Exhibitions programme 2025 at De La Warr Pavilion

We are thrilled to announce the five new exhibitions taking place this year at the De La Warr Pavilion.

Spring

February 22–May 26, 2025
Jaki Irvine: Ssh Ow

Ssh Ow is the first major solo exhibition in a UK public gallery in a decade by Dublin-based artist Jaki Irvine (b. 1966, Ireland) and features Ack Ro’, an immersive thirteen-channel video installation that surrounds viewers with an evocative interplay of sound, imagery, and light. The piece layers delicate sound and visuals, to create an atmosphere that feels both disorienting and intimate. Fragments of film are interspersed with 28 looping pink neons, which spell out anagrams derived from the words of Cracklin’ Rosie, the title of a Neil Diamond song from 1970.

Irvine’s project at DLWP includes a newly-commissioned immersive live work titled SHWO EM TEH WAY OT GO HMOE that will be presented in our auditorium in May 2025.

February 22June 1, 2025
Michelle Roberts: Red, Blue, Up

Michelle Roberts is a Bexhill-based artist whose paintings and drawings are ambitious in scale, conception and realisation. Her subjects arise from the realm of lived experience, such as a holiday, or the thrill of an Air Show, whilst other works celebrate events such as the Diamond Jubilee, or films that she has seen. Roberts’ meticulous drawing style intricately dissects shapes and forms, creating patterns with unwavering precision and control, with compositions that come to life through vivid colour.

Roberts’ solo exhibition is programmed in collaboration with Outside In, following the artist winning first prize at its national open exhibition, Humanity, in 2023, and Project Art Works, a neurodiverse collection of artists and activists based in Hastings, of which Roberts is a member.

Summer

June 14–September 14, 2025
Allan Weber: My Order
Allan Weber (b. 1992, Brazil) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Rio de Janeiro. Working across a range of mediums including assemblage, installation, sculpture and photography, his practice acts as a vehicle to deconstruct the realities of daily life within the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Weber’s work incorporates material and visual elements he views as synonymous with life in the favelas. This includes tarps used at funk parties, common architectural features such as water tanks, razor blades used to create popular hairstyles, as well as elements that relate to the work life of those active in phone app bicycle and motorcycle food delivery. Questioning the traditions and legacy of Brazilian Constructivism, he appropriates these elements into compositions that transform their social meaning.

Weber’s first institutional exhibition in the UK is a co-commission with Nottingham Contemporary, where the first iteration will open in February 2025, and has been co-curated by Pablo León de la Barra, Curator at Large, Latin America at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.

Claudia Alarcón & Silät
Claudia Alarcón (b. 1989, Argentina) is an indigenous textile artist from the La Puntana community of Wichí people of northern Salta, Argentina. Alongside her individual practice, she leads the Silät collective, an organisation of one hundred women weavers of different generations from the Alto la Sierra and La Puntana Wichí communities. Wichí society is clan-based and matrilocal. Weaving with hand-spun vegetal fibres from the local chaguar plant has been a communal, female-led activity for centuries, and is fundamental to the visual culture, narrative history and economics of the Wichí people.

This exhibition will be Claudia Alarcón & Silät’s first institutional solo presentation in Europe and follows their participation in the 60th International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere in 2024.

Autumn

October 4, 2025January 4, 2026
Betty Parsons
Betty Parsons (b. 1900, d. 1982, USA) is best-known as a visionary New York gallerist who significantly shaped twentieth-century art in the US through her roster of artists including Ad Reinhardt, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock. Alongside her gallery career, Parsons maintained a rigorous artistic practice of painting and sculpture, working at weekends in her Long Island studio.

Parsons developed a bold, playful, and expressive style, with influences ranging from natural phenomena and the cosmos to spirituality. Extensive travel across Europe, Africa, Japan, and Mexico deeply enriched her relationship with colour and form, while the coastal landscape of Long Island, New York inspired her pursuit of capturing fleeting energy in her surroundings, which she described as the ‘sheer energy’ or ‘invisible presence’ of a situation. In the 1970s, Parsons began sculpting, using driftwood from the beaches near her studio to create small, memento-like constructions. This coastal setting also inspired her poetry, which filled her sketchbooks alongside watercolours of the landscape.

This will be the first survey of Parsons’ work in Europe, charting the trajectory of her artistic practice through painting, sculpture and poetry.

Opening Doors to Creative Careers: De La Warr Pavilion Hosts Local Students for Hands-On Industry Insights

As part of Discover Creative Careers Week 2024, the Learning & Participation team carried out a number of Open Doors visits with local schools and colleges. Various members of the wider De La Warr Pavilion team attended these visits too, talking about their roles, how they got into them, and general information about working in their type of creative work.

To start off the week, nine further education students from Mount Camphill Community School visited the gallery. They were joined by Laura from the Auditorium Technical Team, who spoke about working as a technician, including a tour of the auditorium and the sound and lighting desks.

To celebrate the brand-new creative T Level course happening locally, our next visitors were nine Year 12 T Level students from Bexhill College. João from the Exhibitions team joined them for their visit and let them know a little bit more about what it’s like working in exhibitions and curation, including jobs and routes into that field. Learning even more about working in the creative industries, they were also joined by Greg from the Live Programming team, who spoke to them about them about working in the live music and events sector.

      People's legs standing around an artwork on a wooden floor.

Helping to teach students about creative careers before selecting their options, the next visit was from twenty-three Year 9 students from Saxon Mount School. This visit was joined by Amy from the Talent Accelerator team, who spoke about her roles at Talent Accelerator, Beeching Road Studios, and East Sussex College Group including what it means to be freelance and work across multiple areas within a similar sector.

Finally, we were joined by fourteen Year 8 students from Ratton School. Their visit was supported by Cassie and Daisy from the Communications & Marketing team, where they spoke about everything from social media through to communicating with audience members, and the growing importance of this type of behind-the-scenes role within arts organisations. Along with this, they also gave the Ratton School students an insight into apprenticeships, and how this is a great alternative route into work and the creative industries.

We had a wonderful time showing these students around the De La Warr Pavilion, and opening our doors to give then am insight into everything that happens at the gallery from front of house right through to office based work.

If you would like to attend an Open Doors visit with you school, get in touch with Maya Kindcaid, our Head of Learning & Engagement, on Maya.Kincaid@dlwp.com.

De La Warr Pavilion awarded £45,000 from Art Fund’s RE-IMAGINE Programme for community partnerships

The De La Warr Pavilion is delighted to announce that we have been awarded £45,000 over the next two years through Art Fund’s Reimagine grants programme. Art Fund has awarded £1million to museums and galleries across the UK reliant on local authority support. This latest round of the programme supports museums to reimagine their approach to partnerships.

This funding will allow DLWP to continue working with our valued community partners including established and emerging artists and organisations to strengthen, build and sustain the arts ecology in Bexhill, Rother and wider into Sussex.

We continue to work together with Rother District Council, to ensure excellent cultural activities and access to our Grade I listed building are kept free to accessible to all.

Stewart Drew, Director and CEO of the De La Warr Pavilion said:

Our surveys tell us that 86% of our visitors agree that DLWP is welcoming to all the community and 75% agree DLWP encourages participation in community life and events. Responding to vulnerable local authority funding, this fund allows us to continue our vital work with the community and re-imagine our approach, increasing resilience and building a creative and skills-based ecology in which we can all thrive.

Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said:

We’re extremely pleased to offer £1million in support to local-authority reliant museums and galleries across the UK through this latest round of Reimagine grants. The projects showcase the incredible value local museums have for communities and demonstrate their remarkable ambition, resilience and entrepreneurial spirit in the face of growing challenges.

Further information will be announced soon.

About De La Warr Pavilion

The De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP) is a centre for arts, culture, creativity and skills in a Grade One Listed iconic modernist building by the sea, designed by refugee Erich Mendelsohn and émigré Serge Chermayeff. It opened in 1935 as the ‘people’s palace for art and culture’ and, almost 90 years later, continues to produce an innovative and integrated cultural programme of exhibitions, learning and creative engagement as well as a diverse and popular programme of live music and comedy. DLWP sits at the heart of its community taking the lead in the development of skills and cultural tourism the region and plays a central role in the cultural and economic growth of Sussex.

As a result of the De La Warr Pavilion’s community engagement approach, in 2023/24 it:

  • Presented 4 free outdoor film screenings
  • Hosted 64 community group and private hires
  • Employed 149 staff, 89% of whom live in the local area
  • Worked with 20 local volunteers
  • Programmed 39 free creative family events and 25 free Blueprint Collective creative sessions for 16 – 22 year olds
  • Welcomed 700 people to the Bexhill Jobs and Apprenticeships Fair
  • Engaged over 11000 young people with our learning and skills programmes
  • Worked with 43 primary, secondary and SEND/SEMH schools, and colleges
  • Hosted 24 drop in sessions for Bexhill’s Ukrainian Refugees and hosted Refugee Week events with the Refugee Buddy Project, Hastings Rother & Wealden
  • Welcomed 325 children from families who receive free school meals into our music, heritage, arts and free food holiday clubs

The De La Warr Pavilion receives core revenue funding from Arts Council England (NPO) and Rother District Council.

Re-imagine Grants

Reimagine grants are funded by Art Fund and made possible with support from The Headley Trust, alongside other generous trusts and supporters of the Making Connections campaign.

The funding has been prioritised to support local authority-reliant museums and galleries in response to Art Fund’s Museum Directors Survey 2024 and other pieces of research revealing the significant challenges currently facing museums and galleries.

Art Fund

Art Fund is the UK’s independent charity for art, helping museums and people to share in great art and culture for 120 years. Art Fund raises millions of pounds every year to help the UK’s museums, galleries and historic houses. The charity funds art, enabling the UK’s museums to buy and share exciting works, connect with their communities, and inspire the next generation. It builds audiences with its National Art Pass opening doors to great culture; and it amplifies the museum sector through the world’s largest museum prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year, and creative events that bring the UK’s museums together. Art Fund is people-powered by 135,000 members who buy a National Art Pass, and the donors, trusts and foundations who support the charity.

The National Art Pass provides free or discounted entry to over 400 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and Art Quarterly magazine.

www.artfund.org

The De La Warr Pavilion has gained support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for its Transforming Heritage: Creativity, Community and Skills project.

This significant project will deliver much needed cultural-led regeneration, improving the lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Rother by building on the iconic status and local significance of the De La Warr Pavilion through refurbished and redeveloped spaces and creativity and skills programmes. By making the Pavilion more accessible, resilient and inclusive, it will showcase the transformative power of culture and heritage, offering a vibrant and culturally enriched future for all its communities. It will also serve as a unifying force, bringing communities together, creating opportunity and returning the building to its original purpose as a People’s Palace.

Development funding of £219,258 has been awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to progress our plans to apply for capital funding in 2025. This initial support from the Heritage Fund is made possible by National Lottery players.

A successful Heritage Fund would enable us to

  • Preserve the heritage of the building by repairing and refurbishing original and iconic spaces
  • Make spaces more physically accessible and inclusive by unlocking community learning and skills programmes for all our communities
  • Redevelop spaces for commercial and mixed use, so the Pavilion can grow its business model ensuring future financial sustainability.
  • Improve the environmental sustainability of the organisation
  • Help us reach our fundraising goals for the full capital scheme. Read here about our Levelling Up award here: www.dlwp.com/luf

The Heritage Fund Development grant allows us to work with a number of consultants to look at specific areas or our work, particularly in regard to our heritage, access, digital, inclusion and participation, which will feed into the project and ensure that the future of the organization is meaningful and of value to the communities that we serve. They will be running consultations with our partners, visitors and the public throughout the autumn while plans are being developed.

Stewart Drew Director and CEO of the De La Warr Pavilion said:

‘We are thrilled to have the initial support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund to enable us to continue with our plans for the Transforming Heritage: Creativity, Community and Skills capital project. It presents a wonderful opportunity to speak to our communities about accessibility, inclusion and participation and to work towards preserving the heritage of our Grade One Listed building for everyone to enjoy now and in the future.’

About the Project

In January 2023, Bexhill heard the amazing news that it had been awarded £19m from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund for Bexhill and Sidley. Read more here.

In April 2024 we announced Haworth Tompkins as architects for the project. Read more here.

Support from the Heritage Fund will help us realise this ambitious project.

About The National Lottery Heritage Fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK’s heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players we support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.

www.heritagefund.org.uk

De La Warr Pavilion logo                     The National Lottery Heritage Fund logo.