Daisy Jerome, Author at DLWP, The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, East Sussex

Introducing Creative Sidley: A Youth-Led Takeover of Local Culture

Creative Sidley is underway! Since April, a group of 11 young people aged 11–17 from the Sidley area have been meeting fortnightly to explore their creativity, build new skills, and connect with each other and their community.

Together, they’ve begun shaping a programme of creative activity that will run over the next few months – including workshops, artist collaborations, and public ‘takeover’ moments throughout Sidley. From storytelling and sound to design, performance and visual art, the project gives young people the tools and support to express their ideas, share their perspectives, and make a lasting impact on their local area. (You might have seen them performing at Sidley Festival this summer!)

Shaped by Young People

So far, the group has worked together to develop their vision, reflect on what creativity means to them and build confidence through hands-on sessions. This spring, they also played a central role in shortlisting and interviewing candidates for the project’s first Artist in Residence – making the final selection as a team.

The Artist in Residence will now collaborate with the group to co-create new work and support the development of a series of public events in Sidley.

We’re thrilled to welcome our new Artist in Residence and Emerging Creative Facilitator!

Meet the Artist in Residence

Lexy Morvaridi

“I’m really excited to work with young people in Sidley and support their creativity within the local community. I’m looking forward to developing pieces of work that grow from the facilitation skills we build together. We’ll begin with deep listening and narrative building, which we can then share with the wider community to bring people together… We might also be playful and experiment with different ways of making cross-disciplinary work, giving us chances to explore and share our many creative interests and skills, always letting the process lead the way.”

Lexy Morvaridi is an artist, cultural programmer and DIY activist. Their socially engaged practice explores sound, identity and narrative through installation, performance, and community-led collaboration. Lexy was previously Contemporary Music and Culture Programmer at Southbank Centre and has developed projects with young people with the ICA, Brent Biennial, Raw Materials, and Dulwich Picture Gallery. They are currently a studio artist at Gasworks and one half of InnerSwell, a sound and memory project co-created with Laima Leyton.

A New Pathway into Creative Work: Emerging Creative Facilitator

Harper Fairbrass

Creative Sidley also includes a dedicated Emerging Creative Facilitator role, delivered in partnership with Talent Accelerator. This paid opportunity supports a local creative aged 18–25 to take their first steps into socially engaged arts practice.

The Emerging Creative Facilitator joins the project team across fortnightly sessions and public events, learning alongside the Artist in Residence while receiving tailored mentoring from both Lexy and our Head of Learning and Engagement, Maya. This role is all about confidence-building, skills development and creative leadership – helping a young local practitioner grow into their own unique facilitation style.

“I am really looking forward to being a part of Creative Sidley. I’m excited to have the chance to encourage and guide the young people as they explore their creative interests and connection to their community through engaging processes. I also feel very lucky to have such inspirational mentors to support me in this position and help expand my knowledge, skills and practice.” – Harper Fairbrass

Harper Fairbrass is an illustrator and artist based in Bexhill-on-Sea. She completed her Art Foundation at Camberwell (UAL) and graduated in 2024 with a BA in Illustration from the University of Brighton. Her work embraces tactile, handmade processes – including collage and pencil drawing – and is characterised by bold colour, playful composition and quiet humour. Harper is a co-director of Living Communities CIC, which delivers creative projects in Bexhill and London. She has also supported workshops at the De La Warr Pavilion and in Eastbourne, and is passionate about using art as a tool for connection, confidence and storytelling.

A Shared Studio at Beeching Road

As part of the project, both Lexy and Harper have access to a shared studio unit at Beeching Road Studios, providing them with a dedicated space to develop the project and their own creative practices side by side. This gives them the chance to embed within a thriving local creative community and deepen their connection to Sidley and Bexhill through ongoing presence and practice.

This opportunity has been made possible thanks to generous support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, through the Creative, Confident Communities fund. Creative Sidley is supported for three years as part of this programme, and we’re deeply grateful for the investment in young people, artists, and community-led creativity in Sidley.

Who’s Involved?

Creative Sidley is a partnership project made possible through collaboration between local organisations including Heart of Sidley, The Pelham, Sara Lee Trust, Earl’s Café, 18Hours, Beeching Road Studios, Flatland Projects, and Talent Accelerator. Together, we’re creating space for young people to lead, imagine and create – and to see their ideas come to life in their own community.

Stay tuned for updates on workshops, takeovers, and ways to get involved!

Thank you to our holiday artists, Annie Mackin and Amy Rose Barnes

We want to extend our warmest thanks to our two holiday family workshop artists, Annie Mackin and Amy Rose Barnes for designing and delivering a series of exciting creative workshops to children of all ages, families, and adults during the school holidays over the last year. Together, their efforts meant that the local community had plenty of opportunities to get creative and express themselves through a range of artistic techniques.

We caught up with them both to ask them about their experience and what their future plans are:

What made this opportunity significant to you?

Annie: Creating workshops for the local community in such a well-regarded gallery was such a great experience, and meeting such enthusiastic families that all came away with such lovely artworks.

Amy: This project was a great opportunity to collaborate and learn with and from another Artist over time, which is such a unique experience. I particularly enjoyed creating collaborative workshops for intergenerational families. It was wonderful to see grandparents making alongside their grandchildren. The opportunity to work across the year gave us the opportunity to respond to previous ideas, which supported us in creating a thread across the whole project.

In what ways did the program enhance your skills and professional practice?

Annie: Collaborating with Amy and seeing how she works in such an abstract way influenced and inspired my practice.

Amy: Learning from Annie’s practice taught me many new techniques and gave me the opportunity to practice with and teach new techniques and materials such as using modroc and brusho, which I will definitely use in the future.
The opportunity to work on a year- long project enhanced my skills and practice as there was so much opportunity for reflection and ideas to grow through collaboration- this is an experience I would recommend to other artists and hope to find similar
opportunities in the future.

How did consistently working with families differ from your usual practice?

Annie: It was a joy to see how the initial workshop instructions would evolve in so many ways with different families and the confidence children had when working alongside caregivers.

Amy: Whilst I have worked with Families before, I predominantly work with schools and community groups (such as mental health and neurodiverse groups) – this opportunity to work with families over time has taught me new skills in communication, having to
quickly adapt between encouraging children as well as their parents and grandparents to also feel comfortable to make. Adults are often resistant as they see the opportunity as just for the children but these moments of encouraging the whole family to make together have been particularly rewarding.

What was the highlight of your year or your favourite moment from the workshops?

Annie: I think the last two workshops, where Amy and I led workshops inspired by each other’s practice, were a wonderful way to show appreciation for each other’s work.

Amy: It is hard to choose a specific highlight as I truly enjoyed the whole project. After my first two workshops in the October half term, I felt so supported by Maya and Miguel and quickly developed a great relationship with Annie too. Since then, I have looked forward to each half term for the next round of workshops! Between each term, thinking and planning for the next workshop has had a large impact on my personal practice.

I really enjoyed the community feel amongst the Bexhill community from both the DLWP team and the local families. Throughout the project, I felt that my ideas were valued and celebrated, which made for such a great environment to collaborate to
produce such a wonderful year-long project.

What was your most significant challenge, and what changes would you make?

Annie: The most challenging part of the workshops was holding teenagers’ attention and encouraging them to keep their work and be proud of it. I think holding more workshops specifically aimed at older children/teenagers would have been useful for this.

Amy: I honestly can’t think of any challenges or things I would change. The only thing I can think of is perhaps more documentation of the project and the lead artists via DLWP instagram?Or an end of year exhibition could be a nice way to celebrate the project across the three organisations.

What are your future plans and goals as an artist?

Annie: To keep painting. I’m planning some projects with Babes in Arms, the local mother artists’ collective, alongside having a baby in July.

Amy: As an Artist Facilitator/Artist, I hope to work on more long-term engagement projects with diverse communities including children, young people, adult mental health and neurodiverse groups through leading workshops inspired by my practice and supporting introductions to abstract art that support people’s confidence and social interaction. My future plans also include expanding my personal practice by having more exhibitions. I also hope to relocate in the future to the Hastings/ Bexhill area as I have really enjoyed spending time in the local area, and would love to be a part of a supportive art community

Once again, a huge thank you to Annie and Amy for delivering such an incredible programme of holiday workshops, we wish you all the best for the future. Be sure to follow them both on Instagram to stay up-to-date with their latest projects!

Follow Annie on Instagram @anniemackinart
Follow Amy on Instagram @amyrosebarnes

DLWP x Flatland Curatorial Fellow Harry Leek Launches Mooching Studies

The last recipient of the DLWP X FLATLAND Curatorial Fellowship, Harry Leek, has a new audio project titled Mooching Studies… which was as developed as part of a curatorial fellowship.

Mooching Studies…

Mooching Studies… is an evolving series of audio interviews and walking conversations with artists, set against shifting landscapes. Drawing from intuitive ways of moving through a place, these recorded mooches explore how locality, memory, and artistic practice intersect.

To mooch is to move without urgency, to follow curiosity rather than a fixed route. It’s a practice of slow observation, of letting an environment shape thought and dialogue. Exploring the concept of drifting, combined with the immersive audio.

Each study consists of a recorded ‘Mooch’ – a walk and talk with between curator and artist, reflecting on artistic practice, moments of personal memory, shifts in urban developments and landscapes, and the ways artists contribute to and are shaped by the places they move through. Accompanied by field recordings and images, each study is available as a participatory audio experience.

The first episode follows artist Richard Lockett as we explore the subtle ways a place can alter us—how walking, repetition, and everyday movements shape our thinking. Moving through Bexhill, Richard reflects on the shifts that occur when you immerse yourself in a landscape, and how place influences the way we make work.

This series is an invitation to drift, to listen, and to engage with surroundings in new ways.

Listening Instructions

This episode features a walk taken with artist Richard Lockett on December 6, 2024. The actual walk lasted 1 hour and 2 minutes, covering 4.56km, whereas the audio piece is approximately 14 minutes long.

As you follow the route, the audio will guide you with verbal instructions, but the walking time and the episode length do not sync up. You may need to pause the recording at certain points to walk between locations or spend time observing your surroundings before continuing. Move at your own pace, allowing time to absorb the environment as Richard and I discuss the subtleties of place, movement, and creative thought.

About

Mooching Studies was developed as part of a curatorial fellowship at Flatland Projects and the De La Warr Pavilion. Harry Leek’s curatorial practice is rooted in exploring alternative forms of exhibition-making, artist development, and the social spaces where art intersects with daily life. This project emerged from a desire to move beyond the gallery—into the streets, along the coast, and through the everyday landscapes that shape artistic thought.

Walking with artists as a format to allows for a slower, more meandering kind of conversation—one where the environment becomes a contributor.

Introducing More Culture – Our New Free Membership for 16-25s

We want young people to feel welcome here at DLWP, so we are so excited to finally launch our new membership initiative, More Culture, just for 16-25 year olds.

Whether you’re into live music and events, art, film, or just good coffee and sea views, More Culture is your way to make the most of DLWP. The best part? It’s completely free.

Including a range of perks, such as:

· Priority booking for selected live events and performances

· Discounts at DLWP’s Café Bar and Shop

· Prize draws for a chance to win free tickets to selected events

For Young People, By Young People

More Culture has been built from the ground up with young people in mind. And when we say “for young people, by young people”- we mean it.

The initiative was developed by two members of our marketing team—Luke (23) and Daisy (25)– who worked closely with local young people through a series of focus groups. These conversations were key to shaping what More Culture is today.

In fact, Daisy, who joined DLWP 18 months ago as a Marketing Apprentice, played a critical role in delivering More Culture as part of her final project. From carrying out research and writing the marketing plan, to working with stakeholders on the brand identity and evaluating the outcomes, she was involved every step of the way.

“It’s been super exciting to involved with something of this level so early into my career as a marketer. Working on More Culture has meant I have been able to work towards completing part of my end point assessment for my apprenticeship. Hopefully, in a couple of months, I will be able to proudly say that I have a Level 4 in Marketing.

As someone who is no stranger to going to gigs, I think the scheme is such a great opportunity for the young people of Bexhill and beyond. I can’t wait to see what it blossoms into further down the line.”

Membership for More Culture is now open, so join us, tell a friend, and lets all do more with culture together.

DLWP X FLATLAND Studio Development Programme 2025/26

We are delighted to introduce the artists selected for the 2025/26 DLWP x Flatland Studio Development Programme. This year-long programme offers artists based within East Sussex an opportunity to focus on developing and sustaining their practice in readiness for progressing their career within the supportive network of Bexhill’s Beeching Road Studios. We are delighted that this programme moves forward into its third iteration which celebrates our shared ethos as two organisations focussed on emerging artists’ development in the region.

The artists are:

Agata Bogacka
Ell
Natalie Janula
Olivia Du Vergier
Oscar Yasamee

This opportunity would not be possible without the significant support towards artists from Rother District Council.

Artist Biographies:

Agata Bogacka’s practice holds ‘clay work’ at the centre. Clay supports their drawing, painting and writing, pulling it all together “like an invisible web”. Agata is invested in creating work that transforms interactions, reflects and is reflected between the objects or the others entering the space within the field of the work.

Ell creates art in a desperately futile attempt to understand life. Working across textiles, sculpture, language, movement and memory, they pull on the threads that weave through personal experience and shared narrative. Their practice attempts to explore the in between of life, all of the things that we do not, and cannot know in a tangible way, allowing the embodiment of the materials express things that feel indescribable and incommunicable. Ell hasn’t studied art, and actually, never intended to be an artist, but after a lifetime of feeling unable to express all it was they wanted to say, discovering working in a physical form offered them a lifeline. They live and work in Hastings, East Sussex.

Natalia Janula is a Polish-born artist based in St Leonards. Her practice spans sculpture, moving image, photography, installation and performance. She is interested in urban and natural environments and the slippage between the two. Her recent project focused on speculative narratives, the embodiment of a constructed hybrid protagonist, humanoid forms, mythological symbolism, hydrofeminism and rituals related to the body and sci-fi imagery. Natalia’s current project, Creatures of habit, aims to explore the potential and the paradox of a hyper-capitalist, globally connected reality. Bodies, nature, spirituality, gender, technology and labour are employed in an industry where even invisible and abstract forces, such as love, can materialise into a definitive economy of objects, units and value. To date, she has exhibited in the UK and internationally, including solo exhibitions at New Art Projects & Union gallery (both London) & Apiece (Vilnius); group shows incl. the Horse Hospital, Krupa Gallery, Xxjira Hii, Filet space, Gossamer Fog, The Residence gallery, Collective Ending, Iklectic, Subsidiary Projects (all London, UK); Final Hot Desert (Utah, US), TBA Academy (Venice, IT), Embassy (Edinburgh, UK), the Factory Project (Liverpool, UK) & Conditions (Croydon,UK) amongst others.

Olivia du Vergier (b. 1995) is an artist-filmmaker based in Hastings, UK. Her practice explores the interrelation of language, memory, and movement. Through moving image, du Vergier’s works examine how meaning is constructed, lost, and misinterpreted as we navigate the spaces between what we intend to convey when we communicate and what is actually received. du Vergier is a 2021 graduate of the MA Artists’ Film & Moving Image at Goldsmiths. Recent group exhibitions/screenings include Ladders and Snakes, bureau 200, Montreal (2025), Sì Cinema 5, Cafe des Images, Caen (2024), Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show, Edinburgh (2024), Objects of Care, Backhaus Projects, Berlin (2023), Micro Acts 16, Corners, London (2023), 5 films by 5 filmmaker-artists, online for Cryptofiction (2021), Here for now, online for VODmilk (2021).

Oscar Yasamee produces Paintings and Print. His work reflects in abstract terms what may come to define features of a panopticon through painting, object-hood and image. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2022. Based in Hastings recent exhibitions include In gratitude for all the times we start over 2023 Flatlands Project space, MA Painting Degree Show 2022 Royal College of Art.

This opportunity has been presented in collaboration with Flatland Studios and Beeching Road Studios.

Discover! Creative Careers Week 2024

Today marks the end of Discover! Creative Careers Week 2024, which is an industry-led programme that’s been running since 2018 with funding from DCMS and ACE. Discover Creative Careers aims to increase diversity in the creative industries by highlighting creative career opportunities to young people, as well as alternative routes into this industry.

To celebrate, Talent Accelerator have been busy attending various talks, careers days, workshops, and events to spread the word about what they do and encourage places of education to consider creative careers as an important career option for their pupils. Read below to hear about everything we’ve been up to this week to support young people in finding out more about the creative industries, as well as emphasising the value of hiring young people to creative organisations across Sussex.

Starting off the week by looking outwards at what others had posted, Talent Accelerator shared various Instagram stories about Discover! Creative Careers Week, including interviews with people discussing their roles in the creative industries and how they got there. One of the most important ways for getting young people interested in creative careers is to let them know what is out there, and how their skills and interests could land them a job. You have to see it to be it!

To kick off their outreach for the week, Kim and Maddie from the Talent Accelerator team worked with schools and colleges to spread awareness about Discover! Creative Careers Week. Working with local school Bexhill Academy, Maddie attended a careers fair there to talk with pupils from year 9 and 10. From telling young people how their options and college course choices would be pathways into the arts, to re-shaping thinking around what constitutes a creative career, a lot of the pupils left with a better understanding of what opportunities the creative sector has to offer them. Meanwhile, Kim hosted an afternoon event at Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. This event brought together college and school teachers and careers advisors across East Sussex to find out more about what Talent Accelerator does. They ended the day with a tour of the Towner’s art store to highlight the joy that the arts bring to people.

Here at the De La Warr Pavilion, our Learning & Engagement team have been offering Open Doors visits all week to local schools and colleges. With support from the wider De La Warr Pavilion team, pupils and teachers had guided tours of the gallery whilst also hearing about careers in marketing, technical teams, curation, and project management. Amy from team Talent Accelerator joined the Learning & Engagement on Thursday to discuss how young people can get involved in what we do, and to tell them a little more about working as a project manager in the arts. We had visits from Mount Camphill, Bexhill College, Saxon Mount, and Ratton School.

With information sharing being a huge part of signposting young people into creative careers, Maddie attended the Youth Practitioners Network hosted by Rother Voluntary Action at De La Warr Pavilion to talk about Talent Accelerator’s work. This invited discussion and collaboration between the council, organisations and youth services all working with young people to consider how Bexhill, Hastings & Rother can become a better place for young people to live, work and thrive.

To round off the week, Kim and Maddie shared two presentations at the GoodSpace Communities of Practice event at Brighton Dome. Maddie spoke alongside fellow Artswork Breakthrough candidates Zac and Emma, who are also working on the Coastal Catalyst project collaboration between Talent Accelerator and Future Creators. They spoke about how to support and encourage young people in volunteering, based on their own experiences of volunteering as a young person. Kim followed by discussing how to get young people through the door, speaking at large about the success of Eastbourne Alive and Talent Accelerator’s work leading up to now. The day ended with neurodiversity and accessibility training from Neurodiversity UK, which gave great insight into ensuring your opportunities are workplaces are accessible for everyone.

If you want to know more about how you can support young people into creative careers, or if you’re a young person wondering what creative careers are out there, Discover! Creative Careers have a number of invaluable resources on their website.

DE LA WARR PAVILION AWARDED £202,000 FOR DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY AND SKILLS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN SIDLEY

The De La Warr Pavilion is delighted to announce CREATIVE SIDLEY – a 3-year youth and community-led project funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation under their Creative, Confident Communities work.

Inspired by almost a decade of working with and listening to young people and families in Sidley, the Creative Sidley Project centres on young people becoming leaders, designing and implementing a creative programme with artists and taking ownership of their community’s creative future. It is based on consultation with Sidley’s young people who wish to improve their environment and make Sidley a better place to live.

Heart of Sidley and the De La Warr Pavilion are partners in Rother District Council’s £19 million Levelling Up Award for community, creativity and skills in Bexhill. £2m of this will fund the new Community Hub in Sidley Recreation Ground and provide increased opportunities for residents to develop their skills and access education and employment.

The Creative Sidley Project brings together key partners in Sidley who share the De La Warr Pavilion’s vision that creativity and skills can transform a community and work to support young people. It will bring artists on to Sidley High Street and into community spaces to co-curate, with young people, creative programmes and activities.

The partners are Heart of Sidley, The Pelham, The Sara Lee Trust, Earls Mercantile Café, Beeching Road Studios, Talent Accelerator and 18 Hours Events. These Partners will work with us in their existing spaces to accommodate creative activities before the new Sidley Community Hub becomes operational.

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

We are thrilled to announce this investment in Sidley, thanks to Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Sidley is full of amazing people who want to help create a better future for their young people and we are privileged to be working with them. The goal will be to create a dynamic, youth-led creative programme in the new Community Hub, re-inforcing our relationship with Heart of Sidley and our commitment to improving the opportunities of young people in our area.

Jay Carroll, Chair of Heart of Sidley Partnership, said:

We are extremely proud of our strong links with the Pavilion which, over a number of years have been so beneficial for Sidley and wider community. This investment in Sidley’s young people will feed into Levelling Up ambitions for the new Community Hub, enabling local Sidley residents to gain

access to creative and aspirational opportunities. We are very excited to be part of this new partnership and the future of our young people. For further information on our Levelling Up Award see https://www.dlwp.com/luf/

NOTES

De La Warr Pavilion

The De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP) is a centre for arts and culture in an 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 now produces an innovative and integrated cultural programme of exhibitions and learning programmes as well as a diverse and popular programme of live music and comedy.

The Pavilion takes the lead in the development of cultural tourism and skills in the region and plays a central role in the cultural and economic growth in Sussex. For more information visit www.dlwp.com

Heart of Sidley (Big Local)

Heart of Sidley is a Big Local area. 10 years ago, they were awarded £1milllion by Local Trust to make a massive and lasting positive difference to the Sidley community. The Heart of Sidley started to use its funding in 2014 and is due to finish in 2025. The idea behind the Big Local is about bringing together all the local talent, ambitions, skills and energy from individuals, groups and organisations who want to make their area an even better place to live.

Heart of Sidley is a community-led partnership, led entirely by local residents, in partnership with local organisations, businesses and others. They’re supported by a Big Local representative and two locally trusted organisations – Rother Voluntary Action and Southern Housing.

As they prepare their charity, Heart of Sidley Community Association, for the exciting future ahead, they continue to work towards the community’s priorities. They have a very proactive and driven group of people on board, who are all part of the Sidley community themselves. They ensure voices are heard and action is taken in their commitment to improving the area and opportunities for local people. For more information visit https://heartofsidley.co.uk/

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aims to improve our natural world, secure a fairer future and strengthen the bonds in communities in the UK. We unlock change by contributing everything we can alongside people and organisations with brilliant ideas who share our goals.

The Foundation is one of the largest independent grant-makers in the UK. In 2023, we provided £58.4m in funding towards a wide range of work in support of our aims. This includes additional funding to organisations we fund in response to the rising cost of living. We also provide social and impact investment for organisations with the aim of creating social and environmental impact. www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk

Future Creators & Talent Accelerator join forces on new project to help young people into creative employment across Sussex

Future Creators, part of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, and Talent Accelerator, part of De La Warr Pavilion, will lead the delivery of Coastal Catalyst, a 2-year partnership project that will develop new pathways into the creative industries for young people aged 14-25 along the Sussex Coastal Corridor.

Coastal Catalyst will see local authorities, educational institutions and businesses collaborate to build new creative employment opportunities and support young people into work. Supported by £900k funding from Arts Council England, the project will use cross-sector professional networks to drive investment into young people’s creative skills, ensuring economic growth across the Sussex coast, from Bognor Regis in the west to Bexhill in the east.

The creative sector offers huge opportunities for young people and economic growth across the South East. The creative industries are worth £125 billion to the UK – more than the life sciences, automotive manufacturing, aerospace and the oil and gas sectors combined. In Brighton & Hove alone they generated more than £1.5bn in turnover last year and employed more than 16,000 people. Coastal Catalyst will help unlock this potential for the benefit of the region.

Coastal Catalyst is led by Future Creators and Talent Accelerator, with other consortium members including: University of Brighton, Department for Work & Pensions, East Sussex College, Arun District Council and The Royal Society of Arts.

The project will establish new Creativity Hubs in Arun, Eastbourne/Newhaven and Bexhill, plus a satellite hub in East Brighton, and create more opportunities for young people to work in the creative sector, such as new job roles, work experience placements and apprenticeships. Coastal Catalyst seeks to co-create a place-based response to systemic challenges by working with and within local communities.

Future Creators is Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival’s initiative to work collaboratively to develop the creative potential, skills and voice of children and young adults across Sussex. Their ambition is to prove to the world that collective action can nurture the creativity of children and has long term, positive and measurable effects. By understanding local, regional and national context, they work together to shape and co-develop work that responds to need and will make a difference.

Talent Accelerator is a De La Warr Pavilion programme that supports young people (aged 14 to 25) into creative careers in East Sussex and is the inspiration and cornerstone of the transformational Creativity, Community and Skills capital programme. Talent Accelerator aims to raise understanding of the range of jobs available in the creative industries, develop high quality work experiences, opportunities for skills development and expand what creative businesses and cultural organisations can offer young people. In the first two years (2022 – 2024) 6,468 young people have gone through elements of the Talent Accelerator.

Coastal Catalyst is a Place Partnership project, funded by the Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant scheme.

Peter Chivers, Director of Future Creators, part of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, said:

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Talent Accelerator to lead this new programme. The creative industries offer huge opportunities for young people. Coastal Catalyst will unlock this by bringing together businesses, education partners and the creative sector to develop new pathways into employment in the sector. Young people are our future, and developing their creative skills will have long-term, positive and measurable benefits for the region.”

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

“Our commitment to developing the skills that young people need to follow a career in the creative industries is at the heart of our Community, Creativity and Skills capital project and the future of our region. We are delighted that our highly successful Talent Accelerator programme will collaborate with Future Creators to reach more young people to fulfil their individual potential whilst contributing to the economy of Sussex as a whole.”

A Week of Work Experience at DLWP

Last week, we welcomed several work-experience students from local schools and colleges to DLWP. During their time here, they gained hands-on experience in different departments. They worked with our staff in exhibitions, live programming, tech, finances, marketing and box office to learn about the roles and develop new skills.

At the end of the week, one of our work experience students interviewed the others about their time at the Pavilion. They all agreed that they enjoyed their time at DLWP, finding the opportunity useful. Find out what they had to say below.

What have you enjoyed doing here?

Lily: All the work in the kitchen/shop area as I was able to engage with customers and people the most.

Kris: Everything.

Maple: Making the logo/poster and going to the flatland site.

Oriana: Learning new things such as light and sound tech.

Have you learned anything?

Lily: What happens behind the scenes of working at the De La Warr.

Kris: What goes on behind the scenes of an event.

Maple: How they set up and change the space for each exhibition.

Did you enjoy the week overall, why?

Lily: Yes as I have learned my new skills.

Kris: I enjoyed it as I did a variety of work.

Maple: Invigilator of an exhibition.

Oriana: Yes as I learnt so much new stuff.

Has this benefited you?

Lily: Yes, as I have learnt a lot of what goes on in the De La Warr.

Kris: Yeah, its taught me a lot about working here.

Maple: Yes, as I have seen what it’s like to have a job in an artistic place.

Oriana: Yeah.

Would you recommend this to someone?

Lily: Yes.

Kris: Yeah.

Maple: Yeah.

Oriana: If someone was interested.

It was a pleasure to have them and we thank them for all their hard work!

To learn more about our upcoming work experience and opportunities head to Talent Accelerator

DLWP X FLATLAND Studio Development Programme

We are delighted to announce the 2024/25 cohort for the DLWP x Flatland Studio Development Programme. This year-long programme offers artists based within East Sussex an opportunity to focus on developing and sustaining their practice in readiness for progressing their career within the supportive network of Bexhill’s Beeching Road Studios. We are delighted that this programme moves forward into its second iteration which celebrates our shared ethos as two organisations focussed on emerging artists’ development in the region.

The artists are :

Richard Lockett ( @_richardlockett )

Sarah Gomes Harris ( @sarahgomesharris )

Flo Wright ( @flo_wrightsart )

Vannessa Farinha ( @vanessafarinha_art )

Alastair Laas ( @laas_artist )

Congratulations to them all.

This opportunity would not be possible without the significant support towards artists from Rother District Council

Artist biographies:

Richard Lockett is an artist based in Brighton and London, and studied at the The Slade (2006), Goldsmiths (2014) and The Royal Academy Schools (2019). Richard works across drawing, photography, digital media, video, collage and sound often coming together as installation. Richard’s works attempt to record sensorial experiences in a sculptural and spatial manner. Areas of interest include the arrangement, potentiality and psychology of interior spaces; neurodivergence through recording and mark making; mapping as aesthetic tool for finding different neural connections between subject and objects.

Sarah Gomes Harris / SGH is a Hastings based animator, artist and campaigner. Her work is often an overt political response to housing, climate or social injustice, playfully engaging the viewer and/or community. The works include interactive animatable sculptures, soft sculptures, puppets or ‘rides’, a board game, a comic or zine, a single sheet newspaper found on a bus. Some works are seen as performative art eg walking round the UK dressed as a house to raise awareness of the housing crisis. All blur lines between cartoon, politics and reality, regularly taken out onto the streets or non-typical artist environments.

Flo Wright is an artist based in East Sussex. She studied Fine art painting at Wimbledon school of art. Her practice examines dynamics in the domestic space. She draws on what objects people surround themselves with to create an image of their lives. Using references from pop culture, the historic, a queer perspective and science fiction. Primarily through paint, she uses storytelling techniques to imagine and rebuild spaces. Which the objects can re-inhabit; and become sentient. In her paintings she examines how these objects can reflect their owners and act as hauntings of the past. And be used in the present to play out alternative realities.

Vanessa Farinha explores the labels and signs we cling to so that we might understand who we are, individually, collectively and between the in-between. She’s never limited to a single medium and is often a little tongue-in-cheek. She has created performance, photography, collage, installation, painting and video work and has exhibited internationally. Vanessa Farinha grew up in North London, studied Fine Art at Goldsmith’s University, London, later becoming a creative producer and is now living in Hastings.

Alastair Laas grew up in the industrial heart of England called the Black Country, where he was exposed to the multifaceted aspects of capitalism. From humble beginnings, he worked in a tattoo parlour, built luxury yachts, cleaned offices, and sold insurance to art collectors, before moving into TV and advertising. His professional experience continues to provide a unique perspective on the intricacies of labor and human value that are fundamental to his vision and approach as an artist.