Author: sally

1066 Country Marketing has joined the campaign to bring the Bayeux Tapestry back to its roots.

Stewart Drew, Chair of 1066 Country Marketing  says:

“It’s fantastic news that the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to England. This beautiful work depicts the origin of the 1066 Country story – the landing at Pevensey, the battle itself  and Hastings castle. The loan of this tapestry from France reminds us how this significant event has influenced the country we live in today. It has shaped our society, language, industry, heritage and culture.

“Why not bring the Bayeux tapestry back to its roots ? we ask. In 2016 we witnessed the 950th anniversary celebrations here. Let’s build on the interest and enthusiasm that generated.

“There’s no doubt that for 1066 Country to host one of the world’s most famous tapestries would be both apt and sensational. It would set it in the context of our special landscape, coastline, communities and cultural heritage – the very place that was pivotal in this nation-shaping event.”

1066 Country is the area in south east England that includes the towns of Hastings, Battle, Rye, Bexhill and Pevensey.

1066 Country is one of the oldest tourism agencies in the UK. It is it a private public partnership supported by, amongst others, Hasting Borough Council,  Rother District Council,  Wealden District Council and  English Heritage.

I’ve attended two farewell events this week, which have prompted me to reflect on the two distinct eras of the De La Warr Pavilion over the past 20 years, and how this has shaped where we go from here.

Firstly, I was invited to Caroline Collier’s leaving drinks at Tate Britain; Caroline was Partnerships & Programmes Director since 2014, but her significant career at Tate started back in 2005, the year DLWP reopened after the major refurbishment. She was hugely instrumental at the Tate, building national and international relationships with galleries and museums and developing a solid network and support system (Plus Tate) for the visual arts sector. In Bexhill (for Tate), Caroline led on the major Artists Rooms exhibitions  Beuys is Here (2009) and, one of our top three most popular exhibitions Warhol is Here (2011/12).

Caroline was Director of the Pavilion from 1995-99, and worked closely with Rother District Council and the Friends of the Pavilion in helping to shape the organisation as we know it today. Caroline led the development of our visual arts programme, and worked extensively on the Lottery applications to help restore and increase the viability of the business model. While working on the Artist Rooms projects, she told me of her frustration that the auditorium was ultimately excluded from the Lottery applications because, on advice from the funders, it was no longer viable and the prospects were too limited.

Her successor Alan Haydon (1999 – 2011) saw through the final Lottery funding and redevelopment, but indeed the auditorium was not funded and was literally dusted off for the reopening in 2005 with facilities that were more than 20 years out of date. Alan and Live Programmer Laura Ducceschi pushed against this, launching a strong live music programme that included Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Goldfrapp, Margaret Leng Tan and collaborations with the Heritage Orchestra, UNKLE and Beardyman. This programme put the auditorium squarely back on the map, but lacked regularity, viability and being responsive to local audience needs.

This leads me to our second farewell event for Oliver Catchpole in Wetherspoons, Bexhill, on Thursday. Yes, the very bar chain that threatened our Grade One listed building in 2000.

Ollie, appointed in 2012, was tasked to increase the number of nights we are open, be more inclusive and diverse, and of course bring the best acts to our seaside town. I want to pay tribute to a very talented, focused programmer, who brought variety back to the Pavilion and viability to an auditorium that had previously been regarded as unworkable. We now know that the venue now bulges with audiences, with sold out gigs and that facilities that sometimes struggle to accommodate everyone’s needs (we are sorry for the bar queues and we are working hard to make them better in both the short and longer term).

Thank you to Ollie for bringing us early performances of Clean Bandit,  Jack Savoretti, Everything Everything ; gigs from classic performers such as Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, Don Maclean, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rick Wakeman and Rumer; American iconic bands Grizzly Bear and Television; stars such as Nelly; UK icons Richard Hawley, Billy Bragg, Bonobo, Dr John Cooper Clarke, Gary Numan, OMD, Frank Turner, Wilko Johnson, Pil, and of course Chas & Dave; and some of the best comedy including Al Murray, Jason Manford, Jimmy Carr, Stewart Lee, Bill Bailey and Milton Jones.

Ollie brought family shows, NT live streaming and cinema screenings to Bexhill, not being afraid to try different things, adapting to how audiences responded and to see if box office takings would sustain the programme. He challenged us as a venue with bookings from Bullet for My Valentine, The Slaves and of course the Napalm Death collaboration with Keith Harrison (Napalm Death gig threatens structure of historic De La Warr Pavilion – The Independent). Working closely with Caleb Madden on the Dear Serge programme, this approach led to the Pavilion leading on a national network for experimental music, OUTLANDS, responding to the overwhelming commercialisation of music in the UK and the inability to take risks. OUTLANDS launches later this spring.

Despite challenges, we have seen increased investment into Bexhill, and an emerging evening economy, with new restaurants, quality bedrooms for overnight stays, extensive refurbishment of the Cooden Beach Hotel and a planning application for a central Bexhill hotel.

We know that the viability discussions in the 2000s were not without substance and that running such a programme is not without significant financial risk, not in the least in the light of the disruption of rail services which have undoubtedly affected our ticket sales.

Supporting our programme has been a team of extraordinary local individuals who run marketing, front of house operations and technical aspects of events. Our tech team have a brilliant reputation amongst tour managers nationally, leading to acts and promoters returning to us again and again. Mat Mcquade our Auditorium Tech Manager, who runs the auditorium, started on work experience from Bexhill College in 2005; Tara Neville who runs our website and social media, was a DV8 apprentice. The operation is designed to support and grow local talent.

Thank you to Caroline and Ollie for your part in our story, and to you, our audiences, in supporting our work. We’re ready for the future and will announce our new Head of Live Programme very shortly.

If you have danced, been spellbound by, nodded your head to, zoned out to, or moshed to our live programme, please join Eddie Izzard, our Honorary Patron in showing your support to the Pavilion, the programme and in building the skills of the people who run it. Here are four ways you can do this:

• Buy a ticket here
• Text DLWP to 70507 to donate £5 or donate here
• Become a member and get priority booking here 
• Tell us your favourite gig or event using the hashtag #dlwprocks on social media.

Stewart Drew
Director and CEO
De La Warr Pavilion

We are very saddened to hear that one of the greatest graphic designers of our age,  Ivan Chermayeff,  passed away on 3 December. As the son of Serge Chermayeff,  the architect who with Erich Mendelsohn, designed the De La Warr Pavilion, Ivan was a friend and Patron to the Pavilion until his death, generously creating our 80th Anniversary logo in 2015.

Credited with being one of the founders of the modern profession of graphic design Ivan’s agency, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv was responsible for some of the most iconic logos of the 20th century, including PanAm, Mobil, NBC, National Geographic and MOMA to name  just a few.

In 2014 we were thrilled to exhibit some of his more personal work in our ground floor gallery in an exhibition called Cut And Paste, bringing together three generations of Chermayeffs;  the exhibition was designed by his son Sam together with his partner Johanna Mayer-Grohbrugge in the building designed by his father. This was Ivan’s first UK exhibition and  toured to Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth and to London College of Communication as part of the London Design Festival.

The work in the show reflected his obsession with collecting scraps –  crumpled envelopes and crushed tin cans, scraps of billboards and torn newsprint, all assembled to form strange animals and abstract faces.  We then invited Ivan to design an icon for our 80th anniversary, and he presented us with a very simple, three circle mark (see below)   which was used on our print material and made into beautiful and much coveted pin.

Whilst visiting us for the opening of his exhibition, Ivan  said to the Guardian “The goal is always to make something simple and memorable. You must be as clear and direct as possible.”

We remember Ivan as a very generous and warm character with an extra-ordinary outlook on life. It was a thrill to watch Elvis Costello with him and the family in the concert hall designed by his father, and to be able to take him to his childhood home Bentley Wood, where amongst others Frank Lloyd Wright took tea on the terrace.

See above Ivan Chermayeff returning to Bentley Wood, his childhood home designed by his father, with our trustee Sean Albuquerque.

Our thoughts are with Ivan’s family.

Stewart Drew
Director and Chief Executive
De La Warr Pavilion Charitable Trust

Artist Roy Voss presents a curious and charming exhibition of works in the De la Warr’s first floor gallery throughout the summer, with time still to pay a visit until Sunday, 8  October. Comprised of over a hundred pieces, the exhibition celebrates the lost art of handwritten correspondence and the distinctive visual language of postcards. Mass produced and recognisable by compositions which mimic classical Art, idealised scenery and vivid colours, postcards may seem an outdated and trivial item. Their significance, as Voss reveals, is in the communication which they convey. A picture of one’s location, and no more words than can be crammed into four inches by five inches of space, express a human need to bridge geographical distance, to reach out to one’s loved ones and thus to familiarity, from across land or sea. While we may dismiss or underestimate these uncostly slips of mail, a small painting and an anecdote have the power to remind us that we are never truly very far from home. Most common in a recent but waning era in which international travel was not as easy and common as it is now, postcards are relics of a time in which we were, almost childlike, both excited and intimidated by distance.

This innate and heartfelt simplicity is highlighted in a similarly uncomplicated manner by Voss’s collage creations. Voss cuts out a single word, one selected by the artist which sums up both the frontal image and the experience which is inscribed overleaf, and replaces it backwards into it’s window within the picture, replacing a small area almost like a cluster of pixels with words. This exchange of colour and shape for a combination of letters highlights the power of description to act in the very same way as a visual image in transporting a person’s imagination.

The chosen words in question are poignantly thought provoking. Voss seems to expertly play on the human tendency to second guess the meaning of details, by presenting some out of context. For instance, one collage features the word ‘blue’; does this refer to the blue of the sky and the ocean, or to the ‘blue’ mood of the writer in their absence, I have wondered. Another features the tranquil, exotic green scenery of a valley, and the word ‘long’, which may describe the physical geography, the distance or the duration of time for which the writer has travelled, or indeed can be read as the verb form, suggesting that the writer ‘longs’ for something. Perhaps the company of the one to whom they are writing. In short, Voss’s engagement with language serves to bring to light the fundamental emotions that we as the viewer have in common not only with the anonymous writers, but with each other. Moreover, he leaves sufficient room for mystery to tease out our own feelings, the assumptions we make about the elusive true meaning of the solitary written words perhaps reflecting some inner truth of our own. Your interpretation might differ from mine, and from this we may glean something of ourselves.

The appeal of this exhibition is rooted in its sense of nostalgia and personal connection, yet also in the theme and the dynamic visual style of Travel. And indeed, the layout of the exhibition space underpins both of these elements effectively. The large white space housing the almost miniature scale artworks is minimalist and open, the blank, light environment somehow emphasising the effect of the vivid colours which come forth form their two-dimensional rectangles. Crystalline blues, verdant greens and blazing oranges indicative of holiday sunsets all evoke our common memories of adventures and travel, the childhood memories which somehow are rendered forever in spectacular technicolour by the youth with which we once perceived them.

The effect of this interaction of tiny artworks and a large space is that the viewer is compelled to physically approach each piece individually, thus a sense of intimacy is created and as the viewer you feel almost as if the post card had just arrived for you personally. The continuous row of collages travelling around the perimeter of the open space also creates a kind of storyline along which the viewer moves, taking in a disjointed and yet simultaneously cohesive series of snapshots into anonymous identities and experiences. The small scale of the collages in the vast gallery space casts the impression that they are tiny windows into memories shrunken or grown distant with time.

I recommend a visit to Roy Voss’s Exhibition, All the World’s A Sunny Day, merely to find out your own interpretation of the curious collage creations in addition to enjoying the plethora of other themes which you may find intriguing and thought provoking. Given the time to draw you in, this exhibition will bring a smile to your face, be it one of nostalgia, curiosity, or simple visual enjoyment of the largely forgotten distinctive, colourful and idealised style of postcard imagery.

Review by Olivia Foskett, Invigilator, De La Warr Pavilion

Roy Voss : All The World’s A Sunny Day continues in the First Floor Gallery until Sunday 8 October

Photo by Rob Harris

OUTLANDS is an innovative new national experimental music network bringing together a mix of visual arts and music organisations, independent venues and creative producers all located outside London.  At a point where the experimental music scene is seen as risky for promoters, venues and audiences, this Arts Council Strategic Touring Award of £289,165 will support the network to inject quality, diversity and accessibility into new, engaging and ambitious music productions throughout the UK over a touring period of two years from 2018.

OUTLANDS will commission and tour three productions a year alongside a participation programme adapted specifically to audiences local to each venue. Born of out of a desire to pool resources to ensure the survival of ambitious, diverse, high-quality music, the aim is to offer new experiences to audiences outside the capital, to work within a strong national network and to boost the viability of ambitious, cross-disciplinary artforms across the whole country.

The OUTLANDS network is :
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea                dlwp.com
Qu Junktions/Al Cameron, Bristol                  qujunktions.com
Capsule/Supersonic Festival, Birmingham    capsule.org.uk
Fat Out, Salford                                                    fatout.co.uk
Fuse Art Space, Bradford                                   wearefuse.co
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes                               mkgallery.org
Cambridge Junction, Cambridge                     junction.co.uk
Peninsula Arts/KARST, Plymouth      plymouth.ac.uk/your-university/peninsula-arts  karst.org.uk

Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, said “It is really important that more people, in more places around England have the opportunity to experience great art and culture. OUTLANDS is a great project that will do just that for experimental music whilst also establishing a stronger touring infrastructure for the genre outside of London, and so we’re delighted to be able to support the De La Warr Pavilion and its partners through our National Lottery funded Strategic Touring Programme.”

Stewart Drew, Director and CEO, De La Warr Pavilion (lead organisation) said “We are delighted that Arts Council England have supported OUTLANDS, a pioneering network of national partners that will support the commissioning of experimental music, whilst engaging and growing audiences for this innovative work. Over the last decade, we have changed our auditorium programme from loss-making traditional seaside entertainment into a thriving contemporary offer with a strong music programme. OUTLANDS allows us to take this a stage further by taking the lead in creating new partnerships that will allow us to take more artistic risks and to reflect the diversity of the communities at home across the UK.”

Lisa Meyer, Artistic Director of Capsule says “Capsule are delighted to be part of the Outlands consortium, to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the most innovative creative producers and venues in the country. The funding from Arts Council England will allow us to develop extraordinary new work, to take creative risks which will both help to support artists and develop new audiences.”

FUSE, Bradford says “We’re really excited to be part of the Outlands touring network – it represents a critical advance in the infrastructure of experimental sound and music in England. The level of programming, the quality of the sonic art proposed, the diverse expertise of the partner network and the passion for great music and sound art is really inspiring. Outlands is going to make an immensely positive difference – a tangible, real advance in audiences, production and programming – all across the country.”

Emma Thompson from Fat Out says “OUTLANDS will unify people nationwide who have dedicated their lives to facilitating experimental music. For Fat Out this means we will have the support & knowledge of our peers whilst solidifying relationships as we embark on producing these tours together. This is vital future of Fat Out and for audacious music in England.”

For further information and images please contact Sally Ann Lycett at the De La Warr Pavilion  on sally.ann.lycett@dlwp.com

Photo credit : Ewa Justka, 2017

Arts Council to invest nearly £32million in East Sussex’s arts and culture

Culture24, Disability Arts Online and Jerwood Gallery join the National Portfolio

Twenty-one arts and cultural organisations in East Sussex will together receive £31,796,428 over four years, as today (27 June 2017) Arts Council England announces the 105 South East-based organisations that will be in the 2018-22 National Portfolio.

In East Sussex:

There will be 21 National portfolio organisations for 2018/22:

Funding shown is for the full four years

• Blast Theory – £536,628
• Brighton & Hove City Council – £2,794,028
• Brighton Dome & Festival Limited – £4,599,684
• Carousel Project – £789,952
• NEW Culture24 – £1,184,000
• De La Warr Pavilion – £2,033,720
• NEW Disability Arts Online – £400,000
• Dreamthinkspeak – £603,708
• Fabrica – £710,300
• Glyndebourne Productions Ltd – £6,516,220
• Hofesh Shechter Company – £1,533,228
• Home Live Art – £301,740
• NEW Jerwood Gallery – £400,000
• Lighthouse Arts and Training Ltd – £459,968
• New Writing South – £496,768
• Photoworks – £1,073,260
• Project Art Works – £598,704
• South East Dance Ltd – £2,280,676
• South East Museum Development Programme – £2,046,448
• Towner Art Gallery – £1,437,400
• Vincent Dance Theatre – £999,996

Additional investment

New Writing South and Project Art Works have both been awarded increased investment for exciting, new additional work. New Writing South will receive an additional £31,000 per year for increased work with diverse writers and Project Art Works £56,676 will receive additional funding so that it can respond to demand for its expertise.

The investment in East Sussex reflects the depth and breadth of the county’s exciting cultural offer and highlights the Arts Council’s continuing commitment to investing more money than ever before outside London.

Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England said: ‘This is an exceptionally strong portfolio of organisations delivering great arts and cultural experiences to audiences throughout the East and South East of England. Our investment will support inventive, pioneering arts organisations, a range of museums and arts activity in libraries. It will reach into more places than ever before, providing more people of all ages and backgrounds with the opportunity to participate in the arts – inspiring them as artists, as audiences, or as a mix of both.

“We are delighted to be making an increased investment in East Sussex with some exciting new organisations joining the portfolio. All of our National Portfolio organisations will play an essential role in reaching more people, developing local, national and international talent, and making where they’re based great places to live, work and visit.”

The National Portfolio

The new National Portfolio consolidates and builds on much of the exceptional work done by East and South East arts and cultural organisations during the current three year (2015-18) funding agreement. The new portfolio also invests in a wider range of organisations than ever before, giving more people in more places the opportunity to experience exciting art and culture on their doorstep.

Creativity, innovation, opportunity and national reach
East Sussex is well known for its arts and cultural excellence; three new organisations will join the exciting mix of arts and cultural organisations that will receive investment during 2018-22.

From Disability Arts Online’s support for disabled artists – providing a platform for informed debate, sharing best practice, supporting creativity and commissioning new work –through to Culture24’s nationwide support for digital skills development in cultural organisations and Jerwood Gallery’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary British Art, our investment will support some extraordinary artists and organisations, and reach many more people.

The awards are one strand of Arts Council England’s total investment in arts and culture during 2018-22, which also includes the National Lottery funded Grants for Arts and Culture scheme and strategic funds used to support targeted programmes of work that deliver the ambitions set out in Great art and culture for everyone, Arts Council England’s 10-year strategic framework for the arts and culture.

ENDS

For more information contact:
Nick Tapper, Officer, Advocacy & Communications
South East, Arts Council England
Tel: 020 7268 9653 / 07872 417 800
Email: nick.tapper@artscouncil.org.uk