Hastings in Stitches: a Work in Progress
ERICA SMITH
If you’ve ever visited Hastings Town Hall, you might have noticed a wall hanging in the ground floor corridor. The framed piece includes 68 individual embroidered squares celebrating local community organisations that were active in the town. The project was called Hastings in Stitches and was sponsored by the Cooperative Women’s Guild in 1995.
30 years on, James Matthew Thomas and Tara Reddy of Arts on Prescription decided it was time to celebrate the anniversary of this community quilt by commissioning local artists and textile workers to produce contemporary embroidered squares which celebrate the organisations active in the town today.
Whilst some of the community groups from the first quilt are still very active within the town, the range of organisations featured in the new quilt reflects the change in the Town. Yemii from Stitch for Change has created a square for Joyful Roots, there are squares celebrating the work of Clean Water Action and Tidy Up St Leonards, and, as well as working on the central Hastings crest, professional textile artist and tattooist Rincen Caravacci has produced a square for Pirate Day!
Hastings has a long association with embroidery. The Bayeux Tapestry (which is actually an embroidery, not a tapestry) documents Britain’s most historic battle. In 1965, the history of the country was brought up to date with a vast multi-panelled embroidery made by the Royal College of Needlework, which used to be on show in the White Rock Theatre and was last exhibited in Rye in 2019.
Textile crafts like embroidery are traditionally associated with women, often working as volunteers or for very low wages, given the time each square takes to make. It was very important to James and Tara that this project was led by women and acknowledged the value of the creative and community work that we do. Whilst some of the textile participating artists are professionals, like Rincen and Amy Burt, other women who are crafters, artists or multidisciplinary designers have been commissioned too – which means there’s an exciting array of approaches and styles to the individual squares.
The makers are nearing the last few weeks of production now, and the individual squares will all be gathered in on 1 July and pieced together for a launch event at the end of August at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. The new community quilt will be on show at the Museum throughout the Coastal Currents arts festival in September, before being moved to its new home in the HEART Community Hub in the Town Hall in September.
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