Author: sally

The De La Warr Pavilion and Towner Eastbourne are thrilled to announce their collaboration in working together to programme holiday activities for families.

Between us we have selected four artists from East Sussex to deliver an artistic programme across both galleries, developing  their socially engaged practice across the current academic year.

They are Harry McMorrow (top left), Hannah Collisson (top right), Laura Ribbons (bottom left), and Lucie MacGregor (bottom right),

The artists are paired together to work as a duo. Workshops will  respond to themes in the exhibitions on display, which will include themes such as environmental concerns, queer and trans intimacies, anti-racist practices and migration. As well as delivering workshops, the four artists will be supported as a cohort with regular practice development sessions at each gallery. The research, both theory and practice based, undertaken by each will be shared and contribute to the overall learning.

At the end of the programme the  artists will lead an open workshop for artists reflecting on their experiences, as an evolution of the workshop Acts of Transfer: Sharing Social Practice, held at Towner Eastbourne in May ’22.

Hannah Collisson is a multi-disciplinary artist, facilitator, and musician based in St Leonards on Sea. Her work spans theatre, performance, poetry, music and photography. With a background in journalism, storytelling is a common thread running throughout Hannah’s work. She is fascinated by place making and stories told and untold. Hannah is a director of ExploreTheArch, a company which develops experiential theatre, site specific installations and community projects, and a director of Lifesize, a community arts CIC. She is a member of Babes in Arms, a collective of artist mothers, currently exhibiting at DLWP.

Lucie MacGregor is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose making spans the collective gesture as a notion to stir mindful collaboration, to facilitate social change and to consider conversation as creative material. Drawn towards recycling materials connected to her personal geographies, paper pulp has become a therapeutic and playful process for her to question the blurriness between drawing and sculpture. Lucie is currently facilitating workshops with young people at Camden Arts Centre, Drawing Room London and recent exhibitions include make 2022 at Freelands Foundation, a collaborative commission with The Children’s Art School in Kirklees and Deptford X Festival 2021

Harry McMorrow, (BA) is a non-binary queer artist living in St Leonards on Sea. They create tufted wall rugs usually focused around specific iconography and trends from the past. They are currently working on their first solo show, Come As You Are, which will be showing at Big Yin Gallery from November 4th. As well as being a practicing artist they are studying for their postgrad cert in education at University of Brighton. When not training to teach, or making art, they run a queer club night, Club FliQ.

Laura Ribbons (b.1990) is an artist, curator, educator and environmentalist. She graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2012 and also holds a Masters degreein environmental anthropology. She has exhibited across the UK and internationally, including in Spain, where she lived between 2018-2019. By exploring her fascination with plants and the ways in which we coexist with them, her bold, mixed-media paintings celebrate the resilience of plants and represent a desire to find solace and resolution in nature against the backdrop of the climate crisis. In 2022 Laura worked with Watts Gallery to co-create an outreach project around sustainability and this summer took part in Towner’s Open Plan residency. She currently lives and works in Hastings.

 

Developing approaches to equality, diversity, representation, and anti-racist practice in schools through arts, culture, and creativity.

The De La Warr Pavilion is thrilled to announce a major primary schools’ programme in partnership with Artswork. From October to January 2023 we are leading a Creative Development Network with seven local schools that will develop approaches to equality, diversity, representation, and anti-racist practice in schools through arts, culture and creativity. Schools taking part are All Saints CE in Sidley, Catsfield Church of England (VC), Chantry Community, Christ Church CE, Little Common, Polegate and St Peter & St Paul C E (VA).

We have  appointed Christina Peake as lead artist and Reem Acason as support artist to deliver this comprehensive and exciting new programme.

The programme has many aspects which include:

• Exhibition Visits by Year 5 or Year 4 students to the  Pavilion to engage with Zineb Sedira’s exhibition Can’t You See the Sea Changing?
• Art School Days with creative activities and learning led by the artists in each school.
• Teacher CPD Sessions, both online and at the De La Warr Pavilion
• Online Hub for the support of the network and the sharing of knowledge along this process.

The programme built by the artists develops learning through concepts and themes such as environment and identity, narrative and storytelling, temporal spaces, and the empathetic imaginary.

Christina Peake (on left of picture)  is a transdisciplinary artist and an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Researcher with the University of Westminster and The National Archives. Christina’s fascination with cultures was nurtured by her Bajan and British parents who were adamant that she should know both sides of her heritage. This led to ‘home’ emerging across two-nation states, the Republic of Barbados and the U.K., visiting families and natural spaces that embodied those worlds to her as a child and cemented her interest in art, culture, heritage and nature as an adult and dual citizen.

Historically, this fascination was to become focused for her through three threads: cultural plurality, engaging the natural world and storytelling, which evolved to reflect a commitment to art, ecology, liberatory practices and the empowerment of ethically minoritised communities and practitioners. Christina’s practice is research-led, engaging communities and marine environments, with field-work informing a synergistic approach, sourcing material from autobiographical and individual testimony to historical narrative. Christina works to contribute to the formation of new eco-social assemblages through diverse media, emerging methodologies, colonial collections, community engagement and education, forming an expanding archipelago of works across her practice, creating new territories of immersive experiences, learning and radical imagination.’

Reem Acason’s  work explores the parallels and differences which exist across cultures. She is interested in folklore, family stories and people’s personal journeys through life. She references historical portraiture and iconography in her paintings then weaving in individual narratives and the symbolism of patterns, animals, motifs and popular culture. Reem was born in Bahrain and moved to the UK as a child and is currently based in Crowborough. She graduated in 2007 with a first-class degree in Fine Art and works as an artist and arts educator, including with those from under-represented and marginalised groups. She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including twice at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize. In the summer of 2022 she took part in the Open Plan residency programme at the Towner Gallery and have been selected for the ING Discerning Eye.

Image L to R : artists Christina Peake and Reem Acason

 

Sunday 6 November, 2022

BOOK HERE

Join us for a Sunday evening with Hastings-born Shirley Collins (MBE), for a very special show and a few Traditional Jack In The Green surprises…

Shirley’s love and support for the DLWP rings true as this is one of only two headline shows this year! We’re extremely proud to host a wonderful night of traditional folk, dancing and merriment with Shirley and the Traditional Jack In The Green team.

Shirley’s Lodestar Band comprise of Music Director, Ian Kearey (ex-Blue Aeroplanes and Oysterband), Pete Cooper and Dave Arthur (Rattle on the Stovepipe), Pip Barnes and of course her star dancer, Glen Redman, from Brighton Morris Men.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Shirley this week…

“This will be my second appearance at the De La Warr.

The first was well over fifty years ago! I think it was at a folk festival held there in 1965!

The poster for the event read:

The Waterson Quartets just back from their nationwide tour.

“(I think they’d just come down from Hull!)”

 Shirley Collins – England ‘s versatile young instrumentalist.

(I could just about play a dozen chords on the banjo!)

 Paul Simon – from Texas

(Yes! Bottom of the bill as it was most likely one of his first ever gigs in England as an unknown!)

 From 1978 – 1982 I lived in Bexhill around the corner in Sea Road, just two minutes from the beach; one of our favourite evenings was sitting on the terrace drinking G&T’s and watching the sun go down and the domes glowing in the evening light.

I used to run along the sea front every morning – and one day I saw a sign outside one of the premises in front of the De La Warr that read ‘Gypsy Anita Lee – Your fortunes told, your problems solved…I went in…and I’ll tell the full story of that during the concert on November 6th!!

It was from Bexhill in 1980 that I flew to Australia to sing at The Sydney Opera House.

And the last time I visited was in 2018 to hear Richard Thompson’s wonderful concert. Before then, I’d seen the Grayson Perry exhibition in 2008 and Antony Gormley’s installation on the roof in 2010. That last one made me feel very nervous!

Lots more tales to tell about Bexhill…but I’ll save them for November 6th!”

 

Biography

Born in Hastings in 1935, Shirley was fascinated by folk songs as she was growing up, songs she heard on the radio or sung by her grandparents in Anderson shelters. She left home for London to immerse herself in the burgeoning folk scene; at a party held by Ewan MacColl she met Alan Lomax, and in 1959 she joined him in the USA on the renowned field trip ‘Southern Journey’, recording American folk songs and blues, a formative journey for her personally and professionally.

On her return to England, Shirley cemented her role at the forefront of the Folk Revival, recording over a dozen albums including the influential Folk Roots, New Routes with avant-garde guitarist Davy Graham, and No Roses, from which The Albion Country Band was formed. However, in the 1980s, Shirley lost her singing voice – later diagnosed as a form of dysphonia – and withdrew from performing live. It was only in 2014, after coaxing from David Tibet (Current 93), that Shirley sang in public for the first time since 1982. Since then, she has produced two acclaimed albums for Domino Records, Lodestar and Heart’s Ease and performed live at a handful of important festivals with her Lodestar Band including Celtic Connections, Brighton Festival, Green Man, Cambridge Folk Festival, Copenhagen Documentary Festival, Supersonic, as well at major venues including The Barbican, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and The Sage Gateshead.

Though Shirley Collins (MBE) was absent from the music scene for many years, her impact did not diminish, as the likes of Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Stewart Lee and Angel Olsen lauded her. A documentary The Ballad of Shirley Collins was released about her in Autumn 2017. She was given the ‘Good Tradition’ award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2008, elected President of the English Folk Dance & Song Society and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Sussex University all in the same year. Shirley released her first memoir, America Over the Water, in 2004, (re-printed by White Rabbit in 2021) and has published her autobiography, All In The Downs (2018). Heart’s Ease was released by Domino in 2019, just as the COVID lockdown started, it has been toured very little and this will be a rare chance to hear some of that material live.

 

De La Warr Pavilion and Towner Eastbourne are working together to programme their holiday activities for families. We are collaborating to deliver an artistic programme for four East Sussex artists to develop their socially engaged practice across the current academic year.

Selected artists will be paired together to work as a duo. Each institution will work with two artists on site, and host regular practice development sessions. These two artists will deliver creative workshops at one location over four school holidays; Autumn school holiday, February school holiday, Spring school holiday and May school holiday. Workshops must respond to themes in the exhibitions on display, these will include themes such as environmental concerns, queer and trans intimacies, anti-racist practices and migration. As well as delivering workshops, the four artists will be supported as a cohort with regular practice development sessions at each institution. The research, both theory and practice based, undertaken by each will be shared and contribute to the overall learning.

At the end of the programme the four artists will lead an open workshop for artists reflecting on their experiences, as an evolution of the workshop Acts of Transfer: Sharing Social Practice, held at Towner Eastbourne in May ’22.

Who can apply?

• Artists based within East Sussex and  easy travelling distance who have experience or interest in socially engaged practice
• Artists who wish to plan and lead creative workshops to develop and enrich their practice
• Artists will apply individually with an understanding that they will be delivering workshop activities as a duo

Programme Offer:

• Artist Fee for each artist which covers cost of planning, preparing and delivering workshops during the specified four school holidays, and the final workshop for artist.
• Opportunity to work closely with leading cultural institutions over the course of an academic year
• Group sharing sessions around each holiday delivery to share learning and improve practice
• Opportunity to collaborate with other artists and make new work together
• Free use of space, materials and refreshments at each location for sharing and planning sessions
• Access to exhibition research material and staff expertise

How to Apply?

Please fill out this form

https://forms.gle/pWDJT7uCKTioEFe19 

Deadline for applications: Thursday 06 October 2022 at 5pm

Start date: 17 October 2022

Fee: Planning £140 per full day

Lead artist delivery £250 per full day, £140 ½ day

Support artist delivery £140 per full day

Artists will be expected to deliver 2 to 3 workshops in each academic break

For more information or support with applying for this role please email: dee.haughney@dlwp.com

It is with immense sadness that we received the news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Our sincere condolences go to our President, the Queen Consort , and to all members of the Royal Family.

We pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth’s extraordinary service and duty to our country.

The Queen’s only visit to the De La Warr Pavilion was on 28 October, 1966 where she and Prince Philip were greeted by Bexhill dignitaries whilst the excited crowds gathered outside in the rain. In honour of the Royal couple, two spaces in the Pavilion were renamed after them. The Elizabeth Room enclosed the Sun Parlour, merging it with the Reading room and is now the seated area of the Cafe Bar, whilst  the Edinburgh Room  is now the First floor gallery.

As a mark of respect, the Pavilion will close to the on Monday 19 September for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

We are so excited to be partnering with Bexhill’s newest gallery Flatland Projects at Beeching Road Studios to offer an exciting new curatorial fellowship programme: an opportunity for an emerging curator to develop skills in curating and arts management through mentorship and practical exhibitions experience over a 6-month period from September 2022 – February 2023.

This is open to anyone over 18 years of age who has no more than 5 years curatorial experience, including applicants who have no experience at all and is a PAID opportunity.

If selected, you will collaborate with both galleries through a varied programme of activities, including studio visits, hands-on experience of developing exhibitions and the opportunity to develop a new exhibition at Flatland Projects opening in February 2023. The fellowship offers the opportunity to craft a programme that fits with the chosen curator’s interests and will support their professional development in the best possible way.

We are excited to announce that we will be opening on Monday – Sunday (seven days a week) from 27 June.*

Opening times: 10am – 5pm + evenings for advertised events.

*However, in order to manage some of our bigger events this summer, we will be open to ticket holders only on the following dates:

• Saturday 18 June: for Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems (Music’s Not Dead will be accessible from the north side of the building 8am – 11am for Record Store Day)
• Tuesday 12 July (for staff training)
• Saturday 16 July:  for Bob Marley 50th Anniversary Celebration
• Saturday 23 July:  for Bexfest

Make sure those dates are in your diary when you are planning your visit and we look forward to seeing you this summer!

The De La Warr Pavilion is among 66 cultural organisations across the country to benefit from a share of over £22.7 million from Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Programme. This programme aims to help cultural organisations across the country transform their buildings and equipment so they can operate safely post-pandemic, improve access, seize technological opportunities, and reduce environmental impact.

This  £400,000 award will enable the De La Warr Pavilion to deliver a significant upgrade to our auditorium Technical Theatre Systems, thereby extending our reach, reducing our carbon footprint and improving our business model resilience post-pandemic. The upgrade will include a new assisted listening system, PA system, LED lighting and console, and stage external rigging.

Although this is a standalone project, it is the start of a wider capital masterplan to transform Creativity, Community and Skills in our region.

For DLWP, the auditorium is key to a sustainable future, attracting the highest calibre of artists as diverse as The Pixies, Orchestra Baobab, Ministry Of Sound, Dionne Warwick, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Goldfrapp. This international programme of live music welcomes an audience of over 70,000 people per annum, with 10% staying overnight, and 35% eating and drinking within the town. 95% rate their experiences good, very good and excellent and 75% said that our live programme encouraged participation in community life.

The upgrade to our Technical Theatre Systems will:

• Significantly reduce our carbon footprint by using more energy efficient technology e.g. up to 50% on our lighting equipment alone and significant reduction on our sound and AVE systems.
• Improve the accessibility of our auditorium e.g. the old hearing loop will be replaced by a new assisted listening system.
• Help us meet our ambitions to assist young people in the local area, offering skills training to those looking for a career in theatre/event tech and management including the introduction of new T-levels with the local colleges and wider learning and music opportunities.
• Reduce expenditure on hiring equipment and staffing

Stewart Drew, Director and CEO of the De La Warr Pavilion said:
“We are thrilled to receive this significant award from Arts Council England to upgrade our Theatre systems, some of which have not been addressed for over 50 years.  The increasing popularity of our live programme, and the regular use of the auditorium by local people, both in the audience and on stage means that this upgrade is essential for the viability of the organisation to attract international artists and remain at the heart of its community. Thank you Arts Council England!”

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said:
“World class creativity and culture needs a resilient and sustainable infrastructure to allow it to flourish. With these investments in the buildings, equipment, and digital systems of cultural organisations across England, we are helping to secure the future of that infrastructure, and making sure that people from every part of the country can continue enjoying all the benefits it delivers for years to come.”

Notes 

The full data on successful applicants to the Capital Investment Programme to date can be found on the Arts Council website live from 8am on Tuesday 10 May.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk.

Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies administering the Government’s unprecedented £1.96 billion Culture Recovery Funds. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19

The De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP) is a centre for arts, culture, and creativity 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 creative engagement programmes . Our upcoming live programme includes Orchestra Baobab, Warpaint and The Unthanks.

The Pavilion takes the lead in the development of cultural tourism and skills in the region through Sussex Modern and the Coastal Culture trail and plays a central role in the cultural and economic growth in Sussex.

 

Are you aged 16 – 22 years? Join the Blueprint Collective!

Have you ever wondered what it is like to work in the arts? Are you interested in making events happen? Keen to develop your creative and leadership skills? We would love to tell you more about the Blueprint Collective!

The Blueprint Collective is group of young people (aged 16 – 22) who aim to contribute to shaping the cultural life of De La Warr Pavilion, develop their own creative practice and learn new skills. The group meet regularly every week (on and off-line) to develop projects. We are actively seeking new members to grow the group and to take the opportunity to work with RESOLVE, an exciting artists’ Collective from London. The exhibition, What The Wild Things Are opens in our gallery at the end of May and this is a unique opportunity for you to be part of our exhibitions programme.

Sunday 27 February, 2 – 5pm

Come and join the Blueprint Collective for a session on curating and how to talk about art, led by Joseph Constable, Acting Head of Exhibitions at De La Warr Pavilion. Joseph comes to DLWP from The Serpentine Gallery, London, but also studied at Bexhill College and lives locally.

Find out more here

If you are interested in joining the group, please email dee.haughney@dlwp.com

The Whale Tail, the Sea Shell, The Heart – just some of the affectionate names for the De La Warr Pavilion Bandstand – has been torn apart by the high winds of Storm Eunice.

Launched just over 20 years ago in December 2001, this iconic piece of architecture was the result of the work of Jill Theis MBE and the Friends of the De La Warr Pavilion, supported by the Ibstock Enovert Trust and co-designed by architect Niall McLaughlin with Bexhill schoolchildren.  The Bandstand was a signal for change heralding the redevelopment project of the whole building  in 2003 – 2005 . Thanks to the continued generosity of the Ibstock Enovert Trust, the Bandstand underwent renovation itself in 2017.

Awarded the Regional RIBA Prize in 2002, the Bandstand has been at heart of our most democratic of spaces – the south terrace – and platformed international artists such as Eddie Izzard,  Keane and Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass. It has been a springboard for first outings for local bands that became famous such as Mumm-Ra, and our many talented community choirs, musicians and groups.

We invite you to share with us your stories of the Bandstand – whether you appeared on it, danced in front of it, sat in a deckchair listening to music , had your wedding photograph taken on it, or were one of the original schoolchildren who helped design it – any memory or photograph to celebrate 20 years of the Bandstand being part of our story would be fantastic to see.

Post on FB, Instagram or Twitter tagging the De La Warr Pavilion or send your stories and images to info@dlwp.com

 

The De La Warr Pavilion has been bringing communities together through culture for over 85 years. We are your Pavilion and still need your support. Please click here to donate.