Archives for Arts
Big Band at Flatland
HARRY HAWKINS AND VERA BELL Staged within the space of Tawfik Nas’s installation at Flatland Projects in Bexhill, the 17-piece incarnation of the Statue of Liberty Big Band (SoL) was…
Trash Cannes 5-Day Film Competition
MARK FRENCH This is a unique opportunity to take part in the annual Trash Cannes Film Challenge and Coastal Currents Arts Festival during September. The challenge is to make a…
Explore The Arch Latest Project
GAIL BORROW In the latest exploration of trailblazing women who travelled great journeys around 1000 years ago, Explore The Arch Theatre explores Agatha of Hungary at Pevensey Castle. Early-career team…
Twins, Cancer, and Comedy
People are often quite curious about what it’s like to be an identical twin. Local sisters Anna and Georgina Lewis have been asked this question many, many times, and decided…
What’s in the Air? A new graphic novel rises
VICTORIA KINGHAM Artist Jude Montague, ever interested in the history of radio and TV, has produced a lively and sometimes extraordinary graphic novel, detailing the beginnings of radio in Manchester.…
Duck, Toast, and the Sacrament Reimagined
NICK TUCKER For all of you who have seen Bob Log III live before, you will know he defies description. For any of you who haven’t, that makes my job…
Booth’s Dream
MARK WALTER Colin Booth explores mortality and minimalism in his new exhibition titled I talked with you in a dream at Electro Studios project space. Booth is a multi-disciplinary artist…
Hypha Studio Space Relaunch
Following a rather unexpected studio move earlier this summer, mosaic artist Emma Law is now settling into the Hypha Studios space in Priory Meadow (the former Shoe Zone unit), and…
The Hybridityof Kim Wan
TOBY BULA-EDGE AND VERA BELL Electro Studios hosted Kim Wan’s new exhibition Hybridity on 8-9 August, with an open view the evening before. Graphic painting Shown to a soundtrack of…
TV Pop Up Museum
TOBY BULA-EDGE A look into the past was on offer on August 8 at the first Television Museum pop-up. The event, run by charity Screen Culture UK, aimed to give…
Contemporary up for Award?
NICK PELLING Something extraordinary has happened. Hastings Old Town has reached the last six of a European competition. To be more precise, Hastings Contemporary is the only UK gallery selected…
Skinny Sunday Youth Fest
HANNAH DEEBLE A fresh wave of emerging talent will take over Studio 27 at Hastings White Rock Theatre on 23 August, as Skinny Sunday – the one‑day festival curated, produced and…
Coast is Queer
David Milton Forty-odd years ago, the most important gay artist of that era, John Yeadon, suggested that the then New Painting should be boldly confrontational and transgressive. His luminous depictions…
From the Ecclesiastical to the Educational
VICTORIA KINGHAM Joseph Stannard loves music and he loves film. When he isn’t carrying out his duties as deputy editor of long-running music magazine The Wire, he is investigating the…
Raining, Cats and Dogs
You may have wondered at the inspiration behind our long-running, consistently whimsical comic strip and about its creator. The real Lola and Bill are gratified to appear in these august…
Madagascar to Ethiopia – Hanitra and Haymanot
JUDE MONTAGUE AND VICTORIA KINGHAM Two extraordinary female African musicians, Hanitra Ranaivo from Madagascar and Haymanot Tesfa from Ethiopia, visit Hastings this summer. Hanitra Ranaivo and Jean-Marc Bontemps at the…
Wildfell Hall: Still Relevant
ELIZABETH ALLEN Anne Brontё was the youngest, least famous of the sisters. Yet hers is the novel that offers a stunning, overtly feminist, attack on the patriarchal structures of the…
Mozart and Movement
ELIZABETH ALLEN A highlight of the Battle Festival was Barefoot Opera’s performance of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, and it proved particularly well-suited to the distinctive Barefoot style. That style involves…
John Donaldson New CD Release
VICTORIA KINGHAM Due to be released in August is an album written entirely by pianist John Donaldson, founder of Jazz Hastings. We Were Together, I Forget the Rest, dedicated to…
Shouting for Bexhill
TOBY BULA-EDGE Bexhill will come alive on 15 and 16 August for the Bexhill Art Weekender which HIP spotlighted in the last issue. This time, we sat down with Flatland…
Perello Duoat the Beacon
Perello, the Liverpool-based guitar and vibes duo who enchanted their Kino-Teatr audience last summer, are back in Hastings on 7 August – this time at The Beacon. The Perello Duo:…
Multilayered Meanings in Iranian Art
MARK SPELMAN on his new exhibition at Project 78 I first recall seeing what you could broadly call ‘Persian Miniatures’ when I was installing a show in Dammam, KSA. I…
Jamboranja Jamboram
ED BOXALL Do you have an imaginary friend? Or do you think you might be someone’s imaginary friend? Imaginary friends make our worlds bigger, wilder and full of new possibilities.…
Hastings writers contribute to anti-Trump anthology
‘Art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth’: words uttered by John F. Kennedy in 1963. TDS 2026 is an anthology of poetry and art…
BOO – Love, Loss, and Redemption
VICTORIA KINGHAM BOO – (Battery Operated Orchestra) make “highly charged electronica with incredibly addictive melodies” and are an independent act now based in St Leonards. Their new album Sea Views…
Coven Club at the Carlisle: Female-Led Live Rock Music Night Returns
The Coven Club, a fabulous new live music night to showcase femme-fuelled rock, punk and metal bands, returns to The Carlisle Rock Bar in Hastings in July this year. The…
Hastings Arts Forum: Two Seaside Exhibitions
Arts Forum at 20 Marine Court has been showing consistently good-quality art here since 2006, and this summer’s shows are no exception. Bill Greenhead, IceScream GREENHEAD’S GULLS Local Hastings artist…
From the Ecclesiastical to the Educational
VICTORIA KINGHAM Joseph Stannard is an enthusiast. He loves music and he loves film. When he isn’t editing record reviews in a music journal, he is exploring the paranormal. “I’ve…
Greenhead’s Seagulls at Arts Forum
Local Hastings artist Bill Greenhead invites you into the mind of a seagull. Imagine a universe where Earth is not dominated by humans, but by avian creatures that call themselves…
Love Supreme – Musica Feminina
Rawicz and Spalding – Amazons at the Festival VICTORIA KINGHAM The Love Supreme jazz festival takes place this weekend at Glynde Place, near Lewes. Tickets are still selling but it…
Tea Museum Hosts Telly Event
TOBY BULA-EDGE Free cups of tea, and a retro feel, will be on offer at two exciting Tea and Telly pop up events on 8 and 22 August. They will…
Book Festival and Competitions
Hastings Book Festival is returning for its 9th year with a bumper programme of talks, performances and workshops. Their short story, poetry and non-fiction competitions are already open for entries.…
Everywhere At Once Festival
This is a fallow year for Glastonbury, allowing the litter-strewn, dog-infested, mud-trodden or dried-raw fields to regenerate. Instead a Lottery-funded project, the Everywhere At Once Festival, has temporarily taken its…
A Meander Through an Artist’s Mind
DAVID MILTON Visiting De La Warr Pavilion’s art shows recently has been a bit like the three cream cracker challenge – an unpalatably dry, instantly regrettable experience that has you…
Eight Days of Syd’s Last Stand
NICK TUCKER There’s a good reason The Piper has been hosting Syd’s Last Stand – an annual tribute to Syd Barrett – since opening seven years ago. Syd Barrett, the…
Birnam Wood Comes to West Hill
Family-friendly, funny Shakespeare comes to Hastings Castle Hastings Castle will welcome The HandleBards to the West Hill on Friday 10 July for a riotous open-air production of Macbeth, marking a…
Not Birnam Wood But Hastings Castle: The Scottish Play
Family-friendly, funny Shakespeare comes to Hastings Castle on the West Hill Hastings Castle will welcome The HandleBards to the West Hill on Friday 10 July for a riotous open-air production…
Tickets on sale for Alfie Moore – next year!
If you are a fan of his Radio 4 programme It's a Fair Cop, now in its 9th series, join Alfie Moore, 6the former police sergeant turned stand-up comedian from…
Wertico One-off at Jazz Hastings
Soft-spoken and unassuming, Paul Wertico becomes, behind his kit, a force to reckon with. You can hear why he remained for many years the lynchpin of the Pat…
Weight of the Soul
ELIZABETH ALLEN The exhibition Doom Reimagined, at All Saints’ Church, offered various and vivid responses by local artists to the church’s own medieval Doom painting. Many of the reimaginings were…