Throughout the summer, artist Lauren Godfrey has transformed the First floor gallery into a space for learning and unlearning.
Group Hat is inspired by Lauren Godfrey’s impression of the De La Warr Pavilion and the town of Bexhill as a ‘porous chorus’ of people, organisations, buildings, pieces of furniture, steps and surfaces that together form a whole.
Many of the works in Group Hat have been developed in conversation and collaboration with local organisations. These moveable artworks, furniture, objects and a mural create a setting for play, reading, listening and reflection. Some components of the exhibition will be donated to The Pelham community hub in Sidley. This centre is used by a wide range of individuals and groups, including New Thing Academy, a dance school with which Godfrey explored how knowledge is performed through movement. The artist also led workshops with Chantry Community Primary School in Bexhill to create shapes, patterns and combinations of words that recur throughout the design of the furniture and mural. Hastings & Rother Furniture Service has loaned Godfrey a trolley that she has turned into a book-swap-on-wheels for visitors to use. The trolley will be returned to the charity for them to continue cataloguing donations in September.
Within the exhibition, Godfrey invites you to contribute to a manual of shared Bexhillian knowledge, drawn from conversations with children from Chantry Community Primary School, the DLWP team, volunteers and gallery visitors, that shares ‘how-to’ guides of the different things we each know how to do. You are also encouraged to take a book and swap it for another to keep the book swap going.
The fold-out table and moveable seating will be reconfigured to support workshops and events that take place throughout the summer as part of the THINKING THROUGH… series of events.
2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, the influential German art school that pioneered the idea of ‘thinking through making’ and the close marriage of art, design and functionality. Group Hat celebrates and builds on Bauhaus forms of radical education, including learning in a way that is non-hierarchical, and that puts play and process at its heart.
Download the press release for Group Hat here: Group Hat Press Release
THINKING THROUGH...
THINKING THROUGH is a lively and informal summer-long series of creative events, workshops and conversations exploring how we learn and unlearn, together, taking place in the Group Hat space This evolving programme is developed through conversation with the DLWP team, and thinkers and makers from University College London: Slade School of Fine Art, The Bartlett School of Architecture and Institute of Education.
2019 is the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus School of Art and Design in Germany. How Chicago!, Lauren Godfrey’s exhibition Group Hat and THINKING THROUGH… all echo the Bauhaus’s pioneering ideas of collaboration, unlearning and thinking through making.
See posters in the First floor gallery and dlwp.com for more details, dates and times, announced as the programme grows.
Open to all on a pay-what-you-can basis.
The exhibition would not have been possible without the contribution of the following individuals and organisations, most of whom live and work in the local community:
Olly Adams, Alex Brenchley, Ren Brenchley, Becky Brookes, Heather Burchett, Steve Burdett-Jones, Connie Butler, Grace Clements, Matthew Coombes, Rebecca Cooper and all the team at Omni Colour, Rosie Cooper, Dan Cope-Stephens, James Cosens, Phoebe Cripps, Vanessa Cunnew, Stewart Drew, Grace Furlong, Alex Godfrey, Mary Godfrey, Maya Godlonton-White, Anthea Hamilton, Charlotte Hanlon, Sara Harris, Lee Hilder, Jim Windless, Pete Maynard and all the team at Ricochet Signs, Maya Howard, Dan Howard-Birt, Kate Jaggers and all the team at Ruby’s Rooms, Caspar Jayasekera, Ollie Jeffs and all the team at The Pelham, Mike Kirkman, Rossana Leal, Sophia Lefevre, Patricia Lochans, Angie Lowe and all the team at Hastings Furniture Services, Sally Ann Lycett, Rachel Marsh, Ashley McCormick, Alice McKenna, Pippa Moore, Max Mowbray, Ash Moye, Dave Palmer, Chris Parker, Tom Penney, Hope Radford, Kieren Reed, Tony Riggs and all the team at Rother Print, Peter Roadknight, Scott Robertson, Jane Sarre, Dan Scales, Naomi Scully, Pablo Smidt, Freya Smith, Felicity Truscott, Ben Urban, Henry Young, Katherine White,
30 children from Year Two, Chantry Community Primary School,
30 children from Year Four, Chantry Community Primary School,
India, Kina, Ollie and Polly from the Young Creatives,
4Seasons,
Tim, Aaron and Dave and all the team at MC Glass,
Colin and all the team at Clockwork Powder Coating,
…And anyone who has or will contribute to the book swap and knowledge archive.
There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following :
- By Rail
Direct trains go from London Victoria, Brighton and Ashford to Bexhill.
There are also trains from London Charing Cross, changing at St. Leonards Warrior Square and from London Bridge or Charing Cross going to Battle. Battle is only a short taxi journey away (15 mins approx).
Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for up-to-date train travel information. - Taxis
Town Taxis: 01424 211 511
Parkhurst Taxis: 01424 733 456 - By Car
If driving from the London area:
Take the M25, then A21 to Hastings. Turn off at John‘s Cross and follow the signs to Bexhill.
OR
Take the A22 to Eastbourne, go across the Bishop roundabout to the A271 and follow the signs to Bexhill and the seafront. The De La Warr Pavilion is on the Marina.
From the Brighton area:
Follow the A27 out of Brighton until you arrive in Bexhill On Sea. - Parking
Please be aware the Rother District car park outside the De La Warr Pavilion operates paid parking until 7pm. After this time parking is free. There is also lmiited free car parking along the seafront.
Within the limits of this Grade One listed building, the De La Warr Pavilion strives to be fully accessible with a range of facilities to support your visit.
Assistance Dogs are permitted into the building.
Please contact the Box Office on 01424 229 111 to arrange a visit.
Facilities for disabled visitors
- Ramped access at the front of the building
- A low counter at the Box Office and Information Desk
- Disabled toilets on two floors
- A lift to all floors
- Accessible galleries on both floors
- An accessible Café
- Spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium for seated events
- Ramped access in the auditorium for events during the day
- Ramped access into the Studio
- Two travel wheelchairs are available for use at the De La Warr Pavilion. To reserve, please call our box office and information desk on (01424) 229111 or ask a member of staff on arrival. The chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and are intended for use inside the Pavilion. Please contact us for more information.
Facilities for blind or visually-impaired
- Large print season brochures
Facilities for the hard-of-hearing
- An T-Switch induction loop in some areas of the auditorium (please indicate when booking as this facility is not available on the balcony)
- British Sign Language interpretation tours of the building and exhibitions are available on request.