, read, write and use numbers. It can happen after a stroke or following a brain injury and approximately 900 people a year newly acquire aphasia in the Rother District. People with aphasia continue to live with profound communication difficulties for years; some may improve but there is no cure. While most people receive a short block of aphasia rehabilitation with a speech and language therapist, local services have had their funding halved in the last year and there is limited specialist communication support once people return home, placing them at great risk of social isolation and depression. For personal reflections from people living with aphasia follow these links:

YouTube: The FencePainter
Youtube: What is Aphasia?

This month’s Play Circle explored themes of travelling, fluidity, movement, connection and care, inspired by Grandmother Mago, orcas and mass migration over water, relating to the Zadie Xa and Marc Bauer exhibitions.

I’m fascinated with how we first engage with the world through our bodies. It’s how we understand ourselves, meet others, ignite our curiosity and discover new possibilities. Through these sensory connections we meet and interact with others. And play together…

And, that’s exactly how the journey of this month’s Play Circle unfolded…
We started with tending to the detail of our fingers and toes, noticing and expanding, hiding and bursting into the space. We turned upside-down, connected with others in our funny inverted states and travelled around each other, acknowledging and responding to blasts of movement and tentative curiosities, stopping and starting, watching, moving independently and with others.

We moved together with cloth of different textures and marine shades, navigating Grandma Penguin through the sea and reuniting her with Baby Penguin who had been left behind, each child insisting on a cuddle with the penguin family once their watery world explorations were over, sharing in a sense of reassurance and relief.

A large collection of new friends appeared (in the form of soft toys…), with each child and their family group confidently guiding them through their physical and imagined worlds with purpose and care. …sometimes ‘flying’ high, other times cradled or riding on the child’s back, eventually finding a resting place together wrapped in a brightly coloured blanket – and stillness to sleep…

When we interact with ideas and concepts our physical responses emerge quicker than our cognitive brain can acknowledge them, revealing emotional feelings and physical sensations which then become our own in-the-moment story: the story of me, now.

By Anne Colvin

See information about upcoming Play Circle dates here.

Image by Rob Harris

See what’s coming to our galleries in Spring, Summer and Autumn 2020…

Spring
From February 1

Zadie Xa’s Child of Magohalmi and the Echoes of Creation is a major new project conceived by Xa in collaboration with artist Benito Major Vellejo. At its centre is an origin story inspired by Korean creation myths, particularly Grandmother Mago (Magohalmi) who created the land, and whose granddaughters are said to be the first shamans. Highlighting the value and historic erasure of knowledge passed between womxn, the artist weaves Mago’s narrative together with that of Granny, a 105-year-old orca dolphin who ensured the survival of generations within her endangered pod.

Marc Bauer’s Mal Ȇtre / Performance presents a new series of drawings that explore depictions of people in boats throughout history, from 15th-century Catholic ex-voto paintings to contemporary media images of Aquarius, the boat that rescued migrants from the Mediterranean sea in 2018. Bauer’s project brings the past into the present, looking at migration and sea-travel as a fundamental aspect of the human condition.

Summer
From May 23

Holly Hendry’s exhibition is presented alongside a major new outdoor commission by the artist, realised in partnership with England’s Creative Coast as part of Waterfronts, a new series of commissions connecting the South East coast. Emphasising the Pavilion’s proximity to the coastline and its resulting vulnerability, Hendry’s presentation breaks down the boundaries between inside and outside, dissolving the Pavilion into its surroundings.

Rock Against Racism (1976-82) was a grass-roots movement that fought racism and the rise of the National Front in the UK through music and culture, underpinned by the belief that racism in the UK is a result of its colonial past. Hundreds of bands played RAR gigs, and their carnivals often began with anti-fascist marches. This exhibition, which includes posters, photography, sound and ephemera, presents RAR within the socio-political context of the time and highlights its contribution to feminist and LGBTQI+ struggles.

Autumn
From September 19

Spanning both of the De La Warr Pavilion’s galleries, Zineb Sedira’s solo exhibition will be her first in a UK public gallery since 2009. Through photography, moving image and sculpture, her work manifests an on-going investigation into concepts of modernism, modernity and its manifestations, often paying particular attention to conditions of transnational trade and migrant consciousness. This exhibition brings together works within which the industrial debris of the naval world and the sea are recurring motifs.

Our exhibitions are accompanied by Learning and Participation activities for all ages.

Join our mailing list to receive information on events related to our exhibition programme when they are announced.

Partners

Zadie Xa’s Child of Magohalmi and the Echoes of Creation is co-commissioned by Art Night, London, Tramway, Glasgow, Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea.

Mal Ȇtre / Performance by Marc Bauer is a collaboration between Drawing Room, London and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea.

Holly Hendry’s new outdoor commission is part of England’s Creative Coast, led by Turner Contemporary, Margate, and Visit Kent.

Storyteller Kevin Graal talks about Play Circle – our new series of monthly creative sessions for toddlers.

The idea of transforming one thing into an imaginary other thing – the essence of ‘let’s pretend’ – is central to the play-world of very young children. In this month’s Play Circle we played with the idea of transformation as embodied in artist Renee So’s textile and ceramic works, and in particular Woven Past (2019) – her wall-hanging made out of recycled woollen jumpers.

First we played with a range of brightly coloured fabrics – turning them into imaginary coats, jackets, scarves, shawls and hats. Then a rectangular piece of cloth became a bed and we played a sleeping/waking game in which ‘the sleeper’ is woken – over and over again – when everybody calls out, ‘Wake up!’ (‘Again’ is one of the first words most children learn to say. Their thirst for repetition is insatiable!) After this I told The Tailor’s Tale – a shaggy dog-type folktale about a tailor who made a coat which eventually wore out so he turned it into a jacket. And then a waistcoat. And then a hat. And then a bow-tie. And then a button. In the end, even the button wore out so the tailor turned it into … a TALE – the tale that’s just been told! What appealed to the children was not the witty story-ending – its punchline was pitched at the adults present – but the rhythmic and interactive cutting, stitching, sewing and weaving as the tailor transformed each item of clothing. These essential elements of the child’s play-world – transformation, repetition, rhythm, interaction – are at the heart of a child’s cognitive and emotional development. And they are at the heart of Play Circle too.

More than 2000 years ago the Roman poet Ovid said:
“In our play we reveal what kind of people we are.”
But perhaps what the poet really meant to say was:
“In our play we DISCOVER what kind of people we are.”

Play Circle takes place on the 2nd Monday of every month with a session at 10.15am for members of the general public

Book your spot at an upcoming Play Circle session by clicking here.

Sessions will be facilitated either by storyteller Kevin Graal or dance artist Anne Colvin together with experienced DLWP volunteers.

Challenging the conventional and re-defining the possible

Tucked behind a shop front in Hastings town centre, the team of ‘digital explorers’ at Holograph are shaping the future of how we interact with technology.

Holograph combine advanced technology with insights into human psychology to develop ground-breaking products, systems and platforms in fields ranging from real-time analytics and eCommerce to AI and Robotics. ‘Problem solving,’ is how CEO Marc Woodhead describes the business.

The Journey

Marc is the driver behind Holograph. His passion for the creative and the digital – influenced by his French artist mother and computing-expert father – emerged at an early age and spurred him into becoming a digital artist and embarking on a career as a digital architect at Hastings-based design and marketing company Brooker & How. Hastings was one of the first five places in the UK to get ADSL broadband creating a unique opportunity for Brooker & How to venture into new-media 19 years ago. Then, twelve years ago, Marc, with the support of long-standing  colleague, engineer and software developer, Ben Clayton, decided to strike out on his own.

Holograph has grown by reputation, moving from developing websites and eCommerce systems into Machine Learning (A.I.), Robotics and Wearable technology. The company’s expansion  has been helped by the area’s legacy as a hotbed for businesses working in the defence and aeronautics sector and attracted a pool of some of the very best mathematicians, software engineers, physicists and developers in the country.

Holograph now has 30 staff, a turnover of £2m and a world-class client list including Ribena, Lucozade, Britvic, Mars Petcare, the NHS and global shipping organisation, the Baltic Exchange. FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) projects include generating easy-to-use on-package coding to help increase engagement with consumers. And for the Baltic Exchange, the team developed a global platform which gives indices of world-wide freight and shipping costs and enables 24/7 online futures pricing, trading and settlements 4 times a day for different time zones. As well as developing the technology, Holograph also create content in their on-site production facilities for projects including their own children’s story-telling app PickaStory.

Marc puts the business’ success down to the incredible team which has evolved around the projects they have won.

‘We have a collective of really interesting and talented people – software engineers, physicists, mathematicians, designers, customer experience, user interface and marketing experts – all working together to blur the line between the human and the digital.’ Marc Woodhead, Holograph

He is particularly proud of Holograph’s diversity and equality. The multicultural team hail from different social backgrounds and 60% of the senior management team – Operations Director, Platform Producer and HR & Finance Director – are female.

Exploring new worlds

One of the team’s current projects is Lookinglass®. Developed out of their work in the FMCG sector, Lookinglass® enables a person to interact with a screen simply by looking at it. There’s no need to touch anything – smart camera technology tracks the movements of a person’s face, FocusTrack®, prompting the screen to react and respond.  Marc is excited about the new product’s potential benefits. ‘Selecting a drink from a vending machine through a window, tracking interest in properties for sale,  even triggering a call for help in the home, with Lookinglass® all this is possible with just a look.’

Support

Holograph has stayed at the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry by re-investing profits including spending around 20% of its turnover each year on R&D. To support a project aimed at helping non technically-minded people easily manage their own web content, dubbed Content Stream v3, the business has received a grant from the South East Creatives programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

‘The grant from South East Creatives has been fantastic, helping to pay for two new members of staff, including a front-end designer.’ Tricia Jenkins, Holograph

Future plans

In addition to Lookinglass®, Holograph have a number of other ground-breaking projects in train including Dynamo® an exciting new product that creates virtual holograms using traditional screen technology. Marc’s enthusiasm is infectious. ‘It’s a fantastic industry to work in,’ he says. ‘Every day is different and throws up endless opportunities and possibilities.’

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