Festival for the Whole Town
The website for A Town Explores A Book (ATEAB) describes the festival as: “A reader-led festival of creative responses to a heritage book in St Leonards-on-Sea delivered by ExploreTheArch theatre company.” The emphasis is definitely on ‘responding’ to the books rather than enacting or evaluating them. Think complete community arts festival rather than a literary event.
Every spring, the festival explores key ideas from that year’s book – which have included weighty themes such as discrimination, isolation, adventure and imagination.
The festival was the brainchild of Gail Borrow and was launched in 2017, ‘exploring’ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. During the Spring holiday, a range of free activities was offered to local townspeople, and they were able to connect through the extended exploration of some of the words, themes and ideas in this iconic book.
In subsequent years, the chosen books included some we may have loved and forgotten, or perhaps books that we think we know but haven’t actually read: Great Expectations (in 2018) Robinson Crusoe (2019), The Time Machine (2020), Edward Lear’s Nonsense Songs (2021). There have also been popular but less famous books such as The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden (2022) and (The) Wonderful Adventure of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole (2023).
Some of the activities include readings from the books, writing competitions, stage and musical performances, exhibitions and creative workshops for adults and children – as well as activities in most of the local schools.
How has it changed and grown?
Each year there are more events and activities in the streets of St Leonards and, in 2019, the festival was extended to 18 days. For example, 2018 saw the introduction of the outdoor art trail and, in 2021, themed shop windows became one of the key features. The street party offering free fête-style activities in Kings Road has also become a popular attraction.
How does it benefit the local community?
The commitment to community engagement and dialogue is reflected in the involvement of local groups including Hastings and Bexhill Mencap’s Active Arts, Seaview Project and Zoom Arts. There is also a mentoring programme that funds early career artists to experience festival planning and delivery by working alongside the #ATownExploresABook artists. This scheme supports 16–28-year-olds overcoming barriers to work, such as learning challenges and health issues.
Perhaps most impressive is the evolution of the school engagement programme which facilitates the involvement of over 3,000 local children. Aware of the challenges that schools face with cuts in funding for creative activities and pressure to ‘catch up’ after the pandemic, the ATEAB team devised an ‘8 ways to connect’ programme, offering “a flexible format of eight creative, inviting, accessible offers that teachers could pick from and tailor to their schedules and constraints” to connect reading, writing and fun.
What happened this year?
This year, ATEAB explored E. Nesbitt’s The Railway Children. This included The Platform Panel Project at St Leonards Warrior Square Station: a collaboration of the ATEAB early career artist team with Southeast Communities Rail Partnership.
The panels on the railings and brick arches on Platform 1 are an informative and artistic celebration of railway workers, including women, and the building of the local railway infrastructure – much of it by hand in poor conditions.
The closing ceremony of the festival was last Sunday and included a video address by actress Jenny Agutter, who played Roberta in the film version. The week before that, there was a packed award ceremony for young winners of the Creative Writing Competition, which included three prizes sponsored by HIP.
What can we look forward to next year?
In 2025 ATEAB will be marking a bicentenary, not of a book, but writing related to a local scientific discovery.
For more information about ATEAB projects and events, and to find out about next year’s festival, go to their website atownexploresabook.com/
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